Page:Address of Frederick V. Holman at Oregon Bar Association annual meeting.djvu/25

 Supreme Court shall make some decision on this question, this question is unsettled. The Supreme Court, of course, may decide that no more than eight per cent, and not more than fifteen per cent means not less than eight per cent, and not less than fifteen per cent, respectively, or it may hold that any number less than such percentage would be sufficient under an initiative petition. But as the Supreme Court has held, in the cases I have cited, that Section 1a of Article IV is not self-executing, it would seem that the logical result would be that no initiative petition could be filed until there be some law of the State or some ordinance adopted by a city, or by amendment of its charter, providing the percentage of voters necessary to sign an initiative petition under said Section 1a, and that the provision, in said Section 1a, that not more than fifteen per cent of the legal voters may be required to propose any measure, by the initiative, in any city or town, is not a determination of the number of the legal voters necessary to sign such an initiative petition, but is a limitation on the number or percentage of voters which shall be required by any general law of the State or by an ordinance of a city or town on the subject, i. e., that such a law or ordinance shall not require "more than fifteen per cent" (of the legal voters) "to propose any measure, by the initiative, in any city or town."

In this connection, attention is called to the decision in the case of Long v. City of Portland, supra, in which Mr. Justice Eakin, on page 96, said:

Section 1a of Article IV of the Constitution is not self-executing, for the reason that it makes no provision as to its enforcement. It only declares or reserves the right, without laying down rules, by which this right may be given the force of law. (Citing cases.) It contains no provisions as to the time and place of filing the petition, nor the time when, or the manner in which, the law voted upon shall take effect.

What is known as the McNary Ordinance, adopted by the Council of Portland, has made provision for the filing of initiative and referendum petitions in the City of Portland. Section 9 of this ordinance provides that an initiative petition, as well as a referendum petition

Shall be signed by a number of legal voters equal to fifteen per cent of the votes cast at the last preceding election.