Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/744

 728 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

questioned jurists and lawyers of ripe experience, and there is no exception to the opinion that the great mass of laws are designed for, and in the main subserve, a good purpose. There are not a few unnecessary laws, but for the most part they are harmless. A law that meets public condemnation is soon repealed. " Freak legislation " is really the rare exception, and it is usually the result of class or factional clamor, at the mercy of which, under the initiative, it is proposed to place the supreme power of legislation.

This propagandism began in this country about a dozen years ago, and the propagandists claim to have made considerable head- way, pointing to the fact that constitutional amendments grant- ing the initiative have been voted in four states; namely, Utah, Missouri, South Dakota, and Oregon; and that the obligatory referendum requiring certain kinds of laws, usually relating to franchises, passed by the legislatures to be held in abeyance for a certain time before becoming operative, during which time, upon the petition of a small percentage of the voters, they must be sub- mitted to the popular vote, has been adopted by Denver, Omaha, Los Angeles, and a number of other western cities. Their suc- cess appears to lie almost wholly with the referendum. Wherever the initiative has been imbedded in state constitutions, it has been in the way of permitting it to be employed locally, or on questions of franchises. Its adoption to this extent in South Dakota was in 1898; in Utah, in 1900; in Oregon, in 1902; in Missouri, in 1904.

It has been claimed that in the first three states named it has prevented bribery and bad legislation, on the ground that they have had less of these evils than formerly. But certain other states, without the initiative, also have had less; so nothing is proved for the system. In 1904 a former state senator of Oregon wrote : " The first effect of the referendum in Oregon is the com- parative absence of charges of corruption and partisanship. We credit a good deal of this to the direct-legislation amendment." A few weeks after this was written the greatest political scandal in the history of the state was developed, a representative and United States senator being indicted for fraud. Therefore, all