Tnitiative and Referendum. GEORGE E. PLUMBE, of the Referendum League of Illinois. In a general way initiative may be defined as the power of the people to secure desired legislation, and referendum as the power of the people to ratify or reject legislation at the polls, if they express a desire to do so. These ideas are not, by any means, new, having their inception in the assemblies of the Angles and Saxons, mentioned by Bryce in his American Commonwealth (vol. I., page 465), which died out during the Middle Ages. The first appearance in modern Europe of this method of direct legislation by the people is the provision of the French Constitution, framed by the National Convention of 1793, which directed that any law proposed by the legislative body should be published and sent to all communes of the Republic, whose Primary Assemblies should be convoked to vote upon it, in case objection to it should be raised by one-tenth of such Primary Assemblies in a majority of the departments. Some thirty years ago the Swiss Republic applied the referendum not only to enactments of the Separate Cantons, but also to its federal enactments. In Great Britain, in recent years, a sort of referendum is employed in cases where a general act of Parliament may become operative in any particular district upon the affirmative vote of its people. No other European country puts the responsibility for the final settlement of public questions upon the people to even the slightest extent. In Canada there is occasionally a vote taken upon public measures, but the result seems to be merely advisory. Under a republican form of government the theory is that the will of the people is the supreme law of the land, but in fact their will upon any single important measure of public policy is very rarely discovered. In most elections the personal and partisan elements are so prominent that when the polls are closed it is found that the voters have simply made a choice of men who exercise their own wills under such restraints only as party organizations may impose. For the purpose of enabling the voters to favor good measures, without at the same time electing unworthy or incompetent men to office, the advocates of the initiative and referendum maintain their election laws should be so framed that the people may have such specific laws as are to be voted on printed upon a ballot entirely separate and distinct from those containing the names of the candidates. Whether the people outside of the Legislature or City Council suggest the question to be decided, or whether it is formulated by a regular legislative body, is unimportant. The people may indorse the act and it will then become the law, because it embodies their will, or they may reject it, in which event it becomes inoperative, even although the legislators have unanimously passed it and Governors or Mayors have approved it. The movement in favor of the adoption of the initiative and referendum is very pronounced through the entire West, from Illinois to the Pacific Coast, and in many of the States strong leagues have been formed to secure the adoption of such amendments to State laws. The movement is entirely non-partisan, party lines cutting no figure in the allignment of either advocates or opponents. In Illinois the campaign for initiative and referendum is now on. The General Assembly in 1901 passed a law, advisory in its character, permitting a vote to be taken upon questions of public policy, upon petition, at a general election. The petition must contain the names of 25 per cent of the registered voters in cities, and 10 per cent in the State, but no more than three questions can be submitted at the same election. Prior to the city election, in April, 1902, a petition was presented to the Board of Election Commissioners, signed by more than 25 per cent of the registered voters of Chicago, asking that the following three questions be submitted, upon a separate ballot, to the voters. The first was as to the municipal ownership of gas and electric light plants; the second as to municipal ownership of street railways; and the third as to the nomination of all candidates for city offices by direct ballot at primaries held for that purpose. Party lines were totally obliterated, and the first proposal carried by a majority of 96,828; the second by a majority of 118,635, and the third by a majority of 122.432. The fact that very many of the franchises of the street railway companies are about to expire, which the companies are anxious to renew for fifty years upon terms not satisfactory to the people, gave zest to the campaign. The Common Council of the city was, by this election, fully advised of the temper of the people regarding the renewal of these franchises. This large vote shows indisputably that the people will express their opinions upon public questions if given the opportunity to do so. were Following up this success, petitions, containing the signatures of 150,000 registered voters. filed with the Secretary of the State of Illinois, and, on the 4th of November, 1902, every voter in every election precinct in the State was given a "little ballot" upon which to register his "advisory" opinion upon the adoption or rejection of three questions, as follows: 1. Shall the next General Assembly enact a statute by which the voters of the political subdivisions of the State of Illinois may be enabled to initiate desired local legislation, by filing a petition therefor, signed by 8 per cent of the legal voters in said political subdivisions; and to have referred to the voters any legislation enacted by the several local legislative bodies, by the filing of a petition therefor of 5 per cent of the legal voters of any such political subdivision; the action of a majority of those voting to decide in each case? 2. Shall the next General Assembly submit to the people of the State of Illinois, at the next State election, a Constitutional Amendment providing for the control of legislation by the people, by means of the initiative and referendum; said amendment to provide for the initiation of legislation upon a petition of 8 per cent of the voters of the political divisions affected; and for the reference of legislation upon á petition of 5 per cent of the voters of the political divisions affected, the action of the majority of the electors voting to be final; thus restoring to the people the power they once held, but which they delegated to the General Assembly by the Constitution? 