interested, setting forth the reasons for and against the proposition. Even with these provisions, a certain advantage necessarily remains with those who propose the measure: for the organization necessary to enable them to secure the requisite number of signers to their petitions makes it easier for them—under ordinary circumstances—than for their opponents to prepare a pamphlet, and to meet the cost of printing more than one hundred thousand copies of it to place in the hands of the secretary of state. It is quite conceivable that the negative side might sometimes go by default, and the voters be furnished only with arguments for the affirmative. But this, at least, has not been the case as regards the pending question. The perplexed Oregon voter, called upon by passionate appeals to enfranchise the women of the state, was given by his registration officer a pamphlet of five pages urging upon him the demands of the women who want the ballot, and with it a pamphlet fully as earnest, and more than three times as long, presenting the case of those women, professing to speak for the majority of their sex, who not only do not want the ballot, but entreat men not to thrust it upon them, on the ground that to do so "would not only be an injustice to women, but would lessen their influence for good, and would imperil the community." The pamphlet in the affirmative is presented by the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association, that in the negative by the Oregon State Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women. Such a contrast and comparison of opposing views is at least educational, even if bewildering.
One obvious defect of the initiative is the absence of all supervision, or "editing," of proposals. They may be crudely drawn, they may be mutually conflicting, but the measures proposed must be sent to the people in precisely the form in which they are filed. The proposals to be voted on in Oregon this month afford no less than three instances of such confusion. The Willamette Development League proposes a bill to tax the gross earnings of telephone, telegraph, and express companies. The Grange proposes a similar bill. But in the first bill the tax is fixed at two per cent upon telegraph and express companies, and at one per cent upon telephone companies; while the other bill places it at three and two per cent respectively. What if both bills are adopted? The Development League, again, proposes a bill for levying a tax upon sleeping, dining, palace, oil, and refrigerator cars; the Grange proposes an altogether different method of levying such a tax. There is a wild conflict of opinion among lawyers as to the consequences if both bills should be adopted; and it is an open question whether the companies would not be compelled to pay a double tax. A third instance of direct conflict is found in two constitutional amendments, one proposed by the People's Power League, which puts the state printing wholly in the hands of the legislature, and one filed by the typographical unions, which makes the office a constitutional one, forbids all letting out of contracts, and looks to the ownership of a printing plant by the state. Confusion worse confounded would follow the adoption of both proposals.
Oregon was not the first state to incorporate the initiative and referendum in its constitution. South Dakota led the way in 1898. The process in that state, however, does not apply to amendment of the constitution, but to the enactment of laws. Five per cent of the electors may, by petition, require the legislature to enact any measure which they may propose, and to submit it to a referendum. A like number of electors may require the legislature to submit to a referendum any measure which it may, at its own initiative, have enacted. The Montana initiative-referendum amendment, now pending, expressly excepts proposals for amendment of the constitution from the operation of the system. The Missouri initiative-referendum amendment,
