The weekly times-record., 1913-04-10
Lieutenant Governor Kraabel is out

taking the position he did with refer.
ence to the initiative and refer 'ndum.
lfe sets forth as one of the reasons
for voting as he did the following:
In justice to myself and to the sen.
ators who voted against II. B. No.
13S, l want to call attention to some
of its provisions. In the first place 1t
attempts to amend five sections of our
constitution. 1t has at least three dis
tinct propositions, which. in my opin.
ion, should have been submitted sep.
arately to the members of the legisla-
ture, as we'll as to the people, in order
that they might have the opportunity
to vote for or against either of said
provisions separately according to
their convictions. 1t provides for the
Initiative and referendum as to statu-
tory laws, it provides for the initiative
and referendum as to the constitution,
and it provides for the recall of all
public officers in the state. 1t states
that' not more than s per cent of the
legal voters of the state shall be re-
quired to sign petition to apply the
initiative to any measure, that not
more than per cent of the legal vot-
ers Of the state shall he required to
sign a petition to order the referen-
dun, and that not more than Is per
cent of the legal voters in at least
half Of the counties in the state shall
De required to sign petition to call
for vote on the constitution or on a
constitutional amendment. Notice
that in every case it says mot more;
it limits the maximum, but not the
minimum Under this provision 8 per
cent, per cent, or even 40 of / per
cent of the legal voters of the state
could by petition force vote on any
part of our laws, or initiate new laws,
or order the referendum: and, as to
the constitution, petition signed by
enc legal voter in each of half of the
eou1fies in the state could under this
provision force vote on any part of
our constitution.
OF course, the defenders of II. r. No.
1888 said that the legislature would by
law regulate the number of signers
Z ~ l. III
This amendment shall be self-execut.
ing, but legislation may be enacted
especially to facilitate its operation"
may be mistaken, but this does not
sound right to me.
This bill also extends the powers
of the initiative and referendum to the
electors of each municipality and dis.
trict "as to all local, special, and
municipal legislation Of every charac-
ter" and it is self-executing. Now
supposing that some municipality or
district would vote to grant license
for the selling of Intoxicating liquors,
.
SO? If this bill became part of our
constitution, do not see that the
prohibitory provision of our constitu-
non would be of much value.
am no lawyer, and I raay have
interpreted this bill entirely wrong,
but according to my Judgment the
people Of our state do not want this
kind Of initiative and referendum. I
am in favor of submitting to the
people of our state the question of
initiative and referendum. but we
want something that is properly
safeguarded, so that mere handful
can not by petition force a vote on
any part of our laws or constitu.
ton
S. B. No. 32, providing for the
4 initiative and referendum as to statu.
tory laws, and senate bill No. 73, pro
viding for the initiative and referen
dunn as to the constitution and con
stitutional amendments, passed both
4 houses and will come before the peo
pie for vote, as l understand, at the
next general election Both these
measures limit the minimum required
on. a petition and, in my opinion, are
as liberal as they should be, and they
5g both had the S1nnOrt of All nropras
lF sives in the senate and are the bills
+ wanted to see passed.
Il Several Of the papers have criti
zised the lieutenant governor severel,
for his act in voting against this
measure, principally because he was
Y. supposed to be an insurgent. It seem!
# TO us that it is deplorable condi
tion in lawmaking when man is ex
pected to vote against his homes
convictions because he is affiliated
N with a party. We were under the i'm
@ preston that the people wanted thi
law, and were disappointed that tn,
aiIl was killed but at the same tim,
must admit that we admire Mr.. Kraa
bel for having the backbone to take
an independent stand and vote ex
actly as his conscience dictated re
Sardless of the powers at work tina
we're able to vote more than half O
=,