re is a copy of the Oregon ballot, from which it appears that
the stricken people of that commonwealth were called upon at the late
election to consider 32 legislative propositions. Small wonder that it
was well onto a month after election before the returns were all in.

And here is another constitutional amendment in which the people are
asked to pass judgment on such simple propositions as providing for
verdict by three-fourths of jury in civil cases, authorizing grand
juries to be summoned separately from the trial jury, permitting
change of judicial system by statute prohibiting retrial where there
is any evidence to support the verdict, providing for affirmance of
judgment on appeal notwithstanding error committed in lower court and
directing the Supreme Court to enter such judgment as should have been
entered in the lower court, fixing terms of Supreme Court, providing
that judges of all courts be elected for six years, subject to recall,
and increasing the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Is it any wonder
that with questions such as those thrust at them so large a percentage
of the voters took to the "continuous woods where rolls the Oregon"
and refused to express a judgment one way or the other? Now, with all
possible deference to the intelligence and the diligence of the good
people of Oregon, is it conceivable that any considerable proportion
of the voters of that commonwealth went to the polls with even a
cursory knowledge of all the measures submitted for their
determination?

As to the practical working of the referendum, I have seen it stated
in the public prints that four years ago nearly every appropriation
bill passed by the Oregon legislature was referred to the people for
their approval or rejection before it could go into effect. As a
result, the appropriations being unavailable until the election could
be held, the state was compelled to stamp its warrants "not paid for
want of funds," and to pay interest thereon, although the money was in
the treasury. The university and other state institutions were
hampered and embarrassed, and the whole machinery of government was in
large measure paralyzed. In other words, under the Oregon law a
pitiful minority of the people was able to obstruct and embarrass the
usual and orderly processes of government, and for a time at least to
absolutely thwart the will of an overwhelming majority of the people.

A system of government under which such a thing as tha