CHAPTER XVII COMPETITION WITH THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY "IN the most enlightened view and purpose, substitution of representative government by a pure democracy is not contemplated in adopting the principle of direct legislation. The principle is best defined as a supplementary power given to the people to use at times when the legislative branch of the government fails in what its authors actually intended it to be actually representative." "We shall not abandon the representative system of government, of course; we will only check and correct it, and bring it back to its true foundation principle, that representatives should truly, conscientiously and purely represent the masses of the people." 2 This is the theory, but in practice, as has been indicated,3 direct legislation has become more than a "supplementary" institution. Thus, it is asserted, the "negation of representative government" results. "It was not intended that representative government should be abolished by the new system; but it has been abolished by it." "The assumption that representative government is a failure is responsible for this state of things." But, as explained above, the "sins of the legislators," whether "sins of omission" or "sins of commission," whatever their extent, are not the only causes of the multiplicity of measures submitted to the people. 1 Oregonian, Jan. 3, 1913, p. 8, col. 2. 2 Oregon Journal, Mar. 12, 1905, p. 4, col. 1. 3 Above, pp. 78-82. Oregonian, Mar. 10, 1908, p. 8, col. 1. For the development of a "round-about representative government," see above, pp. 98–9. However, that this assumption is to a considerable extent justified, that the shortcomings of the legislature are the chief cause of activity in direct legislation, is often declared and widely believed. "Where a large number of measures appear on the ballot it is both a demonstration of the interest of the people in getting good government and of the inefficiency and incompetence of their representatives."1 "The point has been reached where legislatures are little trusted. Legislation has been juggled and trifled with until most people have lost faith in the delegated body. So many incompetents and nincompoops have been sent to Salem along with good men to make laws that when a good job of constructive legislation is wanted the measure is framed and put before the people. This accounts for most of the measures on the ballot." 2 "It is manifest that the public has largely lost confidence in the body. The action of past assemblies has been such that there is little public faith in the capacity and good purpose of the representative system. No less than this is shown in the almost universal protest that has gone up from every section of the state against the proposed special session. The situation largely explains why so many measures are proposed by the initiative. The public seems, after use of both plans, to have more faith in the initiative and in the judgment and capacity of the people than in the legislative body and the judgment of its delegated representatives. The view is so general and so marked that there are frequently heard expressions favoring ultimate abolishment of the legislature." "Why a legislature, anyhow, in a state where the people have the law-making power?" 4 1 W. S. U'Ren, reported in Oregonian, Dec. 8, 1912, p. 13, col. 1. Oregon Journal, May 11, 1912, p. 4, col. 1. 3 Ibid., Oct. 2, 1911, p. 8, col. 2. Oregon City Courier, quoted in Oregonian, Dec. 2, 1913, p. 10, col. 2. "We have nearly reached the conviction that the legislature is unnecessary. I would not be at all surprised if soon a bill would be initiated doing away with the legislature altogether. An amendment to the resolutions adopted [by the Central Labor Council] last night, was that we favor the abolishing of the legislature, but this amendment was overruled because of the feeling that such an expression was premature. But it The fact that measures appear on the ballot which have previously failed in the legislature is of course no condemnation of the legislature unless those measures are meritorious. Indeed, in some cases, the appeal from the legislature to the people has been caused by the refusal of the legislature to be influenced by pernicious special interests. Over half of the initiative measures which have appeared on the ballot may fairly be said to have been presented, in one form or another, first for action by the legislative assembly, and only after failure of enactment there to have been submitted to the people. But many of these measures have been reform measures, and, as shown by the large majority received at the election, measures demanded by public opinion. However, other measures which the assembly has refused to pass have also failed to receive the popular approval. "If inefficiency and irresponsiveness to public will on the part of the law-making body had been responsible for the large number of measures presented in the recent campaign, the fact would have been shown in the adoption of a large percentage of those measures. As the people declared they did not want two-thirds of them, how is the legislature at all to blame for not enacting them?" 1 Where the defeat of meritorious legislation by the legislative assembly cannot be urged as an excuse for placing a measure on the ballot, it has been declared that it is not even worth while to submit propositions of some kinds to the assembly. "Should the legislature undertake the passage of such a ["blue-sky"] law the legislators would be besieged by lobbyists who would seek to so alter the bill as to leave it valueless. It would come through the mill so emasculated as to be of no service to the people." 