Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/380

376 of the ballot to women recently in Illinois was done by the legislature and not by a referendum. The gaining of "votes for women" may render the electorate still more cautious going. The historic function of women has been to conserve the old rather than to initiate the new. In any event, some opponents of woman suffrage favor submitting the question to the women of the several states as the most effective way to defeat it.

It is possible that the advocates rather than the opponents of the referendum will find more cause for disappointment at the result. The people of Oregon in 1910 and 1912 as compared with 1906 and 1908 showed a disposition to go somewhat slower in assenting to measures submitted for their approval. Out of thirty-two measures submitted in 1910, twenty-three failed to secure popular approval. In 1912, twenty-six out of the thirty-seven measures submitted failed of adoption. Of the thirty-seven measures submitted, fourteen were proposed amendments to the constitution, only four of which were adopted. As the number of measures submitted has increased, the percentage adopted has fallen. Of one hundred and sixteen constitutional amendments submitted to the voters of the several states during 1886-1891, sixty-two were rejected. Of ninety-nine amendments submitted during 1894-'96, fifty-three were rejected. Of eighty-eight constitutional questions submitted to the voters of Michigan during 1835-1908, thirty-nine failed of adoption. In Massachusetts affirmative action has been more common. Of sixty amendments submitted since 1780, only nineteen have been rejected. The experience in Switzerland has been that many progressive measures when submitted to the people have been defeated. Its effects have not been radical or socialistic, neither has its tendency been progressive.

Few writers eminent in the world of letters during the closing years of the nineteenth century were so impressed with the evils of democracy as Lecky. To his mind a wide suffrage meant government by the more ignorant portion of the community, political instability, successful appeals to class jealousies and antipathies by the demagogue, the spoliation of the rich by the poor. And yet Lecky was inclined to view the