The manner of exercising said powers shall be prescribed by general laws, except that Boards of County Commissioners may provide for the time of exercising the initiative and referendum powers as to local legislation in their respective counties and districts.

The requisite number of petitioners for the invocation of the initiative and referendum in counties and districts shall bear twice, or double, the ratio to the whole number of legal voters in such county or district, as herein provided therefor in the State at large.

Sec. 6. Any measure rejected by the people, through the powers of the initiative and referendum, cannot be again proposed by the initiative within three years thereafter by less than twenty-five per centum of the legal voters.

Sec. 7. The reservation of the powers of the initiative and referendum in this article shall not deprive the Legislature of the right to repeal any law, propose or pass any measure, which may be consistent with the Constitution of the State and the Constitution of the United States.

Sec. 8. Laws shall be provided to prevent corruption in making, procuring, and submitting initiative and referendum petitions.

167. Educating the Voters in Oregon

These extracts from the law of Oregon show how that state seeks to enlighten the voters on measures submitted to them under the system of initiative and referendum.

of the ballot

title.

Section 5. When any measure shall be filed with the Secretary Preparation of State to be referred to the people of the State, or of any county or district composed of one or more counties, either by the legislative assembly or by the referendum petition, and when any measure shall be proposed by initiative petition, the Secretary of State shall forthwith transmit to the Attorney-General of the State a copy thereof, and within ten days thereafter the Attorney-General shall provide and return to the Secretary of State a ballot title for said measure. The ballot title may be distinct from the legislative

The preparation of arguments.

title of the measure, and shall express, in not exceeding one hundred words, the purpose of the measure. The ballot title shall be printed with the numbers of the measure, on the official ballot. In making such ballot title the Attorney-General shall, to the best of his ability, give a true and impartial statement of the purpose of the measure, and in such language that the ballot title shall not be intentionally an argument, or likely to create prejudice, either for or against the measure. . . .

Section 8. Not later than the first Monday of the third month next before any regular general election, nor later than thirty days before any special election, at which any proposed law, part of an act, or amendment to the Constitution is to be submitted to the people, the Secretary of State shall cause to be printed in pamphlet form a true copy of the title and text of each measure to be submitted, with the number and form in which the ballot title thereof will be printed on the official ballot. The person, committee, or duly authorized officers of any organization filing any petition for the initiative, but no other person or organization, shall have the right to file with the Secretary of State for printing and distribution any argument advocating such measure; said argument shall be filed not later than the first Monday of the fourth month before the regular election at which the measure is to be voted upon. Any person, committee, or organization may file with the Secretary of State, for printing and distribution, any arguments they may desire, opposing any measure, not later than the fourth Monday of the fourth month immediately preceding such election.

Arguments advocating or opposing any measures referred to the people by the legislative assembly, or by referendum petition, at a regular general election, shall be governed by the same rules as to time, but may be filed with the Secretary of State by any person, committee, or organization; in the case of measures submitted at a special election, all arguments in support of such measure at least sixty days before such election. But in every case the person or persons offering such arguments for printing and distribution

shall pay to the Secretary of State sufficient money to pay all the expenses for paper and printing to supply one copy with every copy of the measure to be printed by the State; and he shall forthwith notify the persons offering the same of the amount of money necessary.

The Secretary of State shall cause one copy of each of said arguments to be bound in the pamphlet copy of the measures to be submitted as herein provided, and all such measures and arguments to be submitted at one election shall be bound together in a single pamphlet. All the printing shall be done by the State, and the pages of said pamphlet shall be numbered consecutively from one to the end. . . . The title page of every measure bound in said pamphlet shall show its ballot title and ballot numbers. The title page of each argument shall show the measure or measures it favors or opposes and by what persons or organization it is issued. When such arguments are printed, he shall pay the State Printer therefor from the money deposited with him and refund the surplus, if any, to the parties who paid it to him. The cost of printing, binding, and distributing the measures proposed, and of binding and distributing the arguments, shall be paid by the State as a part of the state printing, it being intended that only the cost of paper and printing the arguments shall be paid by the parties presenting the same, and they shall not be charged any higher rate for such work than is paid by the State for similar work and paper.

