Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/480

476 however, that the cooperation of the machines of both parties could be secured in this way. The pressure for constitutional tinkering, therefore, increased until sweeping changes were made when the opportunity offered.

On 240 out of the 472 constitutional questions submitted to the voters of the several states in the decade ending with 1908, the vote was less than fifty per cent, of the vote for candidates. In 1910 the vote in Oregon rose to seventy or more per cent, in but 14 out of 32 cases. The heavy handicap of requiring a majority of the total vote cast at an election to adopt an amendment is, therefore, apparent. As a result of this requirement, not a single amendment was added to the constitution of Oregon in the forty-three years ending with 1900. It is possible that both California and Oregon have more recently gone to the other extreme and have made it too easy to amend their constitutions, but a mode of amendment that is practically prohibitory is beyond doubt unsound. Political machinery that compels deliberation and prevents hasty and precipitate action is of the utmost importance to the success of democracy. The formation of public opinion on any question requires time for discussion. The disposition to weigh evidence needs encouragement. Every precaution necessary to both sides of a question having a hearing should be taken. "Tried expedients," "verified conclusions," "traditional beliefs" should not be abandoned without mature deliberation. But when the checks upon the popular will exceed what is necessary to these ends, they not only cease to serve a useful purpose, but become obstructive. Discussion which is stopped at the outset from changing social conditions is useless. When the door to orderly change is closed, the only remaining alternative is revolution.

If the federal constitution were less rigid, both life and property would probably be more secure. A more flexible instrument would not hold things in a vise-like grip, but would permit changes in governmental policy with less social tension. The constitution as it stands leads the courts to make forced interpretations, makes for obstructive delay in the righting of grievances, and pens up the ferment of society until it sometimes threatens the social order. It has discouraged the existence of a party committed to any cause that requires a constitutional amendment. It has helped to make our political contests largely scrambles for offices. So far as principles are concerned, the difference between our leading parties has usually been so slight that it has been very difficult to distinguish between them. In such a humanitarian and democratic age as the present, a constitution that is "based upon the concept that the fundamental private rights of property are anterior to