3. Shall the next General Assembly take the necessary steps under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, to bring about the election of United States Senators by the direct vote of the people? All legislative power in Illinois is vested in the General Assembly, and every member of that body will be fully advised as to the wishes of his constituents when the Legislature convenes in 1903. As to this movement in other Western States, a few examples will show its progress. On June 3, 1902, the people of Oregon voted, by an overwhelming majority, in favor of a Constitutional Amendment for vesting legislative power in the people. After a campaign of ten years' duration they have adopted the initiative and referendum. In Nebraska a law establishing the same principle was enacted in 1897. In South Dakota, initiative and referendum was adopted in both municipal and State affairs in 1898, and may be invoked upon a petition signed by 5 per cent of the voters. The people of that State have not to this date employed it, owing to the fact that the placing of this vote power in the hands of the people has been a check upon the Legislature against vicious or undesirable legislation. In November, 1900, the people of Utah adopted a Constitutional Amendment which established initiative and referendum in both State and municipal affairs. The adoption of the amendment was opposed by both the Republican and Democratic party organizations, by the Mormon Church and generally by the press. In San Francisco, Cal., the people may apply the referendum to any ordinances or amendments to the city charter upon a 5 per cent petition, but certain ordinances and franchise grants must be submitted without a petition. The tendency in cities seems to be to make the submission of franchise grants and municipal ownership propositions compulsory, leaving the referendum upon other questions entirely optional with the people. In California municipalities make their own charters, and that State is one of the five in which such power exists. Four cities in the West have direct legislation under their charters. These are Alameda and San Francisco, California, and Buckley and Tacoma, Washington. Tnsect Entomology is, in its practical aspect, a science so broadly utilitarian that the study of insects has a value which very largely overshadows its academic interest. This value Extermination; grows out of the vital relations ex the Practical Study of Entomology. isting between insect life and the health and general welfare of mankind; and in its nature it is both sanitary and economic. The economic value is dual in that, while certain classes of insects are producers, or aids to production, for the benefit of the human race, others are destroyers, and for that reason are to be studied with a view to their own destruction. The honey bee and the insect which gives us the silk worm are included in the first class, the former being, in addition to its character as a producer, one of those insects which aid in production by their agency in the fertilization of plants. Study of this class of insects has for one of its objects the propagation, im- Eggs and Larvae of the Mosquito. provement and broader distribution of the breeds. ** The other class, designated as injurious insects, includes varieties which are inimical to vegetable life, of which there is a great number; and those which affect unfavorably the conditions of animal life, even, as is now established, to the extent of disseminating disease. Against this class, as represented in para sites, mankind has waged war from the beginning of time, but with crudity of method, until within a comparatively recent period. In fact, it is rived from entomological investigation fare scientifically. Husbandry appealed agriculture especially that States made insects which seeks, in addition to means the means of protection against their their propagation. This involves, in order the biology of the species against which many of the States in the Union maintain government machinery, while in the one of the most important divisions is of which is Mr. L. Ò. Howard. While Howard and his associates relate pri interests from the damage, and even certain insects, the menace to health of the species is included in the field of jurious to agriculture, the list is an ex nearly every variety of root, plant and within several years are two which have the growing importance of the sugarthe beet. One is the beet army worm, army worm. It appeared during the year although it is obviously of foreign origin considerably west of the Mississippi of its migrating, as the Colorado beetle guarded against. The beet webworm is able crop, which is disposed to make its whence it comes. Full-Grown Larva only through that knowledge which is dethat it is possible to conduct such a warfor this, and it was in the interest of provision for that study of destructive for destroying them when they appear, appearance by preventing or minimizing to be successful, a complete knowledge of measures are to be taken, To this end an entomological bureau as part of the United States Department of Agriculture the Division of Entomology, at the head the investigations conducted by Mr. marily to the preservation of agricultural