A number of States have resorted to the initiative and referendum as applied to ordinary legislation.By means of this method a small percentage of the voters, from eight to ten per cent, may initiate proposals and impose upon the voters the function of legislation.South Dakota, in 1898, made constitutional provision for direct legislation.Utah followed in 1900, Oregon in 1902, Nevada in 1904, Montana in 1906, and Oklahoma in 1907.East of the Mississippi, several States have adopted a modified form of the initiative and referendum.In Oregon, where this device of direct government has been most assiduously applied, the voters in 1908 voted upon nineteen different bills and constitutional amendments; in 1910 the number increased to thirty-two; in 1912, to thirty-seven; in 1914 it fell to twenty-nine.The vote cast for these measures rarely exceeded eighty per cent of those voting at the election and frequently fell below sixty.
The electorate that attempts to rid itself of the evils of the state legislature by these heroic methods assumes a heavy responsibility.When the burden of direct legislation is added to the task of choosing from the long list of elective officers which is placed before the voter at every local and state election, it is not surprising that there should set in a reaction in favor of simplified government.The mere separation of state and local elections does not solve the problem.It somewhat minimizes the chances of partizan influence over the voter in local elections; but the voter is still confronted with the long lists of candidates for elective offices.Ballots not infrequently contain two hundred names, sometimes even three hundred or more, covering candidates of four or five parties for scores of offices.These blanket ballots are sometimes three feet long.After an election in Chicago in 1916, one of the leading dailies expressed sympathy "for the voter emerging from the polling-booth, clutching a handful of papers, one of them about half as large as a bed sheet." Probably most voters were able to express a real preference among the national candidates.It is almost equally certain that most voters were not able to express a real preference among important local administrative officials.
A huge ballot, all printed over with names, supplemented by a series of smaller ballots, can never be a manageable instrument even for an electorate as intelligent as ours.
Simplification is the prophetic watchword in state government today.For cities, the City Manager and the Commission have offered salvation.A few officers only are elected and these are held strictly responsible, sometimes under the constant threat of the recall, for the entire administration.Over four hundred cities have adopted the form of government by Commission.But nothing has been done to simplify our state governments, which are surrounded by a maze of heterogeneous and undirected boards and authorities.Every time the legislature found itself confronted by a new function to be cared for, it simply created a new board.New York has a hodgepodge of over 116 such authorities; Minnesota, 75; Illinois, 100.Iowa in 1913 and Illinois and Minnesota in 1914, indeed, perfected elaborate proposals for simplifying their state governments.But these suggestions remain dormant.And the New York State Constitutional Convention in 1915 prepared a new Constitution for the State, with the same end in view, but their work was not accepted by the people.It may be said, however, that in our attempt to rid ourselves of boss rule we have swung through the arc of direct government and are now on the returning curve toward representative government, a more intensified representative government that makes evasion of responsibility and duty impossible by fixing it upon one or two men.
