. The story of American democracy, political and industrial . ect rule at the Statecapital; direct election of United States Senators; and adirect voice by women in the government. This need of more democratic political machinery wasto be met, in the early stages, almost wholly by State action,not by National law. It was fortunate that such And thecould be the case. One State moved faster for statesdirect legislation ; another State, for woman suffrage; while 664 THE PEOPLE VS. PRIVILEGE those States which did not move in anj^ matter, and whichmight have had drag enough to prevent any movement
. The story of American democracy, political and industrial . ect rule at the Statecapital; direct election of United States Senators; and adirect voice by women in the government. This need of more democratic political machinery wasto be met, in the early stages, almost wholly by State action,not by National law. It was fortunate that such And thecould be the case. One State moved faster for statesdirect legislation ; another State, for woman suffrage; while 664 THE PEOPLE VS. PRIVILEGE those States which did not move in anj^ matter, and whichmight have had drag enough to prevent any movement inthe beginning in a consolidated nation, had at least to lookon with interest while their more far-sighted or more reck-less neighbors acted as political experiment stations. For many years after the Civil War, the State seemed indanger of sinking into a disused organ — a sort of vermiformappendix in the body politic. But now the State re-awakened, — and, with it, new hope for democracy. In1900, after years of splendid conflict under the leadership of. The Minnesota Capitol at St. Paul. From a photograph. Robert La Follette, Wisconsin began to shake off the rule ofbosses and machine politics, to control railroads, and tobuild a truly democratic commonwealth, with her greatuniversity for her training school in politics and in noblerliving. Then, led by William Uren, Oregon adopted demo-cratic machinery that outran anything before known inAmerica. Oklahoma began its statehood with most ofthe democratic devices known at the time, and with somenovel experiments, in its first constitution. And the Stateelections of 1910 and 1911 witnessed brilliant progress allthe way from the redemption of corporation-ridden New MORE DIRECT DEMOCRACY 665 Jersey by Woodrow Wilson (page 639) to the redemptionof Southern-Pacific-ridden California by Hiram Johnson,with tlie adoption of nearly all the democratic machineryindicated above in several States. The Australian ballot ^ was the first of t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidstoryofameri, bookyear1922
