p. 5 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 1, 1906

Note and Comment

THE latest effort to direct national legislation has taken form in the organization of what is designated as the People's Lobby, consisting of a representative body of men who stand for reform in government. The purpose of this movement is thus defined by one of its originators:—

The people's lobby has been organized for the definite purpose of enlightening constituents of congressmen upon the acts of such congressmen in connection with national legislation. In no sense is the lobby to be considered as a “muck-raker” or a faultfinder. Its purpose is to tabulate in such concrete form, as to be easily understood by all who read, the stand taken by congressmen upon all issues.

The work of the governing committee, which will be the executive committee of the lobby, is stated as follows:—

The work of these committeemen is simple and plain. It is not their office to play into the hands of this party or that. It is their office to see that Congress comes out of its subterranean channels, its tortuous passages, its hidden closets, and works in the light, where every voter in this land can see what is going on, all the time. The committee will not take sides on debatable questions. It will throw its white light into the dark corners. It will assume that all measures which shrink from that light are bad measures, and will drag them out for your inspection. . . . Hereafter the responsibility for every congressional action or inaction will be fixed on individuals. Senators and congressmen will no longer be able to dodge the responsibility that is theirs.

It thus appears that there will be a self-constituted body of men to represent the people in watching and reporting the actions of the legally elected representatives of the people. Whether this will result in any permanent improvement in the conditions which prevail in Congress will appear later. In the meantime the very existence of such a lobby indicates that those who are seeking to reform methods of government regard senators and congressmen as representing their own interests rather than the interests of the people. This is one more testimony to the decay of integrity in public life. It is a sign of the breaking down of the present order of things. The restoration of righteousness will come with the new earth.