Arizona republican., 1910-07-27
TEMPE DEPARTMENT

what that mans politics is. He should be honest. faithful, and have some knowledge of what he is to do. and from such individuals the right sort of constitution can be expect ed. Men with half baked ideas should never be members of the convention. Vote for the man who sees beyond and has the futures good at heart as well as the present
 One question for consideration is the referendum and initiative. These two words are not understood by some. Referendum has reference to refer ring regislation back to the people for ratification. The constitution of Ari- zona will be sent back to the people for ratification and this fact in itself furnishes a sample of the working of the referendum. The initiative has reference to the people taking the
 initial step instead of the legislature. Something like five, fifteen or twen
 ty-five per cent depending on what is called for in the laws may be re- quired before q law by the people will be considered by the legislature
 Direct legislation of this sort is not new The New England town meet ing. clubs, and societies have made and do make use of it. In com munities too large for the whole com munity to assemble, direct legislation is secured by mandatory petitions and voting under the title of the in
 itidtive and referendum. By the ref
 erendum a bill or law must be held
 for a stated time, say 90 days before
 it goes into effect. If during this
 time a certain per cent, say per
 cent of the voters sign petition Tor
 the law, it goes to the law making
 body and there it takes precedence over legislative matters. This body must vote on it. They can do what they please with it. pass. reject.
 amend. or lay on the table. If they
 do not pass it the referendum takes effect on it and the people vote on it
 at the next general election. If the majority vote for it, it becomes a law. enacted by the people.
 The supporters of the initiative and referendum claim that representative government does not represent for four reasons: GD Whole classes are rot represented by men of their kind and they alone can know their con dition To prove this. let us take an example of the national congress. In | the senate of the fifty-t third congress there were sixty-four lawyers. six bankers. ten manufacturers. one doc 1 tor. and one farmer and four mis- cellaneous In the house of the same congress there were 245 lawyers. four | teen bankers. twenty one manufactur CTS. five doctors. and twenty five far mers, eight editors and twenty eight | miscellaneous. The lawyers consti- 1 ute one third of one per cent of oul
 population. yet they had 70 per cent 1 of the legislators. The bankers anc manufacturers were similarly dispro- portiOnateIy represented in this same congress CD Parties are not rep ! resented. In this fifty-third congress there were 153 republicans where there should have been 127. There were 16f democrats where there
 should have been 21S. Therefore our present system of representation doe:
 not represent the political parties (3) No man can truly represent
 another No two human beings arc
 alike The voter casts his vote ii
 intelligent for about three reasons
 He thinks the platform of his party
 is the best. or he uses the opinion
 of the candidate and he votes for the
 candidate because he believes he is
 (Continued on Page EleVen)