Not later than the fifty-fifth day before the regular general election Distribution of pamphlets at which such measures are to be voted upon, the Secretary of State shall transmit by mail, with postage fully prepaid, to every voter in the State whose address he may have, one copy of such pamphlet; provided, that if the Secretary shall, at or about the same time, be mailing any other pamphlet to every voter, he may, if practicable, bind the matter herein provided for in the first part of said pamphlet, numbering the pages of the entire pamphlet consecutively from one to the end, or he may enclose the pamphlets under one cover. In the case of a special election he shall mail said pamphlet to every voter not less than twenty days before said election.

168. A Public Opinion Bill

A modified form of initiative and referendum is provided by a measure which has long been advocated by many ardent reformers in Massachusetts:

SECTION 1. On a request signed by one thousand voters, asking for the submission of any question for an expression of opinion and stating the substance thereof, the secretary of the Commonwealth shall transmit such request to the State ballot law commission, who shall determine if such question is one of public policy, and if they so determine, shall draft it in such simple, unequivocal, and adequate form as they may deem best suited to secure a fair expression of opinion. Thereupon the secretary shall prepare and furnish suitable forms, each to contain spaces for not more than one hundred signatures, and if such forms shall be signed by five thousand voters, he shall upon the fulfilment of the requirements of this act place such question on the official ballot to be used at the next State election. Forms shall bear the date on which they are issued, and no applications made on forms issued more than twelve months before the election concerned shall be received.

SEC. 2. Signers of request for the issuance of forms and signers of applications shall append to their signatures their residence, with street and number, if any, and shall be certified as registered voters by the proper registrars of voters. One of the signers to each paper shall make oath of the genuineness of the signatures thereto, and a notary public, justice of the peace, or other magistrate, when taking such oath, shall satisfy himself that the person to whom the oath is administered is the person signing such paper, and shall so state in his attestation of such oath. All provisions of law relating to nomination papers shall apply to such requests and applications as far as may be consistent.

SEC. 3. Applications shall be filed with the secretary sixty days before the election at which the questions are to be submitted. Not more than four questions under this act shall be placed upon the ballot at one election, and they shall be submitted in the order

in which the applications are filed. No question negatived, and no question substantially the same, shall be submitted again in less than three years.

169. Arguments for the Initiative and Referendum*

These passages from a catechism prepared by several distinguished advocates of the initiative and referendum sum up the leading arguments in favor of the system:

Q. What is meant by the Referendum?

of the referendum.

A. The Referendum means the referring of a law or ordinance Definition or any specific question to the people for decision at the polls. A vote on a law or ordinance may be taken, not for the purpose of decision, but merely to secure an accurate and definite expression of public opinion. This is a quasi-Referendum or public-opinion vote, such as is in use in Illinois; also in some cities, such as Chicago and Detroit. The Referendum also means the right of the people to demand the submission of an enactment or measure to the voters for decision; and it is also used to designate a statute or constitutional amendment securing this right.

Q. Is the Referendum un-American?

dum is not un-American

A. The Referendum is not un-American unless the principle of The referenmajority-rule or rule by the people is un-American. It is majorityrule that is important, and whatever means prove necessary to secure it must be adopted. So far from being un-American, the Referendum is most emphatically American both in principle and practice. From the earliest days of our colonial government in New England the people not only voted directly on specific measures but practically all the laws were made by direct vote of the citizens. This practice has continued in unbroken succession so far as local or town government is concerned, but city and state government has lost its original character. As the growth of numbers made it necessary to rely more and more on representatives, the direct vote of the people was lost, because no one thought of any way in which it could be retained. But now that we have a