the adoption of the constitution, shall ever hold any real estate or mining claim, or work any mining claim in the state.
The chief executive functions are vested in a governor, who is elected for a term of four years, and who must be at least 30 years old and must have been a resident of the state for three years before his election. He is not eligible to the office for more than eight years in any period of twelve years. He has the right of pardon and a veto of legislative acts, which may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of the members present of each house of the legislature. The other important administrative officers are the secretary of state (who succeeds the governor if he dies or resigns—there is no lieutenant-governor), treasurer, attorney-general, superintendent of public instruction and labour commissioner. No public officer may be impeached, but for sufficient cause the governor may remove a justice of the supreme court or a prosecuting attorney from office, upon a joint resolution of the legislature adopted by a two-thirds vote in each house. A public official may be tried for incompetence, corruption or malfeasance according to the regular procedure in criminal cases, and if convicted he may be dismissed from office and receive such other penalties as the law provides.
The legislative department (officially called “the legislative assembly”) consists of a Senate of thirty[1] members chosen for four years, with half the membership retiring every two years, and a House of Representatives with sixty[1] members elected biennially. A senatorial district, if it contains more than one county, must be composed of contiguous counties, and no county may be divided between different senatorial districts. The sessions of the legislature are biennial. Bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may offer amendments. Until 1902 the legislature was the sole law-making body in the state, but on the 2nd of June of this year the voters adopted a constitutional amendment which declared that “the people reserve to themselves power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution, and to enact or reject the same at the polls, independent of the legislative assembly, and also reserve power at their own option to approve or reject at the polls any act of the legislative assembly.” This provision for the initiative and the referendum was made effective by a legislative act of 1903. Eight per cent of the number of voters who at the last preceding election voted for a justice of the supreme court, by filing with the secretary of state a petition for the enactment of any law or constitutional amendment—the petition must contain the full text of the law and must be filed at least four months before the election at which it is to be voted upon—may secure a vote on the proposed measure at the next general election, and if it receives the approval of the voters it becomes a law without interposition of the legislature, and goes into effect from the day of the governor’s proclamation announcing the result of the election. A referendum of legislative enactments may be ordered in two ways: the legislature itself may refer any of its acts to the people for approval or rejection at the next regular election, in which case the act may not be vetoed by the governor and does not go into effect until approved at the polls; or 5% of the number of voters at the last election for a supreme court justice may by petition order any act, except such as are “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety,” to be referred to the voters for their approval or rejection. Such a petition must be filed within ninety days after the adjournment of the session in which the act was passed. The secretary of state is required to mail to every voter whose address he has a pamphlet containing the text of the laws to be voted upon at the ensuing election. Along with the text of the law, the state will print arguments in its favour if any are submitted by the persons initiating the measure and the cost of the extra printing is paid by the initiators. In like manner, any one who will defray the expense of the printing may submit arguments in opposition to any proposed measure, and these will be included in the pamphlet and distributed by the state at its own expense. This “text-book” for the voters contained 60 pages in 1906 and 126 pages in 1908.
The power of the initiative was first exercised by the people of Oregon in 1904, when they proposed and enacted a local option liquor law and a direct primary law. As a result of the first of these measures, in 1908 nineteen of the thirty-three counties of the state had prohibited the sale of intoxicants since 1905. The most important effect of the direct primary law has been the choice of United States senators by what is practically a popular vote. Candidates for the United States Senate are voted for in the primaries, and between 1904 and 1909 candidates for the state legislature were required to say whether or not they would support the people’s choice for United States senator regardless of their own preferences.[2] In the state election in June 1908 a Democrat received the highest popular vote for the senatorship, and as a majority of the legislature of 1909 had committed itself to vote for the people’s choice, he was elected by that body, although five-sixths of its members were Republicans.[3] This was an anomaly in American politics. In June 1906 five laws and five amendments to the constitution, proposed by initiative petitions, and one law on which the referendum was ordered by petition, were submitted to a popular vote. An amendment giving women the right to vote was defeated, and among those adopted was one providing for the initiative upon special and local laws and parts of laws, and another giving cities and towns the exclusive right to enact or amend their own charters, subject only to the constitution and the criminal laws. Oregon was thus the first American state to grant complete home rule to its municipalities. At the election in June 1908 the number of initiative and referendum measures amounted to nineteen, and the ballot required forty-one separate marks and was over 212 ft. long.
