Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/280

276 a theory and is far from being a law of an exact science. In that case if the new states build on this new theory they will be experimenting—a method which has the high approval of science. It has often been maintained that the experimental method will forever be denied the sociologist. For how can a sociologist experiment with democracy, as, for instance, a physicist experiments in his laboratory with rays of light? It would indeed be a strange discovery, if it were found that the peoples of the Pacific coast showed a willingness to experiment with their governments and were actually doing so.

With some thinkers it is still an open question whether democracy will live. Therefore it may seem absurd to discuss the ability of the common people to build a state scientifically. Empire-builders have formerly been men like Caesar, Napoleon, Bismarck. Can the plain citizen do it? If they can, it means that the masses must not only become aware of scientific progress, but must often be willing to look beyond present needs and strong desires to the far-removed good of a future goal. The first requirement is that they shall benefit from mistakes of the past, as, for instance, the mistakes in the building of the United States. The development of the great American republic has been remarkable, but it has been accomplished at an enormous cost. Natural resources have not been conserved. Social good has been sacrificed for individual gain. And the people are now looking back with regret at the destroyed forests, at the lost water rights, and at the enthronement of special privilege. They see large numbers of their fellow-citizens struggling against an inadequate standard of living and weighted down with poverty and ill-health and unemployment. Will the Pacific coast states benefit by the experience of the United States?

The preceding paragraphs suggest the interpretation of the social order on the Pacific coast as presented in this paper. This social order is both distinctive and novel. To see it is important because it may be a glimpse into the future of forty-five other states. The following pages will present aspects of it as seen through legislative enactments, excellent indexes of the organized efforts of its citizens. For this purpose the social legislation will be classified into four groups: changes in the form of government, labor legislation, legislation affecting women and general welfare legislation.

In governmental changes Oregon is the leader. Her priority in large governmental adaptation has given rise to the term, the Oregon system. And by the Oregon system is meant such a body of laws as the initiative and referendum, the direct primary, the direct election of senators, the recall, the corrupt practices act and the presidential preference primary. Associated with these are woman suffrage, home rule for cities and a constitutional amendment making it possible to adopt proportional representation. The Oregon system sprang from