Excerpt from Betts-Rossevelt Letters: A Spirited and Illuminating Discussion on a Pure Democracy, Direct Nominations, the Initiative, the Referendum and the Recall and the New York State Court of Appeals' Decision in the Workmen's Compensation Case This movement is not progressive, but reactionary. It is a species Of political atavism. It is a reversion to the diseases, disorders and deformities Of the primitive political state. This whole movement, which is promoted largely by noise, is being carried on in blissfully ignorant disregard Of the plain teachings Of history and experience, and in bold defiance Of the enlightened statesmanship Of the civilized world. Therefore, it has been deemed Wise and timely, to present to the public in this form the betts-roosevelt letters, which contain a somewhat spirited and illuminating discussion Of this Whole subject. There is so much general ignorance on this subject, - largely because there has been no systematic study Of it, - that it is high time the American system Of government was thoroughly discussed and its merits presented to the public in a true light. For the purpose Of aiding in this necessary work, the writer has added to the betts-roosevelt letters a large number of quotations on this subject from philosophers, statesmen, historians, scholars and students Of political science, past and present. It is his aim to mar shal and present to the reader the best thoughts and conclusions Of the greatest thinkers Of the world on the subject. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.