Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-01-22
with Proper Safeguards. =,

tionalism and Progress, Colonel
Roosevelt has come out for what is
known as the Oregon plan Of popular
government subject, however, to vari-
GUS qualifications which may be con-
densed into the phrase, with proper
safeguards The gist Of the con-
clusion as to the initiative and re-
ferendum for example, is contained
in this sentence:
/ believe that 1t would be a good thing
20 have the principle Of the initiative and
referendum applied In most OF our states
always provided that it be so safe-guarded
as to prevent its being used either wantonly
or In a spirit Of levity II it is rendered
too easy to invoke either process the re-
suit can be only michievous.
Presumably, the sitting legislature
of Nebraska will submit to the people
some kind of an initiative and refer
endum amendment to the state con-
stitution, and the question really at
issue is, What are the proper safe
guards?
been tried in several states, but in no
two of them in the same form, and in
no state have they worked out to COM
plete satisfaction. The one state
which has boosted loudest about them
and secured the most advertising
from them. Oregon, has admittedly
a very crude form Of the initiative and
and instead of furnish
ing the model, furnishes the object
lesson of what should be avoided. AS
developed in Oregon the defects of the
initiative and referendum include %
incentive to legislative instability; (2)
bewilderment of the voters by a multi
plicity of measures; CD excessive ex-
pense of submission; ca failure to
settle anything because each rejected
measure is presented again at the next
election, and C5) danger of conflict
between popular-enacted and legisla-
ture-enacted measures. In Oregon,
where the percentage of petitioners to
invoke the initiative and referendum
is comparatively small, no proposition,
however far fetched, has been known
to have fallen because of lack of
signatures to the petition. In fact, it
is reported on fairly good authority
that an organization exists in Oregon,
with membership distributed through
the various counties, for the express
purpose of supplying petitions on de-
mand for a consideration, so that the
submission of any proposed measure
becomes one simply of finding some
one sufficiently interested to put up
the price.
The object of the initiative and re-
ferendum, as stated by Colonel Roose-
welt, is to provide way where the
legislature fails to act on a bill, for
which there is "a genuine popular de-
mand," to compel action, and SINH
larly on any bill important enough
to arouse genuine public interest" to
enable the people to insist upon the
bill being referred to popular vote
Proper Safeguards, therefore, would
confine the use of the initiative and
referendum to measures important
enough to be backed up by a genuine
popular demand, and yet the difficulty
is, and must be, to determine what
legislative proposals measure up to
this rule of Importance. This GER
tainly stops far short of the conten-
ton that the people should rule d.
rectly and make laws through the
initiative and referendum at any time
and on any subject without serious
effort or burdensome expenses that
II a majority of the people really de-
mand a law, they ought to have 1t al
once and if it fails to turn out to be
what was expected, they ought to be
able to repeal it without waiting fol
the aid or consent of any Legislative
body. Even the most earnest advo
Gates of the initiative and referendum
now see that unlimited and irrespon
sible law-making by direct vote would
defeat its own purpose and would only
bring on new evils of different kind
Incidentally, it should be noted tina
Colonel Roosevelt does not advocate
the initiative and referendum for al
states or as a cure-all for all socia
ills. He advocates them merely al
devices to give effect to the popular
will the assumption being that thu
existing form of representative gov
eminent does not meet requirements
IF in any given state, Vermont, foI
instance, or Massachusetts,, or New
Hampshire. or New Jersey or New
York" he says, the people are no
now ready to adopt either, or even i
they never become ready --, why tina
is their affair. and the genuinel.
progressive leader will no more ostra
else and read out of the company o
progressives a New England stat
which thinks it can achieve popula
| -, ont ,,-itbput the referendum