476 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



however, that the cooperation of the machines of both parties could be 

 secured in this way. The pressure for constitutional tinkering, there- 

 fore, increased until sweeping changes were made when the opportunity 

 offered. 



On 240 out of the 472 constitutional questions submitted to the 

 voters of the several states in the decade ending with 1908, the vote was 

 less than fifty per cent, of the vote for candidates. In 1910 the vote in 

 Oregon rose to seventy or more per cent, in but 14 out of 32 cases. 37 

 The heavy handicap of requiring a majority of the total vote cast at an 

 election to adopt an amendment is, therefore, apparent. As a result of 

 this requirement, not a single amendment was added to the constitution 

 of Oregon in the forty-three years ending with 1900. 38 It is possible 

 that both California and Oregon have more recently gone to the other 

 extreme and have made it too easy to amend their constitutions, but a 

 mode of amendment that is practically prohibitory is beyond doubt 

 unsound. Political machinery that compels deliberation and prevents 

 hasty and precipitate action is of the utmost importance to the success 

 of democracy. The formation of public opinion on any question re- 

 quires time for discussion. The disposition to weigh evidence needs 

 encouragement. Every precaution necessary to both sides of a question 

 having a hearing should be taken. " Tried expedients," " verified con- 

 clusions," " traditional beliefs " should not be abandoned without mature 

 deliberation. But when the checks upon the popular will exceed what 

 is necessary to these ends, they not only cease to serve a useful purpose, 

 but become obstructive. Discussion which is stopped at the outset from 

 changing social conditions is useless. When the door to orderly change 

 is closed, the only remaining alternative is revolution. 



If the federal constitution were less rigid, both life and property 

 would probably be more secure. A more flexible instrument would not 

 hold things in a vise-like grip, but would permit changes in govern- 

 mental policy with less social tension. The constitution as it stands 

 leads the courts to make forced interpretations, makes for obstructive 

 delay in the righting of grievances, and pens up the ferment of society 

 until it sometimes threatens the social order. It has discouraged the 

 existence of a party committed to any cause that requires a constitutional 

 amendment. It has helped to make our political contests largely scram- 

 bles for offices. So far as principles are concerned, the difference be- 

 tween our leading parties has usually been so slight that it has been very 

 difficult to distinguish between them. In such a humanitarian and 

 democratic age as the present, a constitution that is "based upon the 

 concept that the fundamental private rights of property are anterior to 



37 Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, op. cit., p. 509. 

 ss George H. Haynes, op. cit., p. 24. 



