Judson King: Executive Secretary National Popular Government League

              Figure

Judson King
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY NATIONAL POPULAR GOVERNMENT LEAGUE.


LECTURE SUBJECTS

The Inside of a Jack-knife.
A certain state government recently paid $10 each wholesale for some jackknives which were worth $2.50 each retail.  The lecture is a study in the high cost of government and why we don't get a dollar's worth of good government for a dollar's worth of taxes.  The people are taken behind the scenes and shown just how the legislative machine is worked.



Ventures in Self-government.
Not an argument but a racy and interesting account of the remarkable growth of Commission government, the Initiative, Referendum and Recall.  Mainly devoted to the practical results of these processes in actual operation.  Answers the questions; How do these theories work out in practice?  What have the people done in the fifteen states where they have had direct power?

There are few men who are so well qualified to discuss these questions as Mr. King.  Not only has he been an active and vital factor in securing these advanced reforms in many states and cities, but he is personally acquainted with the men and movements in each state and is constantly in direct touch with the very latest that is going on.  A democrat with no illusions as to democracy in the concrete he fearlessly points out the people's mistakes as well as their victories.  The address is jam full of significant facts and factors not known to the general public and of the highest value to those who want to know whether the people are really capable of self-government.



Four Months in Switzerland.
Switzerland has such a world wide fame for beautiful scenery that it is often forgotten that it has the most heroic and unique history of any nation in Europe.  It has a picturesque and industrious people—a remarkable military system How this nation prospers amidst the barren rocks of the Alps is a marvel—yet there are no paupers and no millionaires its illiteracy is the lowest of any nation in Europe—It has the most democratic government in the world, patterned after the American republic with some additions.

Mr. King spent four months in Switzerland.  He met everybody from President to streetsweeper Cabinet members, politicians, university professors, farmers and farm leaders, labor leaders, ministers, editors, and so on.  He traveled to every part of the country, tried out their publicly owned utilities and lived the life of a Swiss during that time.



The Making of a People.
Are we making any real progress?  Will the republic endure?  Is the optimist a fool?  Will we go the way of Greece and Rome?  Discarding reforms the lecture points out fundamental forces at work in our modern times which are new and which are developing a people able to avoid the mistakes which have wrecked other nations and civilizations.  It puts a solid base of scientific fact behind the optimist's hope.

A master in presentation of public questions.—Congressman David P. Lewis, Maryland.




U. S. SENATOR GEORGE W. NORRIS.

Judson King is one of humanity's best friends—a defender of the rights of the people; a leader in progressive thought; an able and entertaining speaker; a courageous and conscientious advocate of popular government.

HON. FRANK P. WALSH, Chairman U. S. Commission, Industrial Relations.

These are strenuous days for me but I am stopping a moment to congratulate you on the splendid work you are accomplishing.  I think you are doing a first class job.

U. S. SENATOR MOSES E. CLAPP.

Having had occasion for the last few years to be in intimate touch with the work of Mr. Judson King, it is a pleasure to say that probably no man in this country is better qualified to discuss the fundamentals of free government than Mr. King and withal, he has a faculty of presenting his views in an entertaining manner and the rare gift of giving a reason for the faith that is in him.

U. S. SENATOR ROBERT L. OWEN.

Judson King is a most capable lecturer, thoroughly wide-awake, and peculiarly conversant with popular government ideals.  He is a forceful speaker, entertaining, humorous, and full of fire.  He has acquired a national reputation by reason of his work and his activities of secretary of the league of which he is secretary.

WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

I have known Judson King for five or six years.  I know his ability to make a convincing talk.  I have heard him in action when every word counted.  He is an able and forceful speaker.  He is honest and carries the effect of conscientiousness about his work.  I can recommend him without qualification for any work which he may desire to undertake.

HON. CARL VROOMAN, Asst. Secretary of Agriculture.

Judson King is a peculiarly forceful and affective speaker.  He does not orate in the conventional sense of that term, but tells what he has to say in such a fashion as to drive it straight home to his hearers.

PROF. EDWARD. A. ROSS, Sociology, The University of Wisconsin.

Mr. Judson King has probably explored the mud and slime at the bottom of real politics more than any man on the lecture platform.  He knows how to state his convictions in terms of general principles but he is full of knowledge of politics in the concrete.