havoc, with which they are threatened by which exists in the multiplication of some study. As to the insects which are intremely long one, including an enemy for tree. Among those which have appeared attracted particular attention because of beet industry. Both are destructive of which is related to the well-known Fall 1899 in Colorado and New Mexico, and and restricted in this country to an area Valley, there is always a probability did. Hence it is one of the pests to be the other enemy of this great and valuway eastward from the Pacific coast, to the general health, the medical profesyears in the question of how far they 1880 Dr. Laveran, a French army surreport of an investigation he had then discovered the specific organism of the appearance of this report was followed the part of other observers, who fully ed additional and indisputable evidence been identified. Subsequent to this Drs. investigators in different parts of the other, proved that the malarial parasite In regard to the relations of insects sion has been interested for a number of contribute to the spread of disease. In geon on duty in Algeria, published the concluded in which he claimed to have disease known as malarial fever. The by exhaustive bacteriological research on confirmed Laveran's statement and present that the parasite causing malaria had Ross, Manson, Koch, Grassi and other world, and working independently of each was transmitted from one person to another by the female of the species of mosquito known as the anophele. Later, during the presence of the United States troops in Cuba, Dr. Walter Reed, an army surgeon, successfully demonstrated by experiment that mosquitoes transmit yellow fever. The value of these discoveries lies very materially in the question whether this cause of disease can be combatted, as successful warfare against disease-bearing insects would mean a great deal in the matter of bringing these specified diseases under control. Among scientific men who have devoted thought and labor to the subject none has been more active than Dr. A. H. Doty, Health Officer of the Port of New York. For two or three years past Dr. Doty has been carrying on an interesting series of experiments at and near the Quaran- "In the beginning of the investiga- Adult of Harmless Mosquito, of used, or unused rain barrels, cisterns, Adult of Harmful Mosquito. cesspools or abandoned receptacles thrown about the premises. Samples of water from these, as well as all stagnant pools were examined and the larvae found. In some instances, particularly in receptacles about the house, the water contained was actually alive with them. As the larvae require but a few days to become the full-fledged, winged insects, it will be appreciated that a very small receptacle can supply innumerable mosquitoes. Large glass tubes were distributed among the houses for the purpose of securing some of the mosquitoes which infected the neighborhood, and among those collected were found the anopheles, or malarial mosquitoes. These were particularly evident in tubes coming from a small section consisting of a few scattered houses. In one of the latter was found a family consisting of five persons, all of whom presented evidence that they were suffering from the acute, or chronic form of the disease. On two evenings I secured live mosquitoes from the bedrooms in this house. The first evening five were captured and all but one of them were anopheles. On the second evening twenty-two were collected, and of these more than one-half were the malarial insect.' ་་ Through experiments made with the blood secured from malarial patients the parasite has been found and identified, and dissection of the anophele has disclosed the same parasite carried as transferable matter. Such dissections and discoveries have been made by a number of physicians, including Dr. Doty. Of the experiments made for the elimination of the mosquito Dr. Doty says: In "Many tests have been made in the laboratory to ascertain the value of different agents believed to be destructive to the mosquito larvae. This has included experiments with the different grades of petroleum oil, permanganate of potassium, bichloride of mercury, carbolic acid, bromine, formaldehyde, etc. It was a surprise to find that a solution of bichloride of mercury (1-2000) sufficiently strong to kill all micro-organisms, or germs, affected the larvae slowly, some being alive at the expiration of twenty-four hours. weaker solutions they live indefinitely. It would be unsafe under any condition to use this dangerous agent in pools or ponds, etc., which are exposed-this may also be said of carbolic acid and other agents experimented with. Permanganate of potassium, which has been strongly recommended for the destruction of the larvae produced, had but little effect except in very strong solutions. During these tests the marked super iority of petroleum oil soon became manifest. There seemed to be no special advantage of one petroleum over another. The lima oil, which was used in petrolizing the stagnant pools and rain barrels, etc., is a crude petroleum with a minimum amount of naptha. One cubic centimetre of this added to 3,500 cubic centimetres of water containing larvae killed them in three or four hours. This is equivalent to about 20 drops of oil to a gallon of water-as a matter of fact this result was usually obtained by less than this amount of oil. Whether the destructive action of the oil on the larvae is due to some specific quality, or whether it obstructs respiration, I am not at present able to say, however, I am inclined to believe that it is the latter. Furthermore, emanation from the oil, or its odor, or both, are particularly repugnant if not dangerous to the full-grown mosquito. There is no doubt that the best effect of the oil is gained by introducing it to a considerable depth under the water. In