Arizona republican., 1910-09-07
.G0v, GEER ON 1. OREGON PLAN His Address Before q Mesa Audience WHAT OREGON SUFFERED The Former Governor
 Hopes the New State of
 Arizona Will Be Spared
 By the Rejection of this
 Form of Folly.
WHAT OREGON SUFFERED

Former Governor T. T. Geer of the state of oregon before an enthusiastic and deeply interested audience last night at the Mesa opera house at this place took up the question of the ini- tiative, referendum and recall and in an able address delivered blow after blow with telling effect upon that eX- pertinent. which within the past six months has been thrust before the people of the territory and an attempt has been made to get them to believe that life without it would not be worth the living.
 Governor Geer comes direct from oregon. that state which has been used as an illustration by the advO- cates of the initiative, referendum and recall throughout this campaign. yet the former official says of that state:
 The time was when oregon was a perfectly sane state on political mat ters and as it was the only one in the Union whose general election was in June its verdict commanded universal attention and was regarded as an in-' dication of the trend of public senti ment regarding such questions as were of national interest and significance.
 But. unfortunately. that time and condition have passed and about the only interest outsiders manifest in the result of our political contests is an unrestrained curiosity to see what we will do next for there is nothing gO- ing which is not likely to be adopted by our people if it shall smack of novelty, untried and undeveloped theories or wild innovations into the accepted field of conservative govern mental principles, the fundamental foundations which the experience of mankind for centuries has found to be the most beneficial for all classes of people. And still the crazy work goes on, the pending campaign presenting new array of wildcat propositions at tacking the results of ages of study with as little thought of their absurdi- ties as if they were mere suggestions relating tO the best method of winter ing a stand of bees"
 Relative to the constitutionality of the law, Governor Geer continued:
 And here is the one serious and vital objection to the initiative prin ciple--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 contradictory of the clause in the federal consti tuition which declares that con gress shall guarantee to every state a republican form of government. In fact, there is a case now pending in the supreme court of the United States which will test this very question. carried up from oregon where this freak has had full swing now for about four years. When the power to enact laws is conferred upon the peo- pie 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 embodiment of the guarantee of a re publican form of government is at once relegated to the background and the representatives of the people be- come the manipulators of a second fid dle."
 Continuing. the governor said:
 And another thing this system has done in Oregon-it has developed a new industry. a new vocation. l re- fer to the army of professional peti- tion circulators. Those interested in the prOmulgatiOn of a proposed ini tiative law will employ a small army of these professionals to get signatures, usually five cents each, but often ten. If fifty names can be secured in day you can understand that it is a very remunerative vocation while it lasts. During the month or two next preced- ing a primary election in oregon the man of any business at all which de- mands his attention can scarcely walk a block in any of our cities without being pestered beyond endurance by these men who are working thus inl the interest of the dear people. of course, the necessary eight per cent of names are secured and the bill, mol matter how crazy it may be, is to de- mand the attention of all the voters at the ensuing electiOn-which, as al rule, it does not
 However in the real work of the ini- tiative and referendum relative to cleo tions. Governor Geer said in part:
 There are now pending in oregon thirty two different laws before theI people to pass upon at the November election. besides the ordinary duty of electing a full set of county and state officers. If man passes upon all these candidates. and there will probably be a full hundred names on the ticket, he will do well if he does it intelligently by remaining in the election booth fif- teen minutes. If he consumes this much time there will not be time