The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-03-16
THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM.
How They are Regarded in Maine.

The Boston Sunday Globe recently
| published a symposium on the initiative
and referendum, in which they were dis
cussed by Mr.. Herbert c. Libby, Presi
dent of the Maine Referendum League
Mr.. Howard Davies, member of the
House of Representatives; Mr.. Josiah
Chase, member of the House of Repre-.
sentatives; Hon. Charles F. Libby, for.
mer President of the American Bar As
ISOLATION; Hon. George B. Goodwin. for
mer U. S. Consul, now Representative
Hon. Leslie Boynton. member of the
Maine Senate. Mn H. G. Libby practically
admits that the legislation we now have
in this direction is failure, when he
says: ga campaign of education is going
on among the people against the signing
of initiative petitions without careful
consideration of the consequences of
their acts" But does anyone believe
that such campaign will meet with any
degree of success? Mr.. Howard Davies
admits that the present law is not per-
feet, but considers it ga long step for
ward" He says:
Corporations are less grasping and the
members of the lobby are less sure of
their ground when they realize that their
work may go for nothing when it is
brought under the spotlight of publicity
The procuring of names for the petitions
use in connection with the law, and the
matter of compensation for the work,
must be further considered, and the law
amended, if possible, so that the pro-
curers of signatures and the signers
themselves must be impressed with the
seriousness of the work they are doing.
But can, or will, they be so impressed?
Hon. Charles F. Libby says that lone
trouble with the initiative and referen-
dunn, as adopted in this and other States,
is that it has tendency to do away with
representative government. No such
provision existed in the constitution of
any State when it was admitted into the
union, but is a product of latter day po-
litical wisdom And further: ''The
federal constitution guarantees to every
St ate republican form Of government.
The initiative and referendum are incon-
sistent with this guarantee. He
strikes at the root of all our troubles
when he says:
Caucuses and conventions have failed
to express the wishes of the people be-
cause the majority of voters have neg
lected to participate in their action, and
have left the field to those who make
profession Of politics. If every citizen
did his duty, there would be no place for
the professional politician. Instead of
attempting to remove these conditions,
there seems to be a tendency to modify
the political institutions themselves. It
points toward movement to change
radically our form of government and
furnishes food for thought, if not cause
for alarm
Mr.. Josiah Chase says he was at first
opposed but is now in favor of the pres
ent law, and that it certainly has ten
dency to make legislators more careful"
In conclusion he says:
am inclined to think that there might
possibly be a tendency to invoke the
power of the referendum too frequent
ly, to the extent almost of taking away
the responsibility of the legislators, but
if used guardedly and with reason, it
may accomplish much good. But l am
not one of those who can conscientiously
carry this back to- people idea so far
as to believe in the direct primary, to
which 1 am unalterably opposed as en-
bodying too strongly populistic tenden-
cies. Possibly modification of the ref
erendum might be made, limiting the
vote to those localities in which the ques-
ton is most at stake, but the referendum
principle, on the whole, believe, is sal
utary.
Hon. George B. Goodwin says:
So far as the Maine referendum gotten
up by the Ricker-F ernald machine and
the Neal Dow fanatics is concerned, it
has not as yet had fair trial. 1t has
been invoked three times, once on tom
fool proposition declaring Jamaica ginger
and paregoric to be intoxicating liquors
within the meaning of the Maine stat
utes, and twice on matters which were
purely local and affected only the resi-
dents of two comparatively small COM
munities. In each instance the vote was
light and the better organization and
more skilful leadership won.