The Initia

tive, the Referendum, and the

Recall are relatively little used.

Popular control in Alabama,

California,

Illinois,

Iowa,

Kansas,

Montana,

it was not "politics." It was law, order, security, life for all — the union man and the non-union man. The fire was quenched instead of being allowed to smoulder for months awaiting a regular election, while the peripatetic agitator and selfish and unscrupulous office seeker would have fanned the flame of hatred and discontent in the community by his misrepresentations.

224. Popular control chiefly a threat1

The Initiative, the Referendum, and the Recall are seldom used in most of the cities and states which have provided for these forms of direct popular control. In an investigation conducted by him a few years ago, Dr. Charles F. Taylor found that of 197 municipalities which had provided for the Initiative, the Referendum and the Recall, 137 had not used any of these devices. It is true, of course, that these measures may be more valuable in their existence than in their use, that is to say, they may be of service by inducing a keen sense of duty and responsibility in the minds of officials, without, however, requiring actual use. The following summaries by Dr. Taylor illustrate something of the degree to which these three measures of popular control have been used:

Birmingham, Ala. (April, 1911.) Has used the referendum twice: January, 1912, electric light contract; September, 1912, water contract. In both instances contracts were annulled.

Santa Cruz, Cal. (February, 1911.)
Liquor license ordinance; rejected.

Initiative: May 6, 1913.

Moline, Ill. (April, 1911.) Initiative: July 23, 1912. Telephone franchise; "carried by large majority."

Marshalltown, Iowa. One attempt has been made to recall the mayor: failed.

Pratt, Kan. Referendum: July, 1913, fixing electric light rates. "Ordinance 'knocked out."" Recall: September, 1913, unsuccessful attempt to recall the mayor.

Missoula, Mont. (July, 1911.) Initiative: General election, 1912, on question of closing saloon on Sundays; carried.

1 From the National Municipal Review, Vol. m, No. 4. October, 1914. Charles F. Taylor, "Municipal Initiative, Referendum and Recall in Practice"; pp, 695

Ocean City, N. J. "Have had the initiative and referendum invoked New Jersey, a number of times, possibly two each, with satisfactory results. No recalls have been made or attempted."

Greensboro, N.C. (March, 1911.) Initiative, 1911; establishment North of a municipally owned and operated meat market, the city to buy Carolina, and sell meat; defeated.

Mandan, N.D. Recall: One unsuccessful attempt.

North Dakota, Bartlesville, Okla. (August, 1910.) Recall: September 14, 1911. Oklahoma, Attempt to recall mayor and two city commissioners. Failed on

account of insufficiency of petition.

Portland, Ore. (1903.) [The Initiative and the Referendum have Oregon, been used rather freely, and on the whole successfully.]

Dallas, Texas. (April, 1907.) [The Initiative, the Referendum Texas, and the Recall have been used rather freely.]

Hoquiam, Wash. (August, 1911.) Recall: April 24, 1912. Mayor Washington, recalled on the charge of incompetency.

and

Oshkosh, Wis. Referendum: Fall of 1912, general election. Shall Wisconsin city own water works? carried by an overwhelming majority. . .

We see in this review a safe, healthy and commendable exercise of Conclusion. direct powers of the voters in the public affairs of municipalities. These powers have not been abused, as is plainly seen by the large number of municipalities which have these powers, but which have never used them; and in the fact that in no place has their use been 'cranky" or excessive. These powers have been used rather freely in Portland, Oregon, and in Dallas, Texas, but we have no evidence that there is any sentiment in these places for the abolition of these powers on account of their somewhat free use. On the contrary, we may reasonably assume that the use of these powers is an evidence of their appreciation — when there is occasion for their use.

Questions on the foregoing Readings

1. What is meant by Direct Legislation?

2. What provision for the Initiative is contained in the constitution of Oklahoma?

3. What does this constitution say concerning the Referendum?

4. What are some of the ways in which statutes may regulate the use of the Initiative and Referendum?

CHAPTER XXXVIII

PUBLIC OPINION

225. The origin of our personal opinions 1

Our actions largely

influenced

beliefs and

opinions.

It is a trite but significant statement that the conduct of the citizen in the affairs of private and public life will be determined largely by the beliefs and opinions which he holds. The nature of these beliefs by personal and opinions will depend upon his early environment, his training, the type of persons and institutions with which he comes in contact, and his habits as an independent thinker. Because of the domination of opinion over the actions of the individual, it becomes necessary to inquire into the means by which we acquire our personal opinions. This question is discussed by President Lowell in the following passage:

We are constantly told to-day how small a part of our actions are Many of the result of our own reasoning, how small a proportion of opinion

are taken

is personal, how much of it is taken from others in whole or in part from others. ready-made.

The history of religious bodies shows that with the vast majority Some of men creeds are inherited; or, to speak more strictly, accepted on illustrations. the suggestion and authority of parents and teachers. It is incredible that if everyone really thought out his beliefs for himself religious lines would remain from generation to generation so little changed as they have, for example, among the Catholics and Protestants in Switzerland. . . . In fact it would be safe to assert as a general rule that the members of every church have accepted its dogmas because they belonged to it, quite as much as they have clung to the church on account of a belief in its creed. Nor is this less true of other spheres of thought. It is manifestly the case in politics, where party

1 From A. Lawrence Lowell, Public Opinion and Popular Government. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1913; pp. 16-18, 22-24.

We often

act upon suggestions without

being aware of their origin.

The origin of our

beliefs as to fundamental political principles.

But some opinions

require a personal judgment

of facts.

affiliations have no less influence in fixing the principles of men, than the principles have in determining the membership of the parties. Opinions may, of course, be adopted by conscious submission to the authority of someone who is better informed; and Sir George Cornewall Lewis points out that in such a case "The choice of a guide is as much a matter of free determination, as the adoption of an opinion on argumentative grounds." But he does not appear to have perceived to how small an extent the selection of a guide is in fact deliberate or even conscious. In most of the affairs of life we are constantly acting upon suggestions without being aware of their origin, or indeed of the fact that we did not frame our conclusions unaided. .

A belief, although adopted on suggestion or authority without mature consideration, may nevertheless be a real opinion and not a mere prejudice or meaningless impression; for the line between what is opinion and what is not is by no means the same as the line between what is personally thought out, or consciously rational, and what comes in other ways. The bulk of every community accepts without adequate reasoning all its fundamental political principles, such as a belief in monarchy or in a federal system of government, in universal suffrage, in trial by jury, and in many other things that the people of a country habitually assume as axioms.

A conviction, therefore, formed because it is in accord with a code of beliefs already in the mind is properly classed as an opinion; but many of the problems that arise in politics, as in the other affairs of life, cannot be solved in this way. They do not present a question of harmony with accepted principles, but the application of an accepted principle to a particular case, or the means to be adopted in attaining an end universally desired; and these things usually require for their determination a considerable knowledge of the subject matter.... [For example,] it is generally admitted that children should be educated for their duties in life at the public expense. To what extent are the studies leading to a general education and to what extent are manual and industrial training best adapted to that end? On problems of this kind an opinion worthy of the name cannot be formed without both a process of reasoning and, what is far more difficult, the command of a number of facts. . . .