HERBERT QUICK, Editor Farm and Fireside, Author, etc.

The man who wishes to understand how Mr. King can combine comedy with logic should endeavor to hear Mr. King speak.  It is a trick of his own, which is always new and fresh to his audience.

CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM KENT, of California.

Mr. Judson King has devoted a large part of his life to the cause of popular government and is well known by those of us who believe in democracy to be whole-hearted, efficient and intelligent.  The message he has to deliver to the American people,—a people struggling for the realization of equal rights to rule—cannot but prove interesting and instructing.

SENATOR ROBERT M. LaFOLLETTE.

His active service in the contest to give the people a more direct control of government, both state and national, fits him to discuss the great issues which must continue to be of vital interest to the American people.  I am confident that he will at once establish himself as one of the strong and convincing men upon the chautauqua platform.

There is no man in the popular government movement so well posted on the general outlook.

WILLIAM S. U'REN, Father of the Oregon System.




JUDSON KING, Executive Secretary of the National Popular Government League, began life as a school teacher in Michigan.  He worked his way through Michigan University, had a taste of the newspaper game in Texas and then took his first dip in reform politics with Golden Rule Jones at Toledo, Ohio.  He became prominent in the Toledo movement, which was the first to declare for non-partisanship in municipal affairs, and edited the Independent Voter.  Later Mr. King turned aside a promising career in journalism to join Herbert Bigelow in the fight of Initiative and Referendum in Ohio in 1907.

During the past eight years Judson King has been in the front of almost every fight for popular government in this country.  After studying political and economic problems in Switzerland and other European countries for months, he became secretary of the Ohio Direct Legislation League and was the first to propose the form of Initiative, now famous among students of political science as The Wisconsin Form.  He has led the fight for the adoption of Initiative and Referendum in a dozen states.

In 1913, after six years in these legislative fights, Mr. King was instrumental in forming the National Popular Government League of which he is now the Executive Secretary.  This organization is Comprised of the most influential progressive leaders of all parties and is today the most potent organization in this country for popular government.




COMMENTS OF AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

A leader in the movement.—
Detroit News.


Positive in his opinions.—
Santa Fe (N. M.) Eagle.


An intensely interested audience.—
Fort Smith (Ark.) American.


He travels here, there, and elsewhere, wherever the fight is hottest.—
Portland (Ore.) Journal.


Instrumental in securing Initiative and Referendum legislation in many states.—
Jacksonville (Fla.) Metropolis.


His address was received with great enthusiasm by the enormous crowd and at the close he was given a perfect ovation.—
Jonesboro (Ark.) Sun.


The audience applauded to the echo King's eloquent plea for the right of self-government and gave him an ovation after the affair was over.—
Akron (Ohio) Press.


Judson King is an able fighter for popular government, an interesting and inspiring speaker and a writer of power and distinction.—
The National Field, Atlanta, Ga.


A University of Michigan man and an apostle of ideals in politics, he is one of the few blazers of new paths who can combine practical politics and reform.—
J. H. Hildebrand in The Washington Times.


He is one of those men who can keep a pencil on the run taking notes, and ask questions that will get to the heart of any question.  A cordial even merry fellow is Judson King, but withal so deadly in earnest as to be one of the most efficient fighters for human rights and liberties in this country.—
The Portland (Ore.) Press.


Judson King is one of the sanest, sincerst, constructive radicals in this country.—
Ben B. Lindsey, Judge of Juvenile Court, Denver, Colo.

I write a word of admiration for Judson King and wish him Godspeed in his corageous battle for human welfare.— Edwin Markham, The Poet.

I have known Judson King for some time.  He is a man inspired with the zeal for righteous things in government.— Wm. S. Kenyon, U. S. Senator from Iowa.



THE AFFILIATED LYCEUM BUREAUS—EVERYWHERE


THE COIT LYCEUM BUREAU
CLEVELAND


THE WHITE ENTERTAINMENT BUREAU
BOSTON


THE MUTUAL LYCEUM BUREAU
CHICAGO


THE ALKAHEST LYCEUM SYSTEM
ATLANTA


THE DIXIE LYCEUM BUREAU
DALLAS


THE ELLISON WHITE LYCEUM BUREAU
BOISE PORTLAND


THE COIT ALBER CHAUTAUQUA CO.
CLEVELAND