The measures to be voted on consisted of eleven laws or constitutional amendments proposed by initiative petition, four constitutional amendments referred to the people by the legislature, and four laws upon which the voters had ordered a referendum. Among the measures defeated were the fourth woman’s suffrage amendment voted down in Oregon, a single-tax bill and an “open town” bill designed to defeat the purpose of the local option liquor law. Among the measures adopted were: a law (of doubtful constitutionality) requiring legislators to vote for the people’s choice for a United States senator—this was adopted by a vote of 69,668 to 21,162; a corrupt practices act, regulating the expenditure of moneys in political campaigns and limiting a candidate’s expenses to one fourth of one year’s salary; an amendment permitting the establishment of state institutions elsewhere than at the capital; an amendment changing the time of state elections from June to November; an amendment permitting the legislature to pass a law providing for proportional representation, i.e. representation for each political party in proportion to its numerical strength, by providing for first and second choice in voting—the system of preferential voting adopted in Idaho in 1909; and the “recall,” by which the voters may remove from office after six months’ service by a special election any local official.[4]
Judiciary.—The judicial department of the state consists of a supreme court, circuit courts, county courts (held by a county judge in each county) and the courts of local justices of the peace. The supreme court consists of five (before 1909 the number was three) justices elected for a term of six years, and its jurisdiction extends only to appeals from the decisions of the circuit courts. The judges of the circuit courts were formerly supreme court justices on circuit; they also are chosen for six years, and they have cognizance over all cases, including appeals from inferior courts, not specifically reserved by law for some other tribunal. The judges of the county courts are elected for four years, and their courts have jurisdiction over probate matters, civil cases involving amounts not exceeding $500, and criminal cases in which the offence is not punishable by death or imprisonment in the penitentiary. Each county is divided into a number of districts or precincts, for each of which there is a justice of the peace, elected biennially and having jurisdiction in minor cases.
Local Government.—For the purposes of local government the state is divided into thirty-four counties. The constitution provides that no county may have an area of less than 400 sq. m., and that no new county may be created unless its population is at least 1200. County affairs are administered by the county judge acting with two commissioners. Any portion of a county containing as many as 150 inhabitants may be incorporated as a town or city, and as such it possesses complete self-government in all purely local matters, even
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The constitution set 30 as the maximum number of senators, 60 as the maximum number of representatives, and provided for 16 senators and 34 representatives in 1857–1860. It provided for an enumeration and a reapportionment each tenth year after 1865.
- ↑ Before 1904, under a law of 1901, the people voted for candidates for the United States Senate, but the legislative assembly was in no way bound to carry out the decision of the popular vote; and in 1904 the legislature chose as United States senator a candidate for whom no votes had been cast in the popular election.
- ↑ It is to be noted that the Republican party had not favoured requiring a pledge from members of the legislature that they would vote for the people's choice for senator; that the Democratic candidate for senator (Gov. G. E. Chamberlain) was a prominent advocate of the initiative, the referendum and the direct election of United States senators; and that a wing of the Republican party worked for the choice of the Democratic candidate by the people in the hope that the (Republican) legislature would not ratify the popular choice and so would nullify the direct primary law.
- ↑ At times the two law-making bodies—the legislature and the people—have come into conflict. In 1906, for example, the people by the initiative secured a law forbidding public officers from accepting free passes from railways. In 1907 the legislature repealed all laws on this subject and required railways to furnish free transportation to certain officials. Upon this measure, however, the people ordered a referendum and it was rejected at the polls. In 1908 the people voted against increasing the number of supreme court judges; in 1909 the legislature increased the number.
