Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-10-10

For county option on liquor question in Min.
For thorough common school education in
svafsm aSs as against university
PROGRESS; 81 .plRec1 .:lEe'.lAr'on.
The principle of direct legtslatiou
as exempltfed by initiative and
referendum enactments and the prin-
ciple of local option 10 gaining ground
steadily throughout. the nation. The
impetus given this principle by the
third party movement was consider
able. In spite of the great efforts
made by vested interests enjoying
special privileges to bring the initiar
tive and referendum into disrepute in
states where the sa1ue has been adopted
the friends of popular government
have held their own and have really
strengthened their position. 1t will
be remembered that upon the adoption
of such law in the State of Oregon,
corruptisg influences at once sought
to make the Law odious by instituting
referendum votes. to veto. certain
meritorious laws that. had been passed
by the legislature. None of these
efforts were successful in securing the
necessary five percent of the voters,
but the matter was brought into the
courts and the circuit court of
Multonomah county decided that the
constitutional amendment enacting the
referendum law was improperly SUBJ
mitted. This decision was heralded
all over the country in the trust and
corporation press as deathblow to
the principle. We are able to give
the following information concerning
the Oregon experience from q COM
munication to the Direct Legislation
Record by Hon. w. S. U 'ren, Oregon
City, Ore; In speaking of the At
tempt made to use the law for bad
purposes he says:
1.-THE number of signatures required
to refer law to the people was. 1886.
-Four referendum petitions were cir
culated: One against the appropri-
alton of $500, 600 in aid of the Lewis
& Clark Fair, and this received $500
signatures: one against the appropri-
alton of Sl65, 900 for q State portage
railway at The Dalles, on the Col
umbia river, and this had 1000 sigma
lures. The Portland Chamber of
Commerce charged the railway COM
panies with paying men to circulate
this petition. The third against tho
Corporation Tax bill, was circulated
by some mining corporations, but had
only 1922 signatures. The fourth, q
petition against the repeating of the
exemption from tax cation of $500 worth
of household furniture, was in cir
culatiOn about three weeks and re-
ceived l, 800 signatures. If they had.
begun earlier, it would probably have
obtained more than enough.
1--WE may logically deduce from
this experience that the referendum Is
not easily invoked, even though only
per cent, of the voters are required;
that law must be very unpopular If
the people will not permit it to be tried
when there is no reasonable ground to
believe it was corruptly passed: that
If the people have any good reason
to suspect that the referendum is
sought from selfish motives or for
personal profit, they will not sign the
petition. So far the results have been
very satisfactorily
In commenting upon this the Daily
Oregonian, republican paper that at
first bitterly opposed the initiative
and referendum idea, said in recent
edition:
"Impatience with the referendum was
recently so unrestrainedly INDUCED in
Oregon that the country is in danger
of forming an incorrect impression of
it. A careless utterance of q Wash
iagtOn State paper, for example, leads
the New York Evening Post to the con-
clusion that the referendum is q fiat
failure and it is always a dead
letter unless somebody wants to use it
for an improper purpose. 49,: -, 49,. :,
"Oregon was scared when the referen-
dunn was invoked for three undesirable,
obstructive vetoes on acts of the re-
cent legislative session. But The
Oregonian expressed q confidence in
the popular judgment which, has been
abundantly justified The referendum
was invoked for improper purposes,
but it has proven q dead letter. in
exactly that case, and" it's insurance
features were left untmpaired by, the
fact that the three Obstructiveir9 > be-
titions failed to receive the requisite
number of signatures. >@..ss
''The referendum stands accordingly
safeguard in the peoples hands.
Any hope Of using it. for improper
purposes must be ,infhitesmal after
the late severe test, in which powerful
interests conspicuously failed. ''=5s,S7#ys
In South Dakota, where the law was
adopted during the peoples party
regime, the law has never been In
voked. This disproves the argument
that it entails . lot Of expense and
election redtape. The law stands
there as . safeguard and has had .
wnniorf111 honafinial affect 11Ynn kha