Show initiative A now system of lawmaking law making pro apsa by labor organizations all tile iho non eions of the northwest north west are uniting in an effort to introduce and establish a system called the initiative and Refe referendum it proposes iea to give tho the people a better show in the makin making of laws than they ba have had bad heretofore the following circular issued in oregon however explains the object in full the initiative means any citizen m may ay write a proposed law and if a number of voters to be fixed by bv the co constitution shall petition in its favor tho the secretary of the state stale must submit it to a vote of the citizens it at the next election the legislature lias has no power ov over er the initiative method of making laws the law lav is prepared by the people filed with the secretary of state and by him sent direct to the people at the ballot box the referendum mean that the legislature must refer nil all bills to the voters at the ballot box and before any any net act can become a law it must receive a majority of the votes cast all proposed prop oed laws are puLli published shed by the state city county or district according as to whether it is astete city county or district measure with each law is printed a short statement of the reason for or its enactment this is tho the swiss method where in some states it has ha been in in successful operation opera tion for GOO years zurich state with a population of and zurich city with inhabitants for forty years nave permitted no law tax levy or oi appropriation of public money to lie be made without a majority vote 0 of t the e c citizens ti and they have no be beggars bega ga paupers haupers nor homemade home made mado crilio millionaires tito tho swiss laws are by no means perfect yet tile the combined wisdom of all the swiss people expressed abrou through L ii the initiative and referendum has been sufficient to create an educational system so good that one of our ministers to that country said it seemed that the principal business af the nation was teaching school every can read and write besides this they have the best postal system in the world and their wa waon wagon r on roads are universally admitted to be the best known while their financial laws are crude they are arc so much better than our own that this generation of swiss have not known suell such it a monetary stringency 0 as our people are now passing through their military system is such that they can drilled armed and equip equipped jed men in the field in one week their soldiers co cor I 1 them 7 per year for each man while the cost per man of Or egons militia is over 40 a year the railroads are controlled by the government to an extent that is only short of ownership the gov arment decides the location of a proposed line the time in which it must be built the maximum rates for freight and passengers and the number of trains to be run the construction repairs time tables ra rates tes and a agreements are under the control of the postoffice post office department and the government reserves the right to purchase at any time it may see fit discriminations are thus prevented 11 wealth balth cannot buy law words fresh from the people through the ballot box is the hia highest liest law and cannot be overruled by any supreme court or other power criminal borrup corrupt t and worse than worthless wor legislate leg legislatures islat ures like our last in oregon sp spending edg for clerk hire besides other s teals steals too numerous to mention are an impossibility under the initiative and law making elking is merely a business proposition of kuplic welfare firt r e dem demagogues ao rl r olles wire bullers pullers lers ward heelers and pot house politicians lose their power any man advocat advocating in a worthy law ca can n bring it to a vote within a year while bad laws lairs are arc as emily easily repeated repealed by constant study of lawmaking law making tile the people are arc ready for wise actions at all times in nearly all the states of our union the referendum is used for making a find and amending constitutions proposals to issue bonds for state county city town and district debts are arc almost universally referred to a direct vote of the people interested if the people are wise enough to make their constitutions they are arc certainly competent to make the bylaws by laws the referendum was used in oregon on oil the proposition to increase tile tho salaries of state officers the people voting it down by an overwhelming wh majority yet the next violated the constitution by increasing the thel salaries indirectly if the appropriation bill had to bo be submitted also such a steal would be impossible it is the same system under tinder which the famous new england town own meetings do nil all their business voting sometimes by ballot and it at others by showing V of hands tho the I 1 international liter national cigar makers iron moulder bakers brewers carpen 1 and joiners carriage and wagon 0 makers garment workers cers granite cutters tailors and T typographical apo union embracing iu in all 1810 local organizations and upward of membris dembei mem beis s together with tho the knights of labor with a membership nearly as large make all laws fot for the government of their respectful