WHAT THE INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL WILL DO
What the Initiative, Referendum and Recall Will Do FROM MESSAGE OF GOV. FRANCIS E. McGOVERN OF WISCONSIN THE GREAT TASK of the time is how to make and keep the government really representative of...
...This is the initial problem which must be solved before real progress along any other line is possible...
...More than any other device thus far suggested it is admirably calculated to do away with corruption in public affairs, or at least to put a powerful check upon it...
...The initiative, the referendum and the recall have been proposed as effective means for accomplishing this result...
...They have engaged the thoughtful attention of the entire country, and in the recent campaign in this state received the endorsement of all political parties...
...The initiative is not designed to abolish representative government or even to limit its scope, but rather to perfect and improve it...
...Once this procedure has been authorized, few persons who seek through legislation to obtain a franchise, public contract, or any special privilege, will be willing to spend money in the purchp.se of votes or official influence, realizing as they will that as soon as the corrupt nature of the transaction becomes known, it may be vetoed by the people and so rendered nugatory...
...In the final analysis everything else of a political nature is either incidental or auxiliary to it...
...In my opinion no such limitation is defensible or practicable...
...They are closely related to each other, have a common object and embody really but one idea,— that of placing the people in actual control of public affairs...
...And so also of amendments to the constitution...
...In a certain sense it is an extension of the power of impeachment, with the people themselves as the tribunal...
...and there are still others so complex and intricate that neither the people nor the legislature can be reasonably expected to take time to comprehend or fully master, but which should be turned over to commissions composed largely of experts...
...As its name implies, it contemplates giving to the people the power to initiate, that is, to propose bills directly and without the intervention of the legislature, and to enact them into law, if they so desire...
...The people can be trusted to act prudently in governmental affairs in every case where they are in possession of information necessary to enable them to form intelligent judgments...
...Powerful forces are constantly at work to pervert it...
...There are some problems which the people themeslves, acting directly, should solve...
...The Recall THE recall will be more restricted in its operation...
...Unlike the initiative, the referendum is negative in its operation, acting only as a check or brake upon unwise or corrupt legislative action...
...The idea is rather that if many subjects be submitted to the people directly for their determination, they may not take time to study all of them sufficiently to vote wisely...
...FRANCIS E. McGOVERN OF WISCONSIN THE GREAT TASK of the time is how to make and keep the government really representative of the people...
...It should not be employed in reference to too many questions at one time...
...The initiative petition should, therefore, contain such percentage of the names of all electors as will limit it practically within the scope hereinbefore described and yet make it valuable as an alternative means of securing desired legislation in every case where the public welfare may so require...
...there are others more complex and less fundamentally important which the legislature, with its machinery of committees and opportunities for debate, may handle to better advantage...
...More drastic in its effects, and therefore less likely to be frequently employed, a higher percentage of the voters interested should be required to sustain a petition for the recall of a public officer than in the case of either the initiative or the referendum...
...The Referendum ASMALLER percentage should be required to sustain a petition for the submission of a law to a referendum vote of the people before going into effect...
...This is the view, to borrow an illustration from another field of closely related political thought, of those who advocate the short ballot...
...The mere fact of the existence of such a recourse in the case of recreant or dishonest public officials, and the possibility that it may be invoked at any time, cannot fail to react with tremendous force in inspiring a higher and more disinterested feeling of responsibility to the people on the part of all who occupy official station...
...The Initiative THE most important of these reforms is the initiative...
...But I do not approve the notion that the scope of the initiative should be so narrowed as to exclude any subject, however special or local it may be...
...But they should not be asked or expected to do work which ordinarily devolves upon the legislative branch of government...
...The beneficial effects of the initiative may be realized, I believe, by making it, as it is intended to be, a spur and corrective to sluggish or disloyal conduct on the part of public officials and public bodies...
...This power of original and affirmative action in legislation by the entire electorate of the state, is not likely to be exercised except in reference to matters of great public importance, and then only after the legislature has been shown to be unresponsive in giving effect to popular demand...
...It is, nevertheless, a most valuable and highly desirable expedient...
Vol. 3 • January 1911 • No. 4