this way it is more surely brought in direct contact with the larvae, particularly if the water is agitated. This principal was carried out in our practical work. The apparatus used consisted of wooden floats of different sizes, having beneath a network of small perforated iron pipes, with the openings on the under surface. These are connected by a rubber hose with a portable oil tank containing oil under air pressure. In this manner the oil was forced almost to the bottom of the pool, and in its transit to the surface, its resting place, it undoubtedly was thoroughly mixed with the larvae. Whereas, when it is simply thrown on the surface, it does not descend, but collects in different parts by the force of the air, etc.. and leaves spaces where the larvae may breathe." During the Summer of 1902 a work similar to that of Dr. Doty's, so far as attacking the mosquito is concerned, was carried on in South Orange, N. J., under the auspices of the Village Improvement Society there. Mr. Spencer Miller, chairman of the Central Committee, having the matter in charge, said in a report to the society: "Speaking roughly of our results, I should say that in 1901, by the use of oil alone, we reduced the mosquitoes at least 50 per cent. This year, by adding drainage to the oil work, we bave surely cut down the supply 75 per cent. We can hope another year to reduce the supply 10 per cent but that is the best we can do until the surrounding communities take up the fight. The area we more Tsetse Fly. have been treating is 2 miles long and 1 wide. This year we expended $1,100, and our results are much more emphatic than last year. Ten thousand dollars spent at once would drain and fill every wet spot in town and the problem would take care of itself." Black Gadfly. This is precisely the view of the subject taken by Dr. Doty as a result of his study of the matter. He regards the root of the evil as existing in defective drainage, and he suggests that relief from the mosquito can be brought about only by the strict enforcement of modern sanitary regulations. The hope that this can be left to the people to carry out by cooperation among themselves is sure to end in disappointment," he says. "The responsibility of carryout this important work must rest with the municipal, State and federal authorities. Municipal sanitary codes should include strict regulations not only against the existence of stagnant pools, but all forms of breeding places, and should empower sanitary officers to employ such means as are necessary to protect the public against these insects, and where required, the application of oil should be made under their direction, provided proper drainage cannot be secured. In order to make this work uniform and effective, the cooperation of the State and federal authorities is absolutely necessary. Such actions would be followed by the most gratifying results, and would go far toward freeing us from a disease which has entered many households." The disease-carrying tendency of other insects than the mosquito is under investigation, but not to so full an extent as yet. Among the suspects are the common house fly, fleas, the bedbug and other insects which are pests of the home and its adjuncts, together with such as the tsetse fly and such other creatures as are capable of conveying the germs of disease from infected cattle to human beings. Concerning the spread of disease by insects, Mr. L. O. Howard, Entomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture, says that while in malaria and typhoid we have the two principal diseases common in the United States which may be thus conveyed, the agency of these little creatures in the transfer of disease germs is much more widespread in warm countries, and it is by no means confined to human beings. It is, therefore, possible that in the large commerce in foreign products, and especially in the importation of tropical fruits into the United States, the diseases peculiar to the warmer countries may be introduced here from time to time by specimens of the insects lurking among the importations. In Egypt and in the Fiji Islands there is a destructive eye disease which attacks human beings, the germs of it being carried by the common house fly. These their affliction might come to certain portions of the country for the development of diseaseMr. Howard notes the fact that disease, known as pink-eye, is flies of the genus Hippelates. In a disease named filariasis, someof leprosy, which is transferred quitoes. Mr. Howard is authority good reason to suppose that the be transferred from sick people of fleas, and he adds that "the is unquestionably transferred by was the earliest of the clearly fer of disease by insects." That tion of disease among domestic man health is shown by the fact ed with that disease of cattle duce malignant pustules upon Seventeen Year Locust. are far-off countries, but that The agency of the common is a moot question with scientific them who will not commit himself fly carries disease germs, although house fly, however, does not bite, of disease, it could not, as the do, inject them into the blood of whether such as might attach to up or spread except in an occa hand, L. O. Howard, in discussing Rural Districts," a paper pre Agriculture, and expressing a wish to point out as forcibly as possible the danger of the spread of typhoid fever by insects. says: "The principal insect agent in this spread is the common house fly, and this insect is especially abundant in country houses in the vicinity of stables in which horses are kept. The reason for this is that the preferred food of the larvae of house flies is horse manure. House flies breed in incredible numbers in a manure pile largely derived from horses. Twelve hundred house flies, and perhaps more, will issue from a pound of horse manure. Ten days completes a generation of house flies