_President of the People’s Sovereignty League and Editor of the
Referendum News._
Underneath the existing political and legislative evils in this country
there is found a common cause—the rule of the few through machine
politics. The powers of sovereignty are exercised by the few. Proof of
this is the fact that the evils complained of are banished, or are in
process of disappearing, wherever the people have established their
sovereignty—have established the right to a direct vote on public
questions. This system is the initiative and referendum. It is exercised
in combination with representatives, and the system as a whole is termed
Guarded Representative Government—the people’s sovereignty is guarded.
This improved system of representative government is an evolutionary
product, and being such it will gradually extend throughout the world. A
practical question is: How best can its spread be promoted? To arrive at
an answer, one must study the methods whereby the improved systems came
into being.
We find that the forerunners were third parties and non-partisan
organizations. The first declaration by a political party in this country
was the Socialist Labor Party in 1889. Next came a declaration by the
Knights of Labor in 1891. The same year there appeared “The Referendum in
America,” by Ellis Paxton Oberholtzer, Ph.D. The next year J. W. Sullivan
published his book, “Direct Legislation.” During the year the National
Direct Legislation League was organized. There was also published,
during 1892, “Direct Legislation by the People,” by Nathan Cree of
Chicago.
On July 4th of the same year, 1892, the newly organized People’s Party
commended “to the favorable consideration of the people and the reform
press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.”
And state conventions of the People’s Party and the allied parties also
paid considerable attention to the initiative and referendum. During the
Autumn the American Federation of Labor gave its emphatic endorsement
to the initiative and referendum by commending “to affiliated bodies
the careful consideration of this principle and the inauguration of an
agitation for its incorporation into the laws of the respective states.”
The same year the National Grange adopted a resolution recommending to
the state and subordinate granges the Swiss legislation method known as
the referendum and the initiative.
The following year the People’s Party, wherever it was in power,
endeavored to submit to the people a constitutional amendment for the
initiative and referendum, but as a two-thirds vote was required there
was a temporary failure.
In 1896 the People’s Party at its national convention came out strongly
for the initiative and referendum, as also did the National Party
convention, composed of 299 delegates who seceded from the Prohibition
convention. The Socialist Labor Party also reaffirmed its people’s
sovereignty plank of 1892.
The first legislation in this country for the initiative and referendum
was by the People’s Party in Nebraska, 1897. The voters in municipalities
were empowered to petition for the adoption of the initiative and
referendum system for local affairs, and the system was to be adopted
if approved by a majority of those who should vote upon the question.
Hon. John W. Yeiser was chiefly instrumental in securing the law, and he
endeavored to secure its adoption in Omaha, but without success.
The same year, 1897, the People’s Party representatives in the South
Dakota Legislature combined with the Silver Republicans and Democrats to
submit a constitutional amendment for the initiative and referendum. Most
of the Republicans in the Legislature fell in line and voted with the
promoters of the reform. At the next election, 1898, the voters adopted
the system. Afterward the Republican party, which then had a majority
in each house, enacted the statute to put it in operation. Since then
two sessions of the Legislature have been held and the effects of the
referendum (the people’s veto) have been splendid. The following words
are credited to the Republican Governor, Hon. Charles Herried, by a
member of the Toronto Parliament:
“Since this referendum law has been a part of our constitution we
have had no chartermongers or railway speculators, no wildcat schemes
submitted to our Legislature. Formerly our time was occupied by
speculative schemes of one kind or another, but since the referendum has
been a part of the constitution these people do not press their schemes
on the Legislature, and hence there is no necessity for having recourse
to the referendum.”
The initiative in South Dakota was crippled by inserting a “joker”! The
system provides that five per cent. of the voters may propose bills to
the Legislature, “which measures the Legislature shall _enact_ and submit
to a vote of the electors of the state.”
The year (1898) that the voters of South Dakota balloted upon the
question of adopting the improved system of representative government,
the People’s Party, Silver Republicans and Democrats in Utah submitted
to the voters of the state the question of adopting a constitutional
amendment for the referendum and initiative. At the next election the
voters adopted the system; but the Republican party gained control of the
Legislature and refused to enact a statute for putting the constitutional
amendment into operation. Two years later the same thing occurred.
The same year that the Fusionist Legislature in Utah submitted the
amendment a similar thing was done by a Republican legislature in
Oregon. A proposal for an amendment in Oregon has to pass two successive
legislatures; therefore the question was a live issue in the next
campaign—1900. The People’s Party, the Democratic and the Republican
state platforms each pledged that, should the party be placed in power in
the Legislature, it would permit the voters to ballot upon the question.
The Republican party secured a majority in the Legislature and submitted
the question. In the next campaign, 1902, the question was again a live
issue, for it was to be balloted upon by the voters; and again all the
parties declared for the improved system and advised the voters of the
state to adopt it, as also did the Granges and Organized Labor, likewise
both the United States senators and the Republican governor, and nearly
all the prominent men in political life in Oregon, together with most of
the newspapers in the state. All advised the adoption of the system, and
the vote of the people was 11 to 1 for the system.
Governor Geer’s advice to the voter was: “If the referendum amendment is
adopted by the people and made use of after adoption, it will be helpful
all around as a restraining influence over careless legislatures. Even
if not often brought into requisition, the fact that it is a part of the
state Constitution, ready to be used as a check against ill-advised
legislation at any time, will justify its adoption. It may not be needed
now any more than it was 100 years ago, but there have often been times
in the past when even ‘Our Fathers’ could have been wisely checked by
this wholesome reservation of the rights of the people.”
In Nevada, at the legislative session of 1901, the Fusionist party had
a majority in the Legislature and voted to submit to the people the
question of adopting the referendum. The next Legislature gave its
consent and submitted a constitutional amendment for the initiative.
At the following election the voters adopted the referendum, but the
Legislature elected was Republican and it refused to consent to the
submission of the constitutional amendment for the initiative.
The same year in Illinois, 1901, a Republican Legislature and governor
established the advisory initiative in municipalities and in state
affairs. Through this system the voters in Chicago have voted three times
for municipal ownership of street railways and the instructions are being
obeyed.
The Republican senators from Illinois, Cullom and Hopkins, are both on
record as favoring the initiative and referendum.
Since 1901 the progress of the initiative and referendum has been through
the systematic questioning of candidates by non-partisan organizations.
The start in this direction came from the successful experiences of
Winnetka, Illinois. These experiences began in 1896 and continued from
year to year with unvarying success.