Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1916-07-09
Where the People
May Have Hearing
How Ii Works

turned III, IL might not be out OF or
der to review the manner in which
the sovereign voter exercises his or
her sovereign rights in the matter of |
direct legislation
There are some voters who. with /
more or less emphasis, refuse to sign |
any petitions whatsoever. basng their /
refusal on the grounds that the sys- |
TEN is wrong, that we have already |
too many unenforced laws and others /
refuse to sign because they feel that |
they are unable to express an in |
telligent understanding of the pro-
| posed laws. There are others who /
sign every petition of whatever char
acter that is presented to them. Some
do this to escape the opportunities of
energetic solicitors others sign out
of an accommodating spirit, some are
| easy" and yet others salve their
consciences by saying: "Oh well, |
am only one out of many thousands
and It doesn't make any difference
| whether ! sign or not" | find that
that argument is not infrequently
used by an insistent solicitor upon
a hesitating sovereign"
There is a sadly small minority OF
signers who c0nscientiously tries to
sift out the good from the bad and
| endeaVors to measure the probable
effect that one law may have upon
the execution of other laws already
enacted. Though the problem re-
quires in its solution the competence
of a trained and experienced lawyer,
the sovereign voter having the Her
] chilean IL !,
| ly essays it. All honors to him or
| her in the very laudable attempt
But the great majority of the sign
ers never knows that, in an initia
tive measure, there is anything to be
solved or thought out.
ON one occasion a solicitor came
to my door and the following col
loquy took place:
Solicitor have here several in
itiative petitions which would like
to have you sign if you are a voter
Myself-"How many have you?"
Sol-"Nine"
Myself-"Its going to take long
time for me to read them all over
Sol cant wait, for you to read
them all"
NY sen nave YOU any tAlld cup
les that you could leave with me-"
Sol.-"Gee! If everyone were like
you, | wouldn't be able to make forty
cents in two weeks"
Myself-"Do YOU mean that vot-
ers sign these petitions without read
ing them over"
Sol-Surel Very few read them
Myself do they determine
what they are signing"
Sol.-"They don't except when they
ask me and | tell them"
Myself Have you read them over
carefully"
Sol.-"No, they told me at the Of
flee just about what the petitions
were for
Esteemed thus are the liberties 70
which our forefathers fought, BILE,
and died.
In another instance solicitor APP
preached a sovereign voter with
| bunch of petitions The sovereig
signed obedienrly until he came t
what the incautious solicitor state
was wet petition. At this tn
gorge of the voter rose and he re
fused. Since the solicitor was addin
to his emOluments to the extent {
ten cents for each name he succeed
ed in getting attached to the wet
petition. he hastily bethought himse
Of another scheme that he ha
worked before The wet petitio
was thereupon withdrawn only
make its appearance later under II
designation Of the Temperance" pc
hn
attached his name and the solicitC
was ten cents to the good.
And that's the way it works.
1t is safe to say that more tina
eighty per cent of the names a
tached to an initiative petition do,
not express any intelligent unde
standing of the proposed law.
many instances the legal phraseooe
employed in the petitions is uninte
ligibe to the average voter. Mar
times the proposed laws were su
pected of concealing tricks" al
"jokers" whose presence is not east
discoverable by the uninitiated.
two instances, proposed laws we
presented in the negative so that
was necessary to vote NO" in ord
to vote for them.
The great majority of the voters
too little interested, too careless al
too negligent of the duties of cit
Zenship to comply with the eXacti
requirements of the initiative. Eth
the voters will have to improve il
mensely in citizenship or the init
tive law will have to be relegated
the limbo of defunct idolatries"
L d O JOHNSON