THE PACIFIC COAST.

Evening Star, Issue 12699, 27 June 1907, Page 8

THE PACIFIC COAST.

NEW.. CONSTITCrnON FOR OREGON.

VANCOUVER COMMJERCIAL EXCUR-

SION.

TO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

[By A. A. Bbown, for the ' Star.'] Much has been written and reasis on reams of paper have been used by the world's economists and magazino contributors commendatory of many of the advanced laws of New Zealand and the Australasian colonies. That the political life of the colonies is clean and spotless, compared to ihe riot of corruption extint throughout tho United States, is said to be due to the fact that the people have greater control, that the Government are nearer to the people, and that the people .'oe honest and jiet. Tho removal of the government from the people, the centralisation of all-power in the national capital at Washington, far distant fiom all interests represented by members iu Congress, Has led to the per feet- organisation of a third House, not elective, but ii.finitely more powerful than the duly elected membership. Such has been the power of the lobby in shaping theopinionof members on measures involving vested interests that members thus influenced have become known as the hon. member from the Standard Oil Company, the hon. representative of the American Steel Company, the member from the Copper Trust, the representative of the Leather Trust; the Ice Trust, the Bread Trust ; the Bilking Powder Trust, etc., etc., ad libitum. Such has been tho growth of representation of vested intelests that there is an awakening of the people to the necessity to save themselves from their representatives and restore tue government, as nearly as possible, to the people. From the colonist's point of vantage there teems but little progress made, but were my readers on the ground, moving about with their eyes open, they would 6ee " the handwriting on tie wall," that will purify the political life of this nation, and make it as clean as a human institution can be made. States are, one by one, adopting measures pronounced by corporate interests as radical and revolutionary," and, in tueir right, anything is revolutionary that forbids them purwuing their campaign of plunder and corruption which has started the fiies of public indignation. The most radical—indeed, I am warranted in saying the most ultra-Social alio—measures ever adopted by an outraged and angered people may be found in tho new Constitution of the State of Oregon. Nothing else within my knowledge will be read by the people of the colonies who are interested in public affairs with more interest than section 1 of article IV. of the new Constitution of that State: Tho legislative authority of tho State shall be vested in a Legislative Assembly, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, but the people reserve to themselves powers 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. The first power reserved by the people is the initiative, and not more than 8 per cent, of the legal voters shall be required to propose any measure by such petition, and every such petition shall include the full text of the measure proposed. Initiative petitions shall be filed with - Secreretary of State not less than four months before the election at which they are to be voted upon. The second power is the Referendum, and it may be ordered (except as to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety) either. by petition signed by 5 per cent, of the legal voters, or by the Legislative Assembly, as other Bills are enacted Referendum petitions shall be filed with the Secretary of State hot more than ninety days after the final adjournment of the seteion of the Legislative Assembly which passed the Bill on which the referendum is demanded. The veto power of the Governor shall not extend to measures referred to the people. All elections on measures referred to the people of tho State shall be held at the biennial regular general elections, except when the Legislative Assembly shall order a special elec:ion. Any measure referred to tho people shall take effect and become the law when it is approved by a majority of the votes cast therecn, and not otherwise. Tlie style of all Bills shall be: "Bo it enacted by the people of the State of O:egon." This section 6hall not be construed to deprive any member of the Legislative Assembly of tho right to introduce any measure. The whole o£ the votes cast for justice of the Supreme Court at th(? reguLir election last preceding, the filing of any petition fen the initiative or for the referendum shall be the basis on which the number of legal voters ueoessary to sign such petition shall be counted. Petitions and orders for the initiative and for the referendum

shall be filed with the Secretary of State, and in submitting the same to- the people, be and all other officers shall be guided bv the genoral laws and the Act submitting this amendment until legislation shall be especial ly provided for.

In the preliminary campaign incident to the reconstruction of the State's Constitution it is interesting to review the speecnes mude and leaflets and campaign literature used. An American by birth, an Australasian by every bond of sympathy and love, I noted with piide the ■freguent reference madu to the laws of the colonies, to the Australian b.'Jlot, and to advanced ideas in legiskt.on incorporated in colonial Acts, and yet none are so drastic and far-reaching as the section I have quoted. Briefly, it means: if the representatives do not faithfully represent the people, they (the people) can* forte them to do so. It means that the people can reject any law they don't want, and reserve to themselves through the organic law of the State the power to enact tav law thev do want.

