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The Commoner.
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EDUCATIONAL SERIES
Epoch-Making Governmental Reforms in Nevada and Arkansas
(By Gcorgo II. Shibloy, President People's Rule
of America.)
Of tho states wherein legislatures were elect
ed last year the two that have gone farthest in
governmental reforms during the past twelve
months aro Nevada and Arkansas.
The Nevada legislature enacted laws estab
lishing a mandatory system of direct nomina
tions in place of nominating conventions, and a
System of direct selection of United States sena
tors by the people, under, the Oregon plan, and
the legislature submitted to the next legislature
for submission to the people two constitutional
amendments conferring upon them a power to
recall their public officers, and a power to di
rectly amend the constitution and directly enact
state laws and municipal ordinances, also a veto
power as to municipal ordinances. At present
the people of tho state possess a veto power as
to acts of tho legislature except emergency meas
ures measures, the enactment of which are
immediately necessary for the preservation of
the public peace, health or safety.
These proposed amendments for the initiative
and tho recall and tho establishment of the
referendum and direct nominations place Nevada
in the front rank of the progressive states. The
people of tho state by electing next yeaT a legis
lature that will submit the proposed constitu
tional amendments to a popular vote will be in
lino to become a self-governing people in 1912.
In tho meantime direct nominations will pre
vail, and the people can veto the acts of the
legislature.
Tho most remarkable thing about this people's
rule movement is that it has not been carried
forward by the people themselves but by the
democratic leaders, chief of whom is Senator
Francis G. Newlands. I personally know tliat
lor many years he has been doing, his utmost
st'6' supply the . democratic ' newspapers of ' thp
state the facts that shbw the need for a com
plete restoration of self government by the peo
ple, and at each democratic state convention
he has advised the enunciation of a platform
promising the voters full relief. Four years
ago the republican organization secured control
of tho legislature and refused to endorse the
constitutional amendment for tho initiative
which tho democratic majority in the preceding
legislature had endbrsed. But in 1908 tho
voters elected a democratic legislature and the
result has been the complete carry ihg out of
the people's-rule program of the democratic
party in Nevada. At one time this year it
looked as if the legislature might adjourn -without
action and Senator Newlands took the train
for home, but when he reached Chicago ho re
ceived reassuring telegrams that caused him to
return to Washington and the platform pledges
wore fulfilled.
Senator Newlands is wealthy and he is a Yale
college man, both of which tend to induce a be
lief in the rule of the few. But his instinct for
popular government, supplemented by a careful
examination of the actual working of the sys
tem, have carried him to the people's side and
today he has the unique distinction of being
the only party leader in the United States who
has had both the willingness and the power to
grant to the people of his state the restoration
of self government.
In- Oregon an initiative and referendum league
steered the people's movement and forced an
acquiescence from the party leaders to acquiesce.
In South Dakota the farmer's alliance, that de
veloped into the people's party, did it. In each
of the other states either a league or the State
Federation of Labor or the combined action of
organized farmers and organized wage earners
have been the moving power.
All honor to the party leader in a machine
ruled government who, though wealthy and a
former student in a reactionary college, has
within him such a sense of justice and such an
abiding faith in the people that he has used his
position and his power to willingly lead the
way to a complete restoration of the neoDle's
rule. v
I say "restoration," for from 177G to the
time of the establishment of the state nominat
ing convention, 1823 to 1836, and the estab-'
llshment of the national nominating conventions
in 1832, the people possessed a System through
which they could directly vote on public ques
tions tho town meeting system in the north
and the county conference in the south. But
when the nominating conventions were estab
lished tho people soon ceased to instruct at town
meetings and county conferences for through
out an entire state and throughout the nation
they could work together for reforms.
For a time the use of delegates in party con
ventions was an improvement. But in neither
of the parties was there a written constitution
and the state committees changed the conven
tion system. In each state the committee pro
vided that the delegates who could sit in the
state convention should be three or four times
removed from the voters so as to make it more
difficult for them to rule. By 1844 the national
.system of party conventions had become so bad
that John C. Calhoun withdrew from the race
for the democratic nomination for the presi
dency, and in an address to the people he ex
posed the stacked cards and in conclusion said:
I hold It Impossible to form a schome more per
fectly calculated to annihilate the control of tho
fieoplo over tho "presidential election and vest It
n those who make politics a trade, and who live
or expect to live on tho government. (Benton's -"Thirty
Years in tho United States Senate," Vol.
