Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/758

 742 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

tions of representative assemblies and the veto power of the executive have from the birth of this government proved such " a constant, systematic, stringent repression," and have prevented the whims and follies of many a movement, under popular excite- ment or discontent, from burdening statutes with meretricious laws. There is practically no deliberation in popular legislation. Voters learn something of candidates, of their moral and intel- lectual fitness. They learn little about measures. Some time ago, when it was proposed in Chicago to refund several millions of current or floating municipal debt by the issue of bonds, the ques- tion was submitted to the voters. The only possible result of the plan was to save the city several thousand dollars a year in a reduced rate of interest. Yet more than 49,000 voters cast their ballot against the proposition. Does anyone suppose they under- stood what they were voting against? The Referendum League of Illinois flaunted the 428,000 votes cast in 1902 (out of a total vote of 860,000) under the sentimental-referendum act for an initiative amendment as the solemn mandate of " the people." By inquiry it was ascertained that many who cast their ballot for the initiative and referendum did so because the tip had gone out from "the union" to vote for it, and that they had very little idea what it meant. As for that matter, I learned that others who voted for the two propositions did so believing that it was merely the referendum, and had no knowledge concerning the initiative feature; and some of these were men of affairs and education, too. It is not the members of labor unions alone who fail to grasp the substance of public measures. Neither they nor the clerks, nor the average business man, can reasonably be expected to do it under the complex conditions now existing. It is shown in Mr. Deploige's assertion, previously quoted, that the acceptance or rejection of laws which are at all complicated can- not be ascribed to either the good sense or the ignorance of the people, for the mass has no opportunity for estimating the value of them. If this is true of Switzerland and experience has demonstrated its truth how much more forcibly does it apply to Illinois, where the laws proposed outnumber those of Switzer- land twenty to one !