Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-24
CLEAR. CRISP AND CLEAN
NATIONAL REFERENDUM
ME may now expect to see those
w newspapers which have been de-
w voff,c n pood share of their time

voting good share of their time
and space to heaping ridicue upon the
freak" legislation of oregon and other
states which have adopted the referen-
dun and it's companion turn their at
tention to the proposal of the now state
of Oklahoma, through United States
Senator Fulton of Oregon. to engraft
the principles of the initiative, the
referendum and the recall upon the con-
stitution of the United States. The
Oklahoma idea is embodied in a joint
the federal constitution which may be
epitomized as follows:
Eight per cent of the voters of not
fewer than fifteen states shall have the
power to propose, by initiative petition.
any legislation; 10 per cent of the
voters of not fewer than fifteen of the
states shall have power to propose
amendments; per cent of not fewer
than fifteen of the states shall have the
power to exercise the referendum by
petition to the president of the United
States.
There is little likelihood that the
Oklahoma idea will receive the slightest
encoura cement by the present congress,
and there is small ground for hope that
the sixty-first congress will accord 1t
serious consideration should the pro-
posals be submitted to that body. The
traditions hidebinding the majority of
the members of any national congress
to be elected within the next two or
three years doubtless will result in the
immediate interment of any proposition
to submit to the people of the country
for consideration any such ridiculous
amendment as one providing that the
people shall have anything whatever
to say, directly, about how they shall
be governed. For what on earth is con-
gress for, anyway? Surely not to sit
around and be dictated to by just the
plain people The people are simply
the herd Congress is composed Of the
speaker of the house, the chairman of
the rules committee and the house Of
lords The plain representative from
Sheboygan or Sloansville- Hill
side is q good enough ornament for
parade at county fair time or cheer
Inspiring centerpiece for the Star
spangled Banner" during the autumns
of the even numbered years, but he Is
not going to be allowed the floor of the
house to rattle any dry bones with use
less verbiage about any such "socialis.
tic" "freakish,'' crazy ideas as those
of the initiative. the referendum and
the recall.
Not yet, perhaps, but there are gray
haired men who will live to hear of this
very thing being done. The vision
aries of today will be the statesmen
Of tomorrow. John Adams, Samuel
Adams, Edmund Quincy and James
Bowden, the Missionaries of 1873. the
fathers of the initiative principle in
legislation, formed the center of the
freeholders who, in drafting the consti-
tuition of Massach lsetts, madesit plain
to the Legislative assembly that the
people reserved to themselves the COM
stitutional right Of expressing their
minds and giving you' tthe assembly,
s.such Instructions upon important SUBJ
jects as at any time we may judge
proper"
The principle of the initiative is older
than the constitution of the United
states itself. oregon has applied it in
different way from Massachusetts,,
that is all. One by one the various
states of the Union are adopting the
three features of this basic principle
Of popular government 1t may never
be Incorporated into the constitution OF
the United States; it probably will not
become q part of the federal organic
law during the lifetime Of any person
now living; but if nothing more prac-
ticable shall have been accomplished
BY the action of Oklahoma in calling
the attention Of congress to these prin-
ciples than that popular knowledge is
enhanced the nation owes debt oi
gratitude to the youngest Of the states
land the boldest.