Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/903



tiative of the people upon petition filed with public officials, and voted upon direct by all the electors, and third, the referendum from the acts of the legislature, or law making body, whereby the electors at the next ensuing election could by ballot directly affirm or disapprove of any act of the legislature.

The first result of these innovations was to enable the people to propose and adopt laws that under the old regime could not get a hearing before the legislature. The second result was that the legislature, which never represented the average intelligence of the state, is reduced to a mere body of clerks to prepare laws for rference to a popular vote of the people. The third result is disorganization of both the old political parties.

Disorganization of the party starts at the primary election. With money in hand to foot political log rolling accounts, a skillful and unscrupulous political manager of one party may emasculate and corrupt the primary of the opposing party, by votes from the ranks of the opposition who falsely registered their po- litical party associations at the county registry ; and thus name for a party a can- didate or candidates that cannot poll the strength of the party at the general elec- tion. In such a pass, the machine manager puts forward an "all things to all men" candidate, and defeats the candidate he had already imposed upon the opposition party. This scheme has been twice successfully carried out in Oregon, on the most important offices in the state.

In the present (1911) legislature the republicans will have 13 senators and 30 representatives in favor of the assembly plan of suggesting candidates for office; and 14 senators and 27 representatives who are opposed to the assembly plan. Thus while it is possible for the anti-assembly republican senators, with the aid of three democratic senators, to organize the senate and pass such laws as they choose, the assembly members of the house of representatives holding one-half the vote of that body, can defeat any bill passed by the senate; and thus dead-lock the legislature on a question of purely party management. This dilemma is fur- ther complicated by the fact, that while the republicans having a registered voting electorate of 85,000 in the state to a registered democrat electorate of 26,000, the democrats have elected their candidate for governor by a majority of 6,000; and he will stand ready to cast his veto power, for or against legislative measures ac- cording to his view of their political influence on the future interests of his politi- cal friends. The questions of education, saloon regulation, taxation, corporation control, bank guarantee, pure food, or the tariff on foreigners or foreign goods, have now no certain standing and support in the legislature or before the people.

By making an issue and division inside the party lines, of "assembly" or "anti- assembly" for the suggestion of candidates, a political party is "slaughtered in the house of its friends." For if there can be no consultation and unity of action, the weakest and worst men in the party will be imposed on that party as its candidates by the action of the opposing party falsely registering, and falsely voting at the primary.

The effect of all this political "crookedness" does not end with the party that is divided and defeated. The corrupting practices cannot be made successful without demoralizing the party that contributed to their success ; and without ruin to many worthy and aspiring men in its own ranks. And sooner or later the dis- honorable trick planned to ruin the opponent will return to plague the inventor. The great mass of the electors intend to be honest and play fair. They may be hoodwinked and misled for a season, but eventually dishonesty in politics like dishonesty in business, will overwhelm the guilty parties. The famous saying of Lincoln will be verified over and over — that a part of the people can be fooled all the time; and all the people can be fooled part of the time; but all people cannot be fooled all the time.

THE LESSON OF IT ALL.

Soon after the adoption of the national constitution in 1789, Washington wrote a letter to his bosom friend, General LaFayette in France, from which the foHow- ing extract is taken :