bodies by the initiative and referendum and have dono done so for many years past our state laws jans are often really made by the representatives of a final minority of the people A political poli lical party through go gerry rr v manderen man dered districts and by a plurality vote for its candidates dates W which I 1 lie 1 11 is often less than two fifths 01 of all the votes cast caa elects a majority of the legislature perhaps forty representatives presenta tives and twenty senators and also the governor and supreme JU judge d r ge tho the next dext thin thing 0 is is a caucus 0 of f all the legislators cl elected I 1 eted by the victorious party at which a majority decided on a policy so that the laws and appropriations may or inay may not bo be made are settled on by not more than one third of a law joakim body in which three fifths of the voters are not represented at all and nearly one half of those whose candidates were elected see cc their representatives compe ailed to vote yea or nay at the dictation of tho the caucus anil and party boss antho in the end it will be seen that barely one fifth of the le legislators aro are the real law making by the initiative and re referendum ferend UM this is cham changed ed no law is ig made unless a cle clear ar majority of all the votes cast at ai the ballot box are arc in its favor therefore all laws made will be enforced because they will le be supported by public sentiment 4 money is used now to buy or defeat the passage ot of law but one of the worst evils is the trading e of vo votes tes and influence in the le legislature is you vote for my bill and ill vote for y yours ours without this no member can get his bill passed or considered and if he r goes home without passing his bill his people call him a blockhead block head and he is no not t reelected elected re this result is the enactment of many useless or b bad ad 1 laws aws and private jobs bobs giving us ten laws where one is is needed law is made to serve special or private interests the work is usually secret and except those who fix it for their own advantage no one knows just what is done at the tha close of the last le legislature 0 three tae cobers from multnomah omah nomah county inquired ed of ofa prominent trades unionist if the amended city charter for portland had pa parsed sed both houses these evils are wholly abolished where the people vote the law secret fixing is no do longer possible and the caucus cannot control the voters at tile the polls our lawmaking law making bodies are composed of the representatives of the and monopolistic classes W with ith a few farmers sometimes a mechanic but never a day laborer i yet the laborers are nearly half of our voters find the farmers and mechanics at least one third it follows that our laws are made by the representatives of a class which is less than one sixth of our voting population pop if lation history proves that any class having baying the power to make the law always legislates 0 in its 0 own wn interest A glance at our well fed well houst housed d and clothed professional and classes on one side add our rag ragged ed farmers and mechanics and tramping 0 t starving laborers on the oth other er d demonstrates emon strates the truth of this statement when mien the people vote the law they will make it in the interest of all the people As the wisdom of the whole body is always an greater than the wisdom of any part it follows that all the people must ic legislate more wisely than is possible ble for a few our present system a anew new law whether good or bad may be defeated by the power of one 10 0 lotical boss bos or one speaker of the house of representatives or of one president of the senate or of one chairman of an important committee or of one governor or finalle of one ne supreme judge if only one vote is is needed to declare the law unconstitutional ati tutie nal under the present system it is all the r work ork of years and often generations to get a new law made or a bad la law 1 repealed it being necessary to e elect and have in office all the h legislature i slature a in governor and a majority of the supreme court this is especially the case where any great corpora tiona wealthy individuals divi duals or political bosses fear they would bo be hurt by tho the chan change e even though ninety nine voters out of every one hundred would be benefited by the initiative and referendum any such proposals either for the en enactment cament of a new law or the repeal of an old one or twenty of them at one time can be b bi ought before the people at the polls poll voted on arid and decided on in one or at hobt two years at an expense which will not exceed the cost of the clerk hire of our last legislature over arid and above the ordinary election expenses where there is necessity for immediate action as aa we supposed to be the case on the sherman law last summer it could be submitted to the people and voted on oil in less time than it took the president to make up his mind to call an extra session of congress at less cost than the extra session nor would it 1 bo a decided by giving tha or victory to that body of voters which could live the longest without sleep such shame as that is reserved for tho the so called higher classes under the initiative and