Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-11-14
INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
Indianapolis News.

kota voters at the coming election is said
to be seven feet long and fourteen inches
wide. 1t will be packed full of reading
matter called for by the voters in the shape
of proposed laws submitted under the
referendum policy OF the state-one OF the
proposed laws alone filling some two feet
of the ballot. This may all seem to be
absurd, but 1t will have its educational
effects, and the people, even though they
will make mistakes. as do also regular or
official lawmakers, will, In time, find
satisfaction with the government in which
they are such close participants unknown
to communities where political power Is
more remotely delegated. Springfield Re-
publican.
To US It certainly does seem absurd and
we cannot see the educational effect. We
should say that It would be rather con-
fusing than educational, and a waste OF
time. II man employs a lawyer, shall he
read and pass on the brief in his case?
II so, why have a lawyer at all? II we
can wisely legislate at the polls why have
representative government at ali2 We are
not Of those that believe in caste or priest
hood. There is no mystery in legislation
or religion. Laws, like religious precepts,
must come to mems business and bosoms''
to be of use. They are for men, not for a
caste. But there are things that cannot
be done at large. Executive power, for
example, cannot be so welded. Nor can
wise law making be done so.
The underlying question can run further
back, IL you please, to the primal division
OF labor Manifestly we could not get on
at all without 1t, and as little can we get
on, we think, II we attempt 10 overturn
the system and make legislators out Of
everybody. AS well might we try TO make
lawyers or tailors or bookkeepers out of
everybody. There is a limit even to the size
OF legislative bodies II they are 10 retain
their usefulness. To transfer the function
TO the polls for every citizen to exercise,
which is pretty nearly what is done in the
case given. ought on its face, to argue inn
practicability. We feel that the event will
show this. The Denver Republican recently
in arguing against the Introduction of the
initiative and referendum in Colorado held
it manifest that it would discredit Colo
FadO in its own eyes and in the eyes OF
intelligent people In the rest Of the coun-
try" adding:
1T will require space equal to 100
pages OF an ordinary newspaper TO pub
lish and lay before the people OF oregon
all the laws they will have to vote on
this year under tn cir initiative and refer
endum; and one can imagine what every
ballot will be II made big enough to
contain, all these proposed laws"
Under such circumstances what intel
digence of judgment can there be, and
judgment, too, asked at the hands of
people who have not been trained in law
making but have been busy in the vari-
Gus forms of Industry Not only is there
this handicap, but government suffers
and expert advice in a most Important
relation lie lost. The whole proposition
seems TO us to be of the crudest quality
and most inefficient 1t were to de-
SPAR of good government were not the
reflection tempered with the thought
that Il is all no more than an indica-
ton OF the swing OF the pendulum. The
people, conscious OF having been cheated
and beaten in many cases by representa-
tive government, under which special In
terests have thriven at the expense Of
the common interests, have been engaged
in an attempt to get out OF their gov
eminent Naturally they have gone to
the extremes that we are seeing. The
pendulum will swing back not merely
because OF inherent confusion, but be-
cause the remedy will be worse than
the disease If our morality IS at such
| a stage that We cannot find true repre-
/ sentative men, We surely cannot find
I that truth by making every man legis-
| lator It is tone, not method. that has
been lacking.
We are a republic. not a democracy; a
| representative government under writ
ten constitution, And for ourselves we
/ are not prepared 70 say that Il is fall
ure. And for whatever failure there may
| have been, who shall say that the re-
| sponslbrity does not lie In the people them
| selves-ln their tendency TO do nothing and
| to allow representatives to do everything;
| to fail in furnishing moral support for
laws; to acquiesce I'm lawlessness2 This
| is the root OF the matter and not repre-
sentative government. Here lies the fault,
| and here any remedy that is 70 be eff
/ fective and not an aggravatiOn. must be
/ applied We do not want direct govern
] ment, but representative government. We
/ do not want new natonalism, but O'd ns-
/ tionansm. And under all we do want and
must have a quickening OF the common
| conscience, an aroused sense OF obedience
I to laws as the only safeguard. We shall
not make a wreck OF the institutions that
have been handed down to US, either in
/ the ACKNOWLEDGMENT Of an executive who
shall be the general steward Of the ooun-
/ try. nor yet in enthroning the passing
within and unthinking caprice Of the mass
as rule Of action.