2 is coming." William McKenzie, union labor leader, quoted in Oregon Journal, Sept. 23, 1911, p. 1, col. 5. "In time the people may strip the legislature of every power it once enjoyed, leaving it but a place in memory, and themselves exercise directly within the state all of the powers formerly committed to the legislature." Kalich v. Knapp, Pacific Reporter (Oregon), vol. 145, pp. 22, 26 (1914) 1 Oregonian, Nov. 24, 1912, sec. 3, p. 6, col. 3. East Oregonian, reprinted in Eugene Guard, Oct. 25, 1912, p. 4, col. 3. M The large number of measures on the ballot is, especially under the conditions prevailing in the making of petitions, no certain evidence of desire on the part of the people as a whole to "supersede representative government." "While the submission of thirty-seven measures in one election may, on its face, seem to show a tendency toward democracy, the freedom with which the principle is applied cannot be ascribed to desire by the people to supersede representative government. Rather it is due to the ease with which laws may be initiated or referred. The fact that they are on the ballot is not proof that the people desired to pass on them, for the test of public opinion in this direction must rest wholly in the action taken at the polls." 1 And by their action at the polls the people have sustained the legislature in case of eight of the fourteen acts subjected to the referendum by petition, while only thirty-five of the ninety-five initiative measures have been approved at the elections. The quality of the representation in the legislative assembly can of course be improved by the election of better men by the voters. "Those who would abolish the legislature and let the people make the laws must remember the people named and chose the members of the legislature, and a stream cannot rise above its head. The people are ruling." 2 "The legislature is what the people make it. They have the ballot. They have the votes. They do the electing. They get what they vote for. The people themselves must shoulder the responsibility for legislative follies. The legislature is of their own making, and when they howl at the legislature, they are only howling at themselves." 3 Competition with the legislative assembly has been charged as due not only to the quality of the membership of the assembly, but also to its present form of organization and to the legislative processes now prevailing. Some proposed radical changes in 1 Oregonian, Jan. 3, 1913, p. 8, col. 2. 2 Ibid., Feb. 25, 1913, p. 8, col. 4. the organization of the assembly by way of proportional representation and the abolition of the senate would, it is urged, "make the legislature as progressive as the people of the state," and thus greatly reduce the necessity of resort to direct legislation. The division of the legislative session into two periods, one exclusively for the purpose of the introduction of measures, and the other for the enactment of measures into law (and for both the introduction and enactment of measures appearing during the session to be demanded by public opinion), would, it is believed, by allowing public criticism of the legislative program during the recess, make the legislature more responsive to public opinion, and thus tend to reduce the amount of direct legislation. But there is probably much more agreement as to the necessity of rational reforms for efficiency, for the absence of which the legislative assembly is itself wholly responsible." Of course under the present system the governor shares the responsibility for proper legislation with the assembly, and thus comes in for some criticism in connection with discussion of responsibility for the extensive use of direct legislation." 1 People's Power League, Referendum Pamphlet, 1912, pp. 220, 222. "Whereas, It is the desire of the twenty-seventh assembly of the state of Oregon to be responsive to the will of the people in the enactment of meritorious legislation demanded by them, thereby to prevent crowding of the ballot in the future with initiative measures, now, therefore, Be it resolved, the senate concurring, That the twenty-seventh legislative assembly of the state of Oregon, now in session, fully realizing our duty and responsibility to the people, do declare, that we are ready, able and willing to enact any meritorious legislation that may be brought to us from the people, to the end that such matters may be disposed of with due care and dispatch, and to the further end that the ballot at the next ensuing general election in the state of Oregon shall not be crowded with more measures with or without uncertain meanings and design - than the people of the state of Oregon can properly and carefully consider and vote upon. "That the people are therefore requested to present all measures to said legislative assembly at as early a date as possible so that the same may be given due consideration." House Joint Memorial, 1913, no. 1, passed by the house of representatives, but not by the senate. House Journal, 1913, pp. 153-4. * See especially Oregon Journal, Jan. 10, 1913, p. 8, col. 1. E.g., Oregonian, Oct. 29, 1912, p. 10, col. 2. |