II., p. 506.)
When the democratic national convention of
1844 assembled, though a majority of the dele
gates were pledged to former President Van
Buren he was not nominated. The "machine"
nominated James K. Polk, who the people
scarcely knew. Says Benton:
That convention is an era in our political his
tory, to be looked back upon as tho starting point
in a courso of usurpation which has taken tho
choice of president out of tho hands of tho people,
and vested It In tho hands of a self-constituted
and Irresponsible assemblage. It was tho first in
stance of such a disposal of tho presidency for
these nominations aro tho election, so far as tho
Earty Is concerned ; but not tho last. These assem
lages n6w (1853) perpetuate themselyos, through
a, committee of their own, ramified into each state,
sitting permanently,, and working incessantly to
govern tho election' that is to come, after having
governed the one that is- past. (Thirty Years in
tho United, States Senate, Vol. II., p. 595.)
The details of the Nevada' reforms are ideal.
Nevada's Initiative and Referendum System
The proposed system of the Initiative Is an
improvement, over the Oregon plan. In Oregon
there is no provision for public hearings on
measures submitted by petition, and no provi
sion for competing measures. The Nevada sys
tem provides:
Initiative petitions, for all but municipal legis
lation, shall be filed with tho secretary of state
not less than thirty days before any regular ses
sion of the legislature; the secretary of state shall
transmit the same to the legislature as soon as it
convenes and organizes. Such initiative measures
shall take precedence over all measures of the
legislature except appropriation bills, and shall be
enacted or rejected by tho legislature, without
change or amendment, within forty days. If any
such initiative measure so proposed by petition
as aforesaid, shall be enacted by the legislature
and approved by the governor in tho same manner
as other laws are enacted, same shall become a
law, but Bhall be subject to referendum petition as
provided in sections one and two of this article.
If said initiative measure be rejected by the legis
lature or if no action be taken thereon within
forty days, the secretary of state shall submit same
to the qualified electors for approval or rejection
at the next ensuing general election; and if a ma
jority of tho qualified electors voting thereon shall
apprpvo of puch measure it shall become a law
and take effect from the date of the ofllclal declara
tion of the vote; an initiative measure so approved
by the qualified electors shall not be annulled, set
aside, or repealed by the legislature within three
years from tho date said act takes effect. In caso
the legislature shall reject such initiative measure.
w,. wwujr '"-j, uii ui ijjiuvtti uj tno governor,
propose a different measure on tho am buhio,.-
in which event both measurea shn.il vn
niiViTl-rl
by tho secrotary of state to the qualified electors
for approval or rejection at the next ensuing gen
eral election. b b
The percentage of signatures required for in
itiative petitions is that "not more than ten per
cent of the qualified electors shall be required
to propose any measure by initiative petition,
and every such petition shall include the full
text of the measure so proposed."
In county and city affairs not more than ten
per cent of the signatures of the qualified elec
tors shall be required for the referendum and
not more than fifteen per cent for the initiative.
