expedient
in policy, on which the American voter may not pass in person? To reject
his authority in politics is to compel him to abdicate his sovereignty.
That done, the door is open to pillage of the treasury, to bribery of
the representative, and to endless interference with the liberties of
the individual.

THE WAY OPEN TO PEACEFUL REVOLUTION.

What I set out in the first chapter to do seems to me done. I essayed to
show how the political "machine," its "ring," "boss," and "heeler,"
might be abolished, and how, consequently, the American plutocracy might
be destroyed, and government simplified and contracted to the field of
its natural operations. These ends achieved, a social revolution would
be accomplished--a revolution without loss of a single life or
destruction of a dollar's worth of property.

Whoever has read the foregoing chapters has seen these facts
established:

(1) That much in proportion as the whole body of citizens take upon
themselves the direction of public affairs, the possibilities for
political and social parasitism disappear. The "machine" becomes without
effective uses, the trade of the politician is rendered undesirable, and
the privileges of the monopolist are withdrawn.

(2) That through the fundamental principles of democracy in
practice--the Initiative and the Referendum--great bodies of people,
with the agency of central committees, may formulate all necessary law
and direct its execution.

(3) That the difference between a representative government and a
democracy is radical. The difference lies in the location of the
sovereignty of society. The citizens who assign the lawmaking power to
officials surrender in a body their collective sovereignty. That
sovereignty is then habitually employed by the lawgivers to their own
advantage and to that of a twin governing class, the rich, and to the
detriment of the citizenship in general and especially the poor. But
when the sovereignty rests permanently with the citizenship, there
evolves a government differing essentially from representative
government. It is that of mere stewardship and the regulation
indispensable to society.

_The Social Forces Ready for Our Methods._

Now that our theory of social reform is fully substantiated by fact, our
methods shown to be in harmony with popular sentiment, our idea of
democratic government clearly defined, and our final aim political
justice, there remains some consideration of earl