Omaha daily bee., 1911-04-02
Initiative and Referendum.

AHA SUNDAY BEE; APRlL
Initiative and Referendum.
In another column The Bee prints
the full text of the initiative and ref
erendum measure submitted by the
present legislature to be voted on as
an amendment to the constitution Of
Nebraska at the general election Of
I1912 In view Of its far-reaching i'm
lportance we venture to comment here
upon a few of its various provisions
more by way of analysis than of criti-
cism:
The petition requirement OF 10 per
cent for statutes and 3 per cent for
constitutional amendments is a per-
centage of the legal voters Of the
state" so distributed as to include 5
per cent of the legal voters of each of
ltwo-ffths of the counties of the state
How many legal voters are there in
Nebraska? On the basis of the last
vote for governor the total is 237,1O9,
so that 10 per cent means 23,71O and
Is per cent means 1856. AS there
are ninety-two counties in Nebraska,
the petitioners must live in at least
forty different counties. AS twenty
five counties polled less than 1000
votes each and fifteen more counties
polled between 1000 and 1000 votes
/ noph al o
located will fill the requirements as
to distribution. 1t will devolve upon
the secretary of state, with whom petit
lions are to be filed, to determine
whether the requisite number of legal
voters are represented in the sigma
lures, and also whether these sigma
lures are distributed among enough
different counties
II.
The same measure, either in form
or essential substance, may not be
submitted, either afirmatively or neg
atively, oftener than once every three
years. Someone, presumably the sec
rotary of state, must determine
whether a measure is the same in
form or essential substance as one
previously voted on. In Oregon
woman suffrage has been submitted
with variations four times in success
sion, and prohibition and high license
have been submitted at one and the
same election. In Nebraska the sec
rotary of state will evidently be priv
ileged to refuse a petition on the
ground that the measure asked for is
similar to one already adopted or re-
iected.
The referendum is to suspend the
operation of any legislative act except
emergency acts which shall continue
in effect until rejected. Inasmuch as
our legislatures have been in the habit
of manufacturing emergencies to orr
der by merely affixing a declaration
that an emergency exists, and passing
the bill by three-fifths majority, 1t
will rest with the legislature to make
emergency acts out of all measures
that they wish to become effective,
despite referendum petitions, and
when such an act has once gone into
operation II will be just as easy ana
as speedy to initiate repeating act
as to take a referendum.
".
The initiative and referendum is
IN hn tn
member of the legislature Of the right
to introduce any measure" This
means that members OF the legisla-
ture remain free to propose bills
amending or repeating measures
adopted by initiative. In the Oregon
and Arizona constitutions the reserva-
ton is not for the right of a member
to introduce any bill, but for the right
of the legislature to enact any law
In Nebraska, if this constitutional
amendment is adopted, it will be pos
sible for the legislature at any time to
repeal any direct legislation law, and
, by declaring the repeating act an
emergency act suspend its operation
until a referendum shall have been
taken, and it is re-enacted by popular
vote.
".
''The veto power shall not be ex-
tended to measures initiated by or re-
: ferred to the people" This sentence
must be a remnant of an eliminated
section permitting the legislature,
itself, to order a referendum. The
, veto power of the governor continues
effective on all bills passed by the leg
islature, and if his veto Of a measure
is sustained there can be nothing on
which to take a referendum. If the
governors veto power were to be
g abrogated by a mere notice that ref
erendum would be instituted, then the
> governor would have no veto power
. whatever except on subjects like ap-
/, preparations excluded from refer