Bisbee daily review., 1911-06-25
WICKERSRAh SOUNDS
 WARkING AGAINST
 PADS IN LAWMAkING
Revolutionary Changes in Oi- reCtiOn of Initiative and
 Referendum Dangerous
RECALL IS OEMAGOGIC

NEOHLL D UCWHOOOiO
 The following from the New York Sun of June ls. gives the re marks of Attorney General Wick srsham before the Yale law school graduates. upon the subject of the recall of judges.
 The address to the graduating class Of the law school was made today by Attorney General Wiekerham. His subject was. New States and Con stitution'
 Tt is an abuse Of language Co call such a scheme of government pop ular,'" said Mir. Wickersham- It is an attempt to create a government of all the people. by 8 minority of the people. for a small minority Of the people. To adopt it would be to substitute for the institrtions which are the growth and evolution of cen turies of American experience the devices of the French revolution and Swiss socialism.
 The speaker cited the statistics of the vote in Arizona on the State Constitution and from the small per centage of electors who had voted for and against it he drew an infer ence unfayorable to the admission Of Arizona as a state.
 Congress may well consider" he said, whether or not a territory tn which only 35 per cent of the qualified electors exhibit sufficient interest to vote upon the adoption of the fundamental law OF which It seeks admission to the Union gives evidence Of that capacity for self government which is so essential to the maintenance of free institutions
 Mr. Wickersham's subject was New States and Constitutions" After re- viewing the admission of states "a the past. the making of their cOnst- tutions and their relations to the urovisions Of the federal cOnstitu- ton he took up the cases of Okla homa, New Mexico and Arizona. He quoted James Bryce and Woodrow Wilson on the recent tendency iu state constitutions to grow long and cumbersome and said that the con stitutioR of Oklahoma was inordi nately long, large part of its pro visions having no place in the fun damental law tested by established American standards. The constitution of New Mexico he thought unduly long. He then outlined the schemes for the initiative and referendum set forth in the Arizona constitution.
 'It will be observed" he said that there is no requirement re specting the minimum number oi votes which must be cast in order that an act of the legislature may be overruled, or g law directly enacted upon the initiative or the constitu ton amended in any particular. Al that is required is that the measure shall be proposed or the machinery set in motion by small percentage Of tho qualified electors who voted for governor at the previous election and then if a majority of the votes cast at the popular election are tI favor fthe proposed action or meas ure, it becomes effective no matter how small a proportion of the tota electorate of the state may be ths vote, and without the smallest regart Of its territorial distribution. Thus i we should assume that the total O the vote cast for all candidates fol governor at the last preceding cleo ton was that cast upon the proposi ton to adopt he constitution, viz 16,O0G. then the constitution coull be amended on the proposal of IS pc cent oS that number, that IS 1z.l of the whole population, or II pc cent of the whole body Of qualities electors of the state, and carried b. a majority Of the 16,000 votes cast that is, by S.005 votes-or indeed fo that matter by any smaller numbe which might constitute a maiorit of the votes cast on the propOsitio to amend. One might well paus here to consider whether or not
 state with institutions of this cha acter would come into the Unio under such conditions as to afTor a reasonable guarantee of that st; biIity in government which IS e sential to a continuance of Deac' ful domestic institutions" The a torney general followed this with
 review of the recall provisions,
 It is an interesting paradox said. that the whole tendency (
 qualifications in the established for Of republican government advocate as accomplishing a greater populs participation in government is to col fer power upon a small minority ( the people to control not only th making of the laws but of constit rions.
 The distinctiyely American pla of government under fundament law framed with a view to it's co tinuance unless changed with equ soIemnity is absolutely at variant
 -zrifh fhe new scheme of gOVernme