The Recall
Tho recall amendment is as follows:
Every public officer in tho state of Nevada is
bvbJthCo'- m,Sni?ner?ln , Prided, to recall fromofflco
H? "W lectors of the state, or of the
county, district, or municipality, from which ho
was elected. For this purpose not loss, than twenty-
VOLUMEf-9, NUMBER 45
five per cent of the qualified electors who vote In
the state or in the county, district, of municiiUi
ity electing said officer, at' the preceding o"ecUot
for justice of the supremo court, shall flic theft
petition, in the manner herein provided, demanding
his recall by the people; they shall set forth in
said petition, in not exceeding two hundred words
tho reasons why said recall is demanded, if ho
shall offer his resignation, it shall bo accepted and
take- effect on tho day it is offered, and tho vacancy
thereby caused shall bo filled in tho manner S
vided by law. If he shall not resign within no
dys, after t,ho Petition is filed, a special election
shall bo ordered to be he'd within twenty divS
after the issuance of tho call therefor, in the stato
or county, district, or municipality electing said
officer, to determine whether the people will recall
said officer. On the ballot at said election shall
bo printed verbatim as set forth in the recall net -tion,
the reasons for demanding the recall of said
?inceriand. in, no.t more than two hundred words
the officer's Justification of his course in ofllce
lie shall continue to perform the duties of bin
offico until the result of said election shall be
finally declared. Other candidates for the office
may be nominated to bo voted for at said special
election. The candidate who shall receive tho
highest number of votes at said special election
shall bo deemed elected for the remainder of tho
term, whether it bo the person against whom tho
recall petition was filed, or another. The recall
petition shall bo filed with the officer with whom
the Petition Jor nomination to such offico shall
bo filed, and tho same officer shall order the special
election when it is required. No such petition shall
bo circulated or filed against any officer until ho
has actually held his office six months, savo and
except that it may be- filed against a senator or
assemblyman in the legislature at any tlmo after
ten days from tho beginning of tho first session
after his election. After ono such petition and
special election, no further recall petition shall
be filed against the same officer during tho term
for which ho was elected, unless such further
petitioners shall pay into tho public treasury from
which the expenses of said special election have
been paid, tho whole amount paid out of said
public treasury as expenses for the preceding
special election. Such additional legislation as
may aid the operation of this section shall bo pro
vided by law.
Direct Nominations
Nevada's system of direct nominations is
mandatory. It provides:
All candidates for elective public offices shall bo
nominated as follows:
1. By direct vote at primary elections held in
accordance with the provisions of this Act; or
2. By nominating petitions signed and filed as
provided by existing laws.
Party candidates for the office of United States
senator shall bo nominated in the manner provided
herein, for tho nominations of candidates for state
offices.
This act shall not apply' to special' elections to
fill vacancies, to" the nomination of party candi
dates for presidential electors; rtor to tho nomina
tion of officers of tho municipalities, whoso char
ters provide a system for nominating candidates
for such offices; nor to the nomination of officers
for reclamation and irrigation districts; nor to
school district officers or school trustees; nor shall
it be construed as restricting or affecting the right
of political parties to hold, under existing laws,
Which are hereby continued in force for all such
purposes, primaries and conventions for the selec
tion of delegates to national conventions.
Direct selection of United States senators by
the people as between the party nominees is also
provided. Each elector who seeks a nomination
for the office of state senator or member of the
assembly may include in his affidavit one of
the two following statements:
I further declare to tho people of Nevada, and
to the people of (Senatorial or Assem
bly) district that during my term of office, without
regard to my individual preference, I will always
vote for that candidato for United States senator in
congress who has received for that office the high
est number of the people's votes for that position
at the general election next preceding the election
of a senator In congress.
(Signature of candidate for nomination.)
If the candidate be unwilling to sign tho abovo
statement, he may sign the following declaration,
which shall be filed with his nomination paper or
papers and affidavit:
I further declare to the people of Nevada, and to
tho people of tho (Senatorial or Assem
bly) district that during my term of office I shall
consider the vote of the people at any primary
election for United States senator as nothing more
than a recommendation, which I shall bo at liberty
wholly to disregard as I see fit.
(Signature of candidate for nomination.)
The statute further provides:
It shall also be the duty of tho secretary of
state to compile tho returns for United States sen
ator in congress, if any, and prepare a statement
thereof. A duplicate of such statement insofar
as it shall bo applicable to such party shall bo
transmitted to tho state chairman of each political
party. And it shall bo tho duty of the secrotary
of state to transmit duplicates of such statements
to tho speaker of the assembly and to the president
of the senate on the first day of tho next ensuing
session of tho legislature, together with his official
certificates of nomination for tho candidates for
United States senator In congress, who received
tho highest number of votes cast by thoir respec
tive party at tho primary election.
All the expenses of the primary election are
to be paid by the people, through their govern
ment, except that each candidate whose name
is on the ticket shall pay a fee of from $50,
for each candidate for state office and for the
United States senatorshlp and for representative
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