Bisbee daily review., 1911-01-10
OREGON PLAN NOT WELL
 LIKED
Economist Thinks State Will Pay Dearly for ts Experi- ment with Direct Legisla-
 ton, Which is So Frcaky
 As to Surprise The World

HS tO OuiJIloc HE WUiHl
 PORTLAND, Ore, Jan. g, (SpeciaD
 That Oregon will pay dearly for its direct legislation and suffer heav- fly .n the end is the oponion of Henry Jones Ford. of Princeton Uni yersity, who is at the Portland. Mir. Ford Is professor of political econ omy and has courses of study in Federal, state and municipal govern ments. He is regarded as an au- thority on those subjects. and is taking his present trip to study the governments of the Western Cana. dian provinces and Oregon.
 Oregon is the only place In the world" said he, where the init a. tive exists in the form you have it. It seems to me that you have run wild It furnishes to students of political economy a practical illus tration of direct legislation. and it's outcome will be of much interest. although I agprehend generally that those who have made a special study can predict the ultimate out. come World is Astonished.
 Tt sometimes is necessary for the body polite to have an emetic to clean out the old infection and cor. ruption of some system which has proved harmful to the people at large. The convention principle of government has proved a disastrous failure in America and has done more to create graft than anything to be found in our form of govern ment.
 T do not blame people for rebell- ing against it. But your direct legis. lation is the astonishment of the whole world. Generally, when we speak of freak legislation, we think of Switzerland and New Zealand. but Oregon outclasses them It is so far from them that doubt if there is ? comparison. No one in Switzerland ever heard of such form of direct Legislator as you have out here. In the first place, thel referendum sys- tem is q relic of the Middle Ages. It is little used, and for the masses to initiate laws would be as strange to them as some of your Hood River apples. although the apples would be more pleasing.
 Swiss are ineredibIe.
 | T remember that Charles Edward Russell in his letters on SEitzer land's government tells of Sw'ss who had lived over here for years and had always participated in our elections. When he returned to his native land he used to regale his neighbors by telling of the big bal lots and the frequency of the elee- tions. His nelghbors refused to be- lieye him, and so big were his stor- ies, from their viewpoint, that he became known as the biggest liar in Switzerland That Swiss, luckily never heard of Oregon.
 They tell me that you have 40 ex- lecutiye heads in Oregon and that each has his own lawyer, h's own tclerks and> his own method of con ducting business. No good results are possible under such a system of government
 My trip to Western Canada was for the purpose of studying the busi- ness efficiency of the provincial gov ernments. There the administration performs the function of conducting the government The legislative DOT ton of the government cannot orig mate laws without the approval of the government or administration 1 forces. All of the business Is con ducted under one authority. All branches of the government are per formed under one administrative 1 board It is conducted on the same principle that you would conduct the business of corporation.
 Majority Does Not Rule.
 -In Oregon you evidently have the l opposite. The legislation is formed by the masses Many of your laws, ] complicated and full of technical i matter. are adopted-not by a ma jority of your people. but by a ma jorfty of the votes cast. The only i way that Oregon's government could be conducted to advantage would be ! to conduct it the same way that you would a business corporatiop-for the greatest results. Your recent ballot containing the designation of various laws which were proposed for adoption IS vithoat a parallel in history New Zealand does not vote I.