Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1903-10-29
A YEAR OF DIRECT

Oeueu III tne1T COnStltC -oOutn
Dakota, Utah and Oregon. Three
state legislatures passed direct legis-
1ative amendments last winter-Massa-
chusetts, Nevada and Missouri. In the
first and second of these states the leg
islature must pass them a second time
before they go to a referendum of the
people for adoption. The people of
Missouri vote at their next election
November 19O4-on this constitutional
amendment. Other facts might be
cited such as that 1t has recently gone
into the charters of such cities as San
Francisco, Los Angles; Portland, Ore.
Seattle, Wash and for franchises in
to the charters of Nashville, Mnnea-
polls, ETC., but these are enough to
show the progress of this reform.
The practical man at once asks how
is it working. In June, 1902, the peo-
of Oregon adopted their amendment,
and last winter the Legislature passed
a law to carry it into effect in detail,
although it actually went into opera
ton on the declaration of the vote in
1902.
Hon. w. S. U'Ren, formerly state
senator and leader of the direct legis-
lation forces, writes:
1.-The first effect of the referendum
in Oregon is the comparative absense
ship against the legislature. The
newspapers have generally spoken
we'll of the last assembly or said
nothing, while for the previous ten
years, at least, the rule has been that
bitter things were printed about the
want of honor and intelligence among
the Legislators. Altogether the last
session of the last assembly was the
best Tor many years, and we credit a
good deal of this TO the direct legisla-
ton amendment
The number of signatures required
to refer a law to the people is 1850.
-Four rcle eudum petitions were circu-
lated to get the four laws passed by
the last legislature voted on by the
people. None of these petitions secur-
ed the required number of signatures.
Two of these concerned the appropriate
ton OF money for usual projects, of
whose wisdom there might naturally
be division of opinion. Tie Port
land Chamber of Commerce charged
that the railway companies were Gil
culating the petitions about one of
these, the So5,0O0 state portage railway
but it secured the lesser number of sig
natures. The third petition was cir
culated by some mining corporations,
the mining corporation tax bill. They
secured less signatures than on either
of the other two. The fourth petition
was only circulated for three weeks
and had 1,80o signatures, and it is al
most certain that it would have obtain
ed the requiaed number if begun
earlier. 1t was to refer to the people
the law repeating the exemption from
taxation OF $500 worth of household
furniture.
Inside of the legislature it has pre-
vented even the introduction of corrupt
measures. whether those measures
granted special privileges to corpora
lions or attacked corporations with the |
idea of their being withdrawn tor a
money consideration. 1t has also SIM
plihed and made fewer laws. The
legislature of South Dakota passed 1Ol |
or lO2 laws at its last session. Within |
one week Govarnor Odell vetoed 11S out
of the five or six hundred laws passed |
by the New York legislature, and
Governor Pennypacker vetoed "a OF