referendum offensive partisanship is reduced to almost nothing because the people decide on the laws as they do on any other business or moral 1110 ral proposition J jt t is really a government by the people for all the people instead of government by a party for the party it makes tile the officials our real reaf agents and servants instead of our masters and owners it is objected to the system that the people are arc too ignorant to form an intelligent pinion on the law but the man who makes this ob ejection action never thinks of himself in that way and generally objects to have a man vote at any election unless lie he pays taxes taxed on at least 1000 and read and write and explain the constitution this idea ide i that hat the people do not or cannot know enow what they want or need deed and yet et wise enough to choose representatives who know better than the people what is for the peoples good and will do the best they know is the modern form of the ancient belief in the divine right of kings and nables ta wake make laws for all the people or for 5 or their children as they called us it is objected that our state is too large being six times limes larger than all Swiss land slad even though oregon lias has little more than one tenth the population but the telegraph telephone and locomotive make tire tho ore oreon oregon i 1 on of today to day really smaller than t ahe 1 ie multnomah nomah county of forty years ago 0 times have changed and much territory no more makes a great 0 state than much flesh makes a great man do farmers of eastern 1 astern oregon believe themselves wise enough to vote on a bill for a portage 0 railway at atThe the dalles does any tax taxpayer paver believe himself too ignorant to vote on a mortgage gar e tax law are the farmers and other workers of the state competent to vote on a maximum rate law for the tha railroads and would the railroad men be willin willing to accept the decision of the people on in an employer s liability ability law and would not such a decision on a salmon law be satisfactory factory to the fisherman lion ilor long would the sheriff of county be worth 25 95 0 a year if tho the peo people ale of t tho o county were given in an opportunity to abolish the fees and fix a salary how much tax money would be saved if the legislature 42 was compelled to submit general and special appropriation bills to a vote of the people head the following M fron from a prominent independent journal if it is right tile the saving would a amount i to W 10 for every voter in in tile the state by the time they the people pay the 2705 appropriated by tho the last legislature possibly possie ay tiley they will be able to appreciate the necessity 1 of taking 0 out of the power of their servants the possibility of doilia 0 harm the th 0 people should adopt the referendum arid and thus bo be able to protect themselves with it the they could protect the constitution con titu and make it impossible for corporations and bood lers to obtain anju unjust A measures by which to profit proc it at atthe the expense of the people if the people had the veto power they have delegated b to tho the governor they would cut off over tSOU of the last appropriation bill if they had bad the eniti initiative active they would soon eon n cut off the state printing office to at least fifty per cent of tile the 1192 11 92 apprel appropriated rioted by the last legislature but tho the people will yet learn that no servant be he democrat republican or populist will prove invulnerable to corruption when given uch such opportunities as now noir exist in this state when the people take away the opportunity to do wrong the servant will be li honest onest no party that fails to adopt tho initiative and referendum is worthy the support of the taxpayers 1 l what would be the saving if county courts could make no appropriation of public funds unless the same was fixed by bv law made at the ballot box no county bounty judge jude could pay cash and run his county counter in debt more folca for a jail site without even advertising for as wass was done in multnomah nomah county count and this in it spite of the constitution prohibit ling in any debt in excess of shrewd and unscrupulous schemers cougil not hypnotize weak county courts into wasting thousands thousand of dollars of the peoples money on present ownership book and accept accepting in the job when half done to the very great advantage of the schemers what would be the saving if city councils could not give or grant away valuable street or other oilier franchises or buy ar sell water or light plants without first getting tae the approval of the people of their city at the ballot box the referendum will prevent the passage of any law or appropriation that does not meet the approval of a majority of the people affected by it the initiative and referendum provides a safe cheap reliable method of learning 0 the will of t the be majority on any question nt at P any ny time and under which westall we shall have no law that is not the will of the majority majori ty expressly stipulated at the ballot box if you believe this to be better than the present representative system of making laws then we hope you will do all in in your power from this time forward to cause it to be demanded by resolution |