it means more; it means that the boss, the dictator, tho machine, nas been thrown aside—is out of commission; it means that the old form ot government of vested interests by vested interests for vested interests has passed into " innocuous desuetude"; it means that the people are really supreme; it means an- honest administration of public trusts. An extract from one of the propaganda circulars reads as follows: —" The Bill is the natural and rational development of the Australian ballot law, and is drawn on the

samo principles." ■•■-.•■ . Thus will my readers see there is far-reaching -powers for good in every parliamentary Act of the colonies intended to purify tho political atmosphere, and place the government near to or into the hands of the people. While resident in Australia ard New Zealand I lon.ed for a sight of a Sunday newspaper filled to the brim with "news- , ' By contrast, having such a newspaper before me, I loathe its degrading influences, and deprecate tho existence of a public sentiment- that tolerates the washing of all the "dirty linen", of a nation in the presence of the young manhood and womanhood of a country, who cannot, if they would, be more or less contaminated by the sensational journalism altogether too popular. Let me epitomise a smg!e issue of a Sunday, paper now before me: — "Edna Courtney is confident of acquittal. .Girl who sh"ot employer thinks she was justified." "Grand Jury lays bare graft in Chicago." "...-. . "Sings swan song, then cuts out her . "Tfeabelia Grant, head of Metropolitan Sanatorium,- disappears with all themoney belonging-do; inmates of her institution, the character of-which is believed to have been exceedingly bad." •'•-.. ._•/. " Dying ;man writes his -slayer's- description." ■'-"" " - ■.-;■ "Boston woman has to stock

local matrimonial market with collection of spinsters frdm the East. Is arranging for large eons'gnment rtf husband-seeking spinsters from 'Hub' to relieve stringency." V.. v;v. .• • :■"'' "Tells of bribe money paid out to Ruff." "Gambler's wife dies of grief." "Escaped convict caught.-"

These savory morsels of journalistic sensationalism are clothed in. most lurid.: and brazen language; they are read .by churchgoers before service; they are fairly devoured by every-member of every family able, to invest. in a; Sunday paper. American journalism recognises nothing of home life or public life as sacred; . thcir scavengers aid muck-rakers claim the right to hold up "to public view every mortel of scandal to be found in every home, and to excoriate every public man to the very limit of a growing sensational vocabulary. I could read a colonial newspaper now with a relish, and an appreciation of the dignity of tone and freedom from extravagant coloring to the least shadow of wrong-doing. Criminals are lionised, divorcees are made heroines, corrnptionists are both acquitted -and convicted by the Press, courts are assailed, the ermine of tho Bench is dragged through pages of reeking filth, the home "is invaded for news, the pulpit is ridiculed—tho influence of all of which detracts from the morals of a nation. By comparison I commend tho Press of the colonies. May their shadows never grow less; may their columns ever reflect the virtues of a clean, moral people. The seaport and terminus of the Canadian Grand Trunk Railway has been located at Kairn. Island, some 400 miles north of Vancouver. The railway company have purchased 10,000 acres of land from the Canadian Government, whore will bo laid out tho town site of Prince Rupert. They are spending now £300,000 on wharves, jetties, .and goods sheds. The town site is now a virgin forest; with the exemption of the railway commissary, surveyors' dormitory and board-ing-house, and a general store there are no other improvements. The great rush will take place on September 1, when the Government will throw upon the market the first subdivision of town lots. Half the real 'estate brokers and land sharks and bunco steerers on the Pacific Coast have their plans bid to \>3 on the ground on that date. A Wall street Stock Exchange or a Chicago wheat pit will be as a spinsters' sewing bee to colonial football barrackers in comparison. The chief aim and one purpose in life of the estate agent then will be to blister every " tenderfoot " who falls their prey. From Nome, Alaska, to the southern boundary of California town promoting seems to be the " chief end of man." Tlie Pacific Coast is a monster Stock Exchange. Every other man is a broker, living by his wits rather than by toil. Paper values are doubled fiom sunset to sunrise; properties are apparently bought and sold at fabulous advances without the turn of a coin ; simply " blind" transfers, to deceive the uninitiated, and they axe deceived—shamelessly, ruthlessly, heartlessly plucked. The end must be a financial crisis that will wipe out the savings and the investn.jnts of thousands of the uninformed, who have been lured to ruin by the most sensational advertising propaganda ever conducted by a band of highbinders, supported by a conscienceless Press. Prince Rupert, 8.C., will be a seething cauldron of villains living just on .the brink of criminal liability. A magnificent Australasian excursion '■ is being organised to sail from Vancouver. 8.C., on December 6. . The party will be composed chiefly of bankers, capitalists, and investors. The excursion will be under the direction of the Oriental Tours Asso ciation, and the itinerary will comprise a tour of Australia from Brisbane to Mel ' bourne, Hobart (Tasmania), Dunedin. the I Sounds excursion, Christchurch, WellingI ton, Auckland, and back to Vancouver. The tourists are not alone b nt on sightseeing, but a number are interested in a study of Australasian political and labor conditions. Their visit will afford the tourists' associations and the several State eJovernments an opportunity to plav host to as representative a party of tourists as ever sailed the Pacific or visited the Southern Hemisphere. Their tour will also be in the nature of pioneering in the far south land. The Oriental Tours Asi.o ciation contemplate annual excursions thereafter. Therefore it is up to the Australian States to make the most, of this initial tour. Vancouver, 8.C., May 14.