74 6 UNITED STATES HISTORY 



Whether or not the small board will be permanently retained, respect for two cherished 

 American theories has been seriously impaired the election of both political and 

 administrative officers, and the separation of executive from legislative power. 



In view of the attitude taken toward the question in the campaign of 1912, woman 

 suffrage may be regarded as another of the Progressive principles. Presumably it has 



a bearing upon the movement for the uplifting of politics. Down to 1912 

 su/ft-are. women enjoyed a limited suffrage, chiefly in relation to the schools, in 



twenty-three states, and full suffrage in Colorado, Idaho, California, Utah, 

 Washington, and Wyoming. In that year proposed constitutional amendments 

 conferring the privilege were defeated in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, but ratified 

 in Arizona, Kansas and Oregon. The nine suffrage states cover about a quarter of 

 the entire Union and contain nearly three million women of voting age. During the 

 presidential campaign the National Progressive party incorporated a woman suffrage 

 plank in its platform; in five states all the parties did so. 



The direct primary, the corrupt practices acts, and other reforms are calculated to 

 improve the quality of public officers. A process of rehabilitation is going forward. 



But meanwhile state legislatures and even executive officers, far from 

 The initiative, enjoying prestige, are viewed popularly with a profound distrust. This is 

 'and'recal shown not only in the marked tendency to restrict their powers, but 



also in the assumption by the people of a more immediate share in govern- 

 ment. No political phenomenon of the time is more significant than the spread of the 

 Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. Under the Initiative, measures may be submitted 

 to popular vote on the petition of a varying proportion of the voters (usually eight or 

 ten per cent); under the Referendum, statutes passed by the legislature may be sub- 

 jected to a popular vote upon the petition of a smaller proportion of the voters; under 

 the Recall, the plebiscite may be invoked to determine if the people wish to remove a 

 particular official and to effect such removal. In 1912 the Initiative and Referendum 

 were adopted in Ohio, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Washington, thus making a total 

 of fifteen states which employ this method of direct legislation. Three other states 

 have partial systems; Wisconsin and North Dakota will vote upon the question in 1914. 

 The Recall has not spread so widely. Oregon adopted it in 1908, California in 1911, 

 Arizona and Washington in 1912. North Dakota and Wisconsin will decide in 1914 

 whether or not to adopt it. In Oregon, California, and Arizona the recall extends even 

 to judges. Conservative men have denounced this as a fatal impairment of judicial 

 independence. When, in 1911, Arizona (q.v.) applied for admission to statehood, the 

 veto of President Taft forced the provision for the recall of judges out of the constitu- 

 tion, but, on acquiring statehood, Arizona took the first opportunity to restore it. In 

 view of the reactionary decisions which the courts have so often given, and of the political 

 power which they wield in interpreting general clauses of the constitution, the demand 

 for a popular check upon them has increased. Mr. Roosevelt suggested in 1912 the 

 recall of judicial decisions 1 instead of the recall of judges, the people being allowed by 

 plebiscite to determine whether a statute, pronounced invalid, should nevertheless 

 become law under the state police power. This proposal appears to many to preserve 

 judicial independence and open the way for social legislation. 



The rapid progress in the adoption of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall 

 illustrates the growing impatience with constitutional restrictions and with " the check 



and balance system." There is no country in the world of Western civilisa- 

 The decay ^ tion where so many obstacles are raised as in the United States to the enact- 

 t/onatfsm"" rnent of social legislation. Not only must executive and legislature agree, 



but the courts must consent to an interpretation of the supreme law which 

 will recognise the validity of an Act. Now, although the votaries of popular govern- 

 ment will not admit it, their proposals are destined to work a fundamental change in 

 American institutions. Not that the legislature will be supplanted; experience in 



1 In 1912 Colorado adopted a constitutional amendment for a popular recall of decisions 

 by the state supreme court that laws were unconstitutional. 



