The Republican nominee, incumbent President William Howard Taft was the most outspoken
critic of direct democracy in 1912. Taft was especially exorcised over calls for
judicial recall. These cartoons suggest arguments against direct democracy.
"The Blot," scanned from Judge, shows Taft's basic
position. The President considered the recall a challenge to the independence of the
judiciary as a branch of government, and an affront to reverence for the law. (The
occasion for this cartoon was Arizona's decision to allow the recall of judges.)
Scanned
from Taft Truths, March 26, 1912. Reprinted from the Washington Star
Scanned from Judge May 4,
1912
Insurgency against Speaker of
the House
Joseph Cannon in 1909 and 1910 was related to the issues of direct democracy. Cannon
represented an older view of legislative partisanship in which the party caucus kept
divisive issues at bay, carefully planning what the record the party would present to
voters. This cartoon, scanned from Judge Sept. 17, 1910, suggested that
nothing would satisfy the insurgents. It also demonstrates that ideas of expanding
popular rule antedated 1912, and related to substantive issues.
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