The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-10-05
WHAT INITIATIVE" LEADS TO

1t has often been said that Oregon
political fads. notions, and experiments
| in statecraft. The State is kept in an
| uproar all the time by projects for
| popular legislation, by referendum
votes, and by the submission of
enormously long and important qucs
tions to the popular vote when the poo
pie can have no Just conception Of
what it is that they are voting upon.
There is noisy faction of single
takers in Oregon who seem determined
to have the single tax adopted in that
State, or if they cannot have it
adopted for the State they want to
have the counties free to adopt that
form of taxation if they will If that
were done we would see in Oregon the
single tax in some counties, the usual
forms Of taxation in others, and in
others vet some new experimental idea
that some one could get sufficient
following TO impose on some taxing
entity OF the State.
on some thirty odd propositions by way
of initiative and referendum, besides
the long Presidential State and county
nominations. The Portland Oregonian
is protesting against all this imposition
upon the taxpayers of Oregon, but I'M
der the system of government in that
State there appears no way to prevent
noisy claque from forcing upon the
attention of the people almost any
kind of nonsepsical stuff and getting
vote upon it. The Sunday Orcgouiap
had. under the headline Making Sport
of the Initiative an editorial dealing
with one Of these proposed initiative
measures, treating the subject in the
following words:
An impressive example OF the mex
cusable abuse Of the initiative, IN the
proposal OF complicated and obscure
measures Of miscellaneous legislation Is
TO be found in the proposed act (No.
35S,359) said to he offered by the Med
ford Traffic Bureau. The caption OF the
bill, as 1t will appear in the ballot. is.
hill for nxns tho percentage that
freight rates less than carload Iot5 shall hes-
20 carloads and to establish minimum weights
and maximum frclRhtg and providing penalties
II is clear enough to the voter that
the measure has something TO do with
railroad freiGhts and weights in Oregon.
If he seeks information he will eucoun-
ter a stone wall in the text of the act.
Section one. for example. reads as fol-
lows:
Section /. The classification ratings Of freight
shall bear uniform relationship of class
10 another clasf mud the percentage Of tho GrHt
class shall be 100. and the other classes shall
be the following percentages OF tho hrat class:
Per Ccntss. 100 81 10 90 50 AZ 80 20 q go
The people Of Oregon are herein asked
| 10 resolve themselves into body Of cN-
pcrts and determine classilications OF
freights and their intricate relationships.
N is an impossible proposal. on its face
presumptuous and prepostcrous.
Are the proponents OF this measure
seeking to make the Oregon system and
the Oregon electorate ridiculous before
the world?
The Oregonian is clearly right in
showing that there is no possibility Of
the people of Oregon passing iutelli-
gently on such question as this. Rate
making is a ighly-developed science,
and in the fixing Of rate schedules
there must necessarily enter into the
problem many factors which the
average voter could by no possibility
pass intelligently upon. To insist upon
the submission Of matters like this TO
popular vote Is to make popular voting
ridiculous. and 10 disgust The public
with the whole faddist programme.