Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-01-19 | Page 8 | Caucus Agrees on Initiative Bill

CAUCUS AGREES 0 INITIATIVE BILL Draft Will Provide for 10 Per Cent of Voters to Refer Any Law. The Democratic -Progressive caucus of tlie upper house of tlie legislature wiped the slate clean of proposed ad mi nisi ration ra-tion measures at two sessions jesterday a n d t oo i a re cs s in so f a r as caucus proceedings are concerned until next Monday. The la:-1 t o be "1 i s posted of s the initiative and referendum, and in disposing dispos-ing of it the caucus turned the ma t tor over to a committee composed com-posed of Senators Gcorue IT. Dern. Joseph Chez and Renresenta ti e Thomas. P. Page. The principal features of the proposed measure were agreed upon In caucus, and all that is left for the comnuttee to do is to include such provisions in the draft. According to the caucus agreement the bill will provide for initiating or referring any law to the people upon the presentation presenta-tion of a petition hearing tiie signatures of 1M per cent of the voters in tlie state and 10 per cent of the voters in a majority ma-jority of the counties. Initiative and referendum also is to be authorized in cities and towns. In towns or cities of more than TVnn population tlie petition must carry the signatures of Hi per cent of t he voters, and in towns of smaller population the percentage runs as high as 30 per cent. In fixing the percentage so high it was declared lhat tlie purpose was to make reasonably sure that there was a demand for the legislation proposed- The evil i of Instituting leg isla tion which may not bo in popular demand is to be eliminated through the method of obtaining signatures signa-tures to petitions. The bill is to provide 1 that signatures may be taken by officers such as notary public and justice of the peace or county clerk, the idea being the elimination of the circulation of petitions indiscriminately, A committee, composed' of Senators Joseph Chez, l-l. T. Reynolds and Wesley K. Walton, lias been designated by the caucus to go over the governor's message to the legislature, subdivide the va rious recommendations made by tiie governor and assign them to committees or members mem-bers for appropriate legislative action.