adopted in 1879
also restricted the benefits of home rule to cities of more than 100,000
population, but it has since been extended to all cities having more
than 3,500 inhabitants. Washington allows all cities having 20,000 or
more population to frame their own charters. Minnesota extends the
privilege to all cities and villages without respect to size, while
Colorado restricts it to cities having more than 2,000 inhabitants.

The right to serve as a member of a charter commission is limited to
freeholders in all these states except Colorado, where it is restricted
to taxpayers. The object of these home-rule provisions was to give
cities some measure of initiative in local affairs without at the same
time permitting them to organize on the plan of simple majority rule. In
the Missouri constitution of 1875 a four-sevenths vote was required to
adopt a charter and a three-fifths vote to ratify an amendment, although
the constitution itself was adopted and could be amended by mere
majority vote. The constitution of California permits ratification by a
majority of the qualified voters, but every charter thus ratified must
be submitted to the legislature for its approval or rejection as a
whole. No charter amendment can be adopted except by a three-fifths
majority of the popular vote and subsequent legislative approval,
although, as in the case of Missouri, a majority vote is sufficient to
approve an amendment to the state constitution. In Washington the
constitution provides for the ratification of charters and charter
amendments by a majority of the qualified electors. The constitutional
amendment adopted in Minnesota in 1896, with its subsequent
modifications, provides for the ratification of charters and charter
amendments by a four-sevenths vote except in the case of certain cities
where a three-fourths majority is required. A three-fifths vote in favor
of a charter amendment is necessary for its ratification. Colorado, by a
constitutional amendment adopted in 1902, permits the ratification and
amendment of charters by a majority vote. A constitutional amendment
adopted in Missouri in 1902 provides for the ratification of charters by
majority vote.

With the exception of California, where the constitutional amendment of
1902 allows 15 per cent. of the qualified voters to require the
submission of a charter amendment, and Colorado, where 25 per cent. of
the voters have that right, the states above mentioned make no prov