in the Summer. The number of eggs laid by each female fly averages 120. Thus, under favorable conditions, the offspring of a single overwintering house fly may in the course of a Summer reach a figure almost beyond belief. With an uncaredfor pile of horse manure in the vicinity of a house, therefore, flies are sure to swarm. Their number practically will be limited only by breeding opportunities. They are attracted to, and will lay their eggs in, human excrement. Under favorable conditions they will breed, to some extent, in this excrement. They swarm in kitchens and dining rooms where food supplies are exposed. They are found commonly in box privies, which sometimes are not distant from the kitchens and dining rooms. Therefore, with an abundance of flies, with a box privy near by, or with excremental deposits in the neighborhood, and with a perhaps unsuspected or not yet fully developed case of typhoid in the immediate neighborhood there is no reason why, through the agency of contaminated flies alighting upon food supplies, the disease should not be spread to healthy individuals. That it is so spread is not to be questioned. That under the unusual conditions of the army concentration camps in the Summer of 1898 it was so spread to a shocking extent has been demonstrated by the army typhoid fever commission. And the remedy is plain. It consists of two courses of procedure: (1) Proper care of excreta; (2) the destruction of Dies." While Mr. Howard's remarks, here quoted, are applicable primarily to country places, they embody ample suggestion for the residents of cities and towns as well; and there is more of it in the following: "While extended investigations have shown that the common house fly is the fly most to be feared in guarding against typhoid on account of the fact that over 99 per cent of the flies found in kitchens and dining rooms are house flies, there are others to be guarded against. The little fruit flies of the genus Drosophila, which breed in over-ripe or decaying fruit, are the principal species in this category. Cat and Dog Flea.. Bedbug. Therefore, fruit storehouses or fruit receptacles should be screened, and over-ripe fruit should not be allowed to remain in dining rooms or kitchens for any length of time." The close relations existing between city and country in this matter of the propagation of disease are set forth by Mr. Howard in the following: "While it is true that both malaria and typhoid prevail in large cities, it is none the less true that they may with a certain degree of accuracy be termed country diseases, that is to say, rather specifically, diseases of the farm and the small village. Malaria, in fact, has been called by medical men a country disease. Swampy regions do not occur in cities, or, at all events, only in the suburbs, whereas they occur commonly in the country. Open streams with side pools of still water are found only in the country, and it is in such small, still pools, and in more or less permanent but small accumulations of water, that the malarial mosquito breeds. This mosquito, therefore, does not accomodate itself well to city conditions, but it is found almost everywhere in the country, except possibly in very dry localities and at certain high elevations. Even in dry regions it sometimes abounds, especially where there is a definite rainy season, or where the land is irrigated. Irrigating ditches are prolific breeding places for mosquitoes, including the malarial kind. Malaria in cities, as a rule, is found only with persons who have contracted it in the country or in cities having marshy places on exist, the extent of which depends the prevailing Summer breezes, es example, such a condition as this malaria in certain portions of the clamation of the Potomac Flats, the prevailing night breezes of well supplied with water from a voir, which possesses a modern water-closets are universal, derive lowing Sources: Contaminated ple in the Autumn from the less in the disposal of the discharges typhoid from either of the first "Of course it will be said city may become contaminated at supply. This contamination is be obviated either in a general reservoir filtering plant, or in a householders by the constant and cities possessing a common water plumbing there is no excuse for household. Even the city water done by the use of any one of market; the milk which is drunk and strict sanitary precautions turning from the country; these will aid in the abolition of daries." Beet Web Worm. Beet Army Worm. the suburbs, although with some their borders a malarial belt may upon the direction and force of pecially the night breezes. For accounts for the prevalence of city of Washington before the rewhich lie to the south of the city, the Summer being southern. Cities reservoir, especially a filter resersewage system, and in which typhoid fever only from the folcountry milk, the return of peosanitary country, and lack of care of persons who have contracted two sources. In that the entire water supply of a or immediately above its reservoir from country sources and might manner by the establishment of a special manner by individual thorough use of house filters. supply and modern sanitary the presence of typhoid in the must be filtered, which can be the cheap filters the by children must be sterilized. should be taken with persons remeasures, systematically followed, typhoid fever within city boun now on The fact that the bedbug is suspected of even more than its long-known unpleasantness in that it is a possible conservator and distributor of disease germs adds greatly to the desirability of exterminating the pest from the household, if such a thing is possible. While the constant care of the housekeeper effects a great deal in most cases, the best that can be done by the usual methods of warfare is to check the evil. Dr. Alvah H. Doty and His Oil Float. |