What you
have to do is to sum up the whole, take the average benefit which comes
from it, and attempt to increase that average. Now I am an optimist.
People say the initiative and the referendum, against which I have
talked, are like a ratchet wheel. If you extend power to the people and
the voters, you will never get it back again. I agree that is a rule
that generally works, but with respect to the initiative and the
referendum there is an element that may cause an exception to the rule.
The initiative will throw a heavy burden on the electorate. Cranks and
their followers will constantly be compelling voters to act upon wild
proposals. As the popular disgust grows, the requirements in respect to
the number of signers will be made so heavy that a successful petition
can rarely be secured. The referendum will then be limited to such
matters as the legislature chooses to refer and will then cease to be a
practical burden.
We must pray that the injurious excesses which I have been describing as
the cost we have to pay for a great reform, may not unsettle the
foundation of our government and destroy the self-imposed restraint
arranged in the Constitution to make that government just to the
individual, to the minority and to those who do not vote.
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