Richard Olsen Richards Biography


	This biography appears on pages 128-129 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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			RICHARD OLSEN RICHARDS.  

	The political history of South Dakota has been influenced in a 
vital and beneficial way through the activities of Richard Olsen 
Richards, whose public spirit, energy and initiative ability have made 
him a powerful factor in state development. Almost continuously since 
1883, Mr. Richards has lived in south Dakota and in addition to his 
prominence in politics has had an enviable business success.  

	Mr. Richards was born in Sandefjorde, Norway, in 1866, and is a 
descendant of several prominent Norwegian and Danish families among 
them the well known Ahlefeldt family. His ancestors were numbered among 
the foremost men in Norway and Denmark in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries. He was educated in a private school. At an early age his 
love for liberty and progress and his fellowmen prompted his coming to 
America which afforded greater opportunities for development. He landed 
in America at the age of fifteen and immediately began to carve his own 
way. Having a good command of English and German, as well as of his 
native tongue, he secured a position as interpreter at Castle Garden, 
where he remained for two years. He next engaged in the ship brokerage 
business in New York for one year. Then, following the footsteps of 
thousands of other Scandinavian emigrants, he came to the northwest 
locating first at Luverne, Minnesota, then Mitchell, South Dakota, and 
lastly at Huron, where he built up an extensive investment business. He 
prospered and soon became known both as a successful business man and 
an influential citizen.  

	Since 1898 Mr. Richards has devoted almost his entire time and 
spent a large fortune in forwarding public welfare, and was the 
instigator of the progressive movement in this state. Among many 
measures for the public interest which Mr. Richards championed to 
success are the divorce law, anti-pass law and in a general way the 
abolition of spoils which commercialize government. Everything that 
South Dakota has had in way of primary laws have been builded around 
and upon his efforts.  

	To Mr. Richards has been given the initiative to evolve an 
organization law whereby state government can be made responsive and 
responsible to the will of the people in order to forward equity and 
progress for the interests of all the people. The so-called Richards 
primary law is a masterpiece of construction for organization of public 
welfare, through the state. Its principles are eternally right and it 
is safe to say that it will ultimately as a pattern for political 
organization laws in United States.

	The Richards primary law first eliminates the spoils system and 
provides for an intelligent initiatory. It lays the foundation for 
conservative progress by making a legal division of minority and 
majority proposals within the party for principles, instead of division 
on personalities between candidates for office. The people elect 
committeemen by a direct vote to meet at the state capitol. These 
committeemen act in committee of the whole and select the paramount 
issue and principles for public policies, together with candidates 
guaranteed as to character and ability, as standard bearers, by 
majority vote, the committeemen at all times casting their vote by 
"unit representation."  

	Following the state proposal meeting, copies of the proposals, 
with arguments in their behalf and short biographies of the candidates 
are filed with the secretary of state, whose duty it is to compile the 
same into the State Publicity Pamphlet, a copy of which is mailed, at 
the expense of the state, to every elector. In addition to this 'scans 
of publicity, the law provides for public joint debates between the 
candidates for governor and for president, to discuss the paramount 
issue. In this way the people are given state-wide information as to 
the issues and are furnished a uniform ballot throughout the state 
which enables them to east an intelligent vote at the primary election 
and obtain majority rule. In this manner a harmonious ticket is 
nominated as a result of the primary election. And the candidates 
nominated, when confirmed at the general election, are in a position to 
properly carry out the policies endorsed by a majority of the people.  

	The law also provides for meritorious distribution of the 
official patronage. The postmasters are made through postmaster 
primaries, held in the municipality where the candidate for postmaster 
seeks appointment. The candidates for postmaster are nominated by tile 
electors affiliated with the national party in power; but when the 
postmaster primary takes place, all the electors living in the 
municipality, who arc patrons of the office, may vote, regardless of 
party affiliation.  

	Other essential features of the law are the provisions for 
registration of electors, unit representation, state publicity 
pamphlet, the corrupt practice act and the party recall by jury trial. 
Checks and balances are provided throughout the law, so that 
equilibrium is the result, making the state government the people's 
automaton.  

	Mr. Richards wells to the legislature with his primary law twice. 
The politicians persuaded the legislature to turn down the law on both 
occasions; but the people adopted and sustained it at the elections of 
1912 and 1914. Immediately after its adoption, by an overwhelming vote 
in 1912, the politicians sought to repeal the law by submitting another 
primary law, known as the Coffey law, under the initiative and 
referendum to a vote of tee people in 1914. The people rejected the 
Coffey law by a large majority. Thus the people have twice declared in 
favor of the Richards primary law - once by directly voting it in and a 
second time by refusing to accept a substitute. Yet, when the 
legislature convened in 1915, a few weeks after the people had 
emphatically approved the Richards law for the second time, the 
politicians again sought its repeal, but this time by a legislative 
enactment in direct violation of the constitution governing direct 
legislation. Meanwhile over eight thousand electors petitioned for the 
reenactment of the Law, with certain necessary amendments, and it is 
now submitted for the third time to a direct vote of the people in 
November, 1916.  

	The Richards primary law has never been given a fair trial and 
those in charge of the state government have blocked its practical 
workings in every conceivable manner. All in all the Richards primary 
law, like everything else of merit, has had a hard road to travel. 
Nevertheless the real progressives (thinkers) in the state have always 
come forward to its rescue and now anxiously await an opportunity to 
reenact and put the law in favorable hands for administration. Then 
only can its practical workings be properly demonstrated to perfect 
state government, by consideration of the paramount issue of one public 
policy at a time, and thus make good the motto of the great seal of 
South Dakota-"Under God the People Rule."