both men and women, only vote. The trouble, of
course, is that there are certain matters, notably the expenditure for
schools, which is the largest, at least in Massachusetts cities
and towns, which are in a sense both municipal and political, both
economic and affecting individual rights of persons not property
owners. In any case, the matter must be considered outside of the
sphere of "practical politics." It is hardly likely that, except for
some special matter like the race question in the South, a State
constitution will ever be amended in a conservative direction. Allied
with this would be a proposition to deprive persons in receipt of
wages or salary from a city of the vote at municipal elections.
Laborers and employees in the employ of a large city like Boston
already form a very considerable percentage of the voters, and if you
add to them the employees on the public-service corporations, partly
under municipal control, you have probably got nearly one-third of
the total vote. Yet the vote could not be taken from them without an
amendment to the State constitution.

Of the initiative and referendum much has been written. It exists in
full force, that is to say, as applying both to State elections and to
county, city, or town elections, in several States, mostly in the far
West; and for partial purposes it exists in several more. "Direct
legislation" has been very popular as a political slogan during the
past few years, but it has not been adopted as yet in any of the
thirteen original States. The objections to it are fundamentally that
it destroys the principle of representative government; that it takes
responsibility from the legislature with the result, probably, of
getting a more and more inferior type of man as State representative;
that it is unnecessary, inasmuch as any one may have any bill
introduced in the legislature to-day, and public sentiment be
effectual to prevent the bill from being defeated; and finally, the
objection of inconvenience, that it is cumbrous and unmanageable to
work. Already the Secretary of State of Oregon complains that the laws
passed by initiative are so badly written as to be unintelligible
and conflicting, to say nothing of bad spelling and grammar. In one
instance, at least, an important statute, that for the initiative and
referendum itself, adopted by initiative, failed of effect because
it contained no clause beginning "Be it enacted," etc. Possibly with
practice thes