Arizona republican., 1910-09-06

| portaace to look after, to inaugurate | a special campaign, statewide, to
 head off the outcroppings of some
 unbalanced crank who has 'mis-
 sion" which he has been specially
 called to carry out. Two years ago
 it required the combined efforts of
 the best element of our people to
 save the state university from the attack of this class of men in the shape of d referendum called on | bin appropriating money to make it an efficient institution.
 NO CHANGE TO AMEND.
 Another objection to the initiative | principle as one which alone should | effectually condemn it is the entire lack of opportunity it affords for conference in any form for sugges- | tions as to amendment or change in any manner. Just as it emanates from the think tank of the inventor of the proposition just in that form
 it must be voted on. If it should de- clare that henceforth it shall be the legal and official decision of the peo- pie of Oregon that the moons con- sstency shall be as of green cheese, there is no opportunity whatever af- forded to so qualify it that it may be declared that at times it presents somewhat modified hue It is green cheese or nothing. An initiative law does not represent the will of the people" so often vociferously as
 serted to be the case. When Jeff Jones in his secluded den decides that certain thing should be h. tl qAT the required number of signatures to his petition. at so much per, and It is presented to the people, it is merely the peculiar and distinctive notion of Jeff Jones. If the people adopt it they have taken the dose as Jones prescribed it-there has been no chance at all to alter it by so much as the addition or subtrac- tion of one word. And the chances are that if it is adopted it will have been so because the people had no time or inclination to look into it merely voted for it as many people do, because they assume that any law proposed under the initiativs system. it being peoples law, must of necessity be in their interest so the voter supports the proposition Jeff Jones, and no matter who Jeff Jones may represent, one man out of d hundred thousand voters, has scored in the name of all the people
 And here is the one serious and vital objection to the initiative prin- cipIe-it is directly violative of the system of representative government and many of the best legal minds in the United States are of the opinion that it is directly contradic- tory of the clause in the federal con stitution which declares that con gross shall guarantee to every state a republican form of government. In fact. there is a case how pend ing in the supreme court of the United States which will test this very question. carried up from Ore gon where this freak has had fuli swing now for about four years. When the power to enact laws is conferred upon the people directly the power to enact all laws on all possible subjects is conferred and the legislature. that department of a state government which is the em bodiment of the guarantee of a re-
  once relegated to the background and the representatives of the people become the manipulators of a second fiddle
 Not only this, but the initiative idea is clumsy and impossible of ul- timate success. for reasons l have already alluded to. that is the lack Of opportunity for conference and comparison of propositions and for the elimination of contradictory fea- lures by amendment. In a legisla- ture. as is well known. all bills are referred to committees and there compared. amended, discussed as to all their bearings, reported. frequent ly re-referred for further considera- tion, and when they are finally placed on their final passage are at least likely to have been pruned and perfected to represent the combined wish of the peoples representatives. But when an initiated law is once launched on it's career all the power on earth and the lower regions can not change it by one cross of a ''t' or the dot of an "i" And if two laws on the same question should be pro- posed, as is often the case, prOvid- ing for different things and condi- tions, they must go to the limit. | There is no chance for amendment or for trimming off the crudities which are more than likely to have been incorporated by its promulga- tors. Whatever Bill Smith succeeded in getting into his bill must be adopted precisely as he wiiled it or else it must be voted down by all the people of the state. Oh, it's , great,
 HOW IT WORKED.
 This was well illustrated in our | state two years ago. For twenty | years the salmon packers and can ners have been in open warfare as to the times and manner of catching l salmon, an industry in oregon worth | many millions of dollars every year. | The legislature managed to trim | their bills as presented every session 1 so middle ground was maintained | which never satisfied the extreme | demands of either side. But the mi | tiative furnished the opportunity | for them both so two bills were pre- pared and the necessary signatures secured of course to set them on |