and work on the channel of the river, and to memorialize Congress for an appropriation to aid the celebration of the centennial of the exploration of the Oregon country by Lewis and Clark.

There seems to be nothing noteworthy about the act which was passed amendatory of the revenue law.

The act relating to the Columbia River created a Board of Commissioners of Canals and Locks and authorized it in behalf of the state to acquire rights of way for the United States to carry out its contemplated improvements and to secure their release from all claims for damages done by the work and appropriated a considerable sum to that end.

The Revenue Act and the Columbia River Act, in order to become effective immediately, despite the initiative and referendum clause of the Oregon constitution, each contained an emergency provision to this effect: "It is hereby adjudged and declared that existing conditions are such that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety and excepted from the operation and power of the referendum, and an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this act shall take effect immediately." Had it not been for this emergency provision, these acts under the constitutional clause referred to could not have taken effect for some time after their passage, and in the meantime might have been subjected to the veto of the referendum.

The memorial in behalf of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition is a strong appeal for an appropriation by the United States in aid of that patriotic enterprise. It breathes the spirit of territorial expansion, eulogizes Jefferson and states that while he was minister to France and twenty years before any thought was given to the idea of acquiring territory west of the Mississippi River, except the island of Orleans at the mouth of the river he had planned to locate an American settlement on the northwest coast of North America, referring, evidently, to his attempt in 1786 to secure for a citizen of Connecticut permission to pass through Russia and

over Behring Straits to the North American coast, and thence overland to the United States.

Coast, the memorial says:

Speaking of the Pacific

"The Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon specially sets forth to the Congress of the United States that the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition will be representative in every respect of the tremendous progress and development of the great West in the century just passed, and, as an undertaking of so far reaching a character, merits the full measure of co-operation and support from the national government. The Pacific Coast, notwithstanding the large and important part it has played in the upbuilding of the nation and in rounding it out to its fullness as a world power, never has been favored with a government appropriation for an exposition. Over its shores the American flag waved in its first journey around the world from Boston and return, by way of the Columbia River and China. The humble fort that Lewis and Clark built at Clatsop in the winter of 1805 gave the United States its first foothold upon the Pacific Ocean-that theater of the world's new activities-and paved the way for the expansion that has increased the national domain from 827,000 square miles in 1783 to 3,727,000 square miles in 1903. The philosophy that taught President Jefferson that the mountain chain feeding so considerable a river as the Missouri on the east must be the source of another large stream flowing westward opened the path of civilization to the Pacific and provided, through our own country, the route to India, which was for centuries the dream and hope of every navigator from Columbus down to recent times. At the Columbia River, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound, Honolulu and Manila the United States is fortified to occupy, in war or in peace, the high station in the council of nations to which events in the Pacific have called it. Having faithfully discharged to the nation every obligation imposed upon it as an integral part of the union, or falling to it by reason of its environments, having in time of war responded to every call made upon it for the national defense, and having in time of peace poured forth its wealth of mines, farm and range for the general welfare, the Pacific Coast now asks from Congress, in the matter of the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, the consideration which its past service to the nation and the merit of its cause deserve."

This eloquent plea was not lost upon Congress, for on April 13, 1904, it passed an act authorizing the government to participate in celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Oregon exploration by Lewis and Clark, providing for a government board, a comprehensive government exhibit, for exhibits from Alaska, Hawaii and the Philippine Islands, for the issuance of memorial gold dollars at cost, for the erection of suitable buildings and appropriating sums of money aggregating $500,000. It seems proper that your President at this stage of the meeting should call attention to this exposition to be held in Portland in 1905, to dispel the illusion that the exposition where we are now assembled is to be the last. So there will be no excuse for the members of this Association failing to give close attendance at its present meetings on the ground that there are to be no more expositions.

During the year, under the initiative and referendum clause of the Oregon constitution, two bills have been enacted by the people of Oregon. One provides for direct primary nominations of candidates for public office by the people without the intervention of political conventions, and the other is a local option liquor law. A third law, providing a salary instead of fees for the state printer, was proposed under the initiative and referendum plan, but defeated at the election. The bills under this method of procedure were drawn in the form of legislative acts, signed by the requisite number of voters, filed with the secretary of state, and published; notice of the election was given, and the election held practically under the general election laws of the state.

The act providing for direct primary nominations is novel and a radical innovation.

Its title covers three, and its preamble two, printed octavo pages in which there is much fine writing. The enacting clause reads, "Be it enacted by the people of the State of Oregon." Aside from the title and preamble there are 46 sections, covering 43 large printed pages, and the whole act contains 1437 lines, or about 14,370 words. Without reflecting in

any manner upon the merits of the measure, anyone reading this law would be pardoned in characterizing it as a most striking example of legislative verbosity. If the bill had passed through a friendly legislature, it is almost certain that by process of revision and amendment in the committees and on the floor its provisions would have been less luxuriant in length and clearer and more concise in language. Those most ardent in their support of the initiative and referendum cannot claim that it will bring about an improvement in legislative style. There has been a growing need in American legislative bodies for an improved legislative style, and some have advocated standing committees which would put all legislative acts in finished form which would express their object accurately and succinctly. Such a method, however, can never be applied under the initiative and referendum, for the bills as filed with the secretary of state are not subject to amendment, and must be either accepted or rejected by the people just as they stand.

The preamble of this act says:

"Under our form of government political parties are useful and necessary at the present time. It is necessary for the public welfare and safety that every practical guaranty shall be provided by law to assure the people generally, as well as the members of the several parties, that political parties shall be fairly, freely and honestly conducted in appearance as well as in fact. The method of naming candidates for elective public offices by political parties and voluntary political organizations is the best plan yet found for placing before the people the names of qualified and worthy citizens from whom the electors may choose the officers of our government. The government of our state by its electors and the government of a political party by its members are rightfully based on the same general principles. Every political party and every voluntary political organization has the same right to be protected from the interference of persons who are not identified with it as its known and publicly avowed members, that the government of the state has to protect itself from the interference of persons who are not known and registered as its electors. It is as great a wrong to the people, as well as to the members of a political

party, for one who is not known to be one of its members to vote or take any part at any election or other proceedings of such political party as it is for one who is not a qualified and registered elector to vote at any state election or take any part in the business of the state. Every political party and voluntary political organization is rightfully entitled to the sole exclusive use of every word of its official name. The people of the state and members of every political party and voluntary political organization are rightfully entitled to know that every person who offers to take any part in the affairs or business of any political party or voluntary political organization in the state is in good faith a member of such party. The reason for the law which requires a secret ballot when all the electors choose their officers equally requires a secret ballot when the members of a party choose their candidates for public office. It is as necessary for the preservation of the public welfare and safety that there shall be a free and fair vote and an honest count as well as a secret ballot at primary elections, as it is that there shall be a free and fair vote and an honest count in addition to the secret ballot at all elections of public officers. All qualified electors who wish to serve the people in an elective public office are rightfully entitled to equal opportunities under the law.

"The purpose of this law is better to secure and to preserve the rights of political parties and voluntary political organizations and of their members and candidates, and especially of the rights above stated."

The primary nominating elections are to be held within stated times prior to the general election, and at the primary elections the candidates of all political parties are chosen by plurality vote, and no other candidates of the political parties can be voted for at the general election. The petitions of the candidates for nomination are required to be filed in writing, and must state that the petitioner is a registered voter and a member of the political party from whom he is seeking a nomination, and that if nominated he will accept and will not withdraw, and if elected will qualify. He is also permitted to state, in not exceeding one hundred words, any measures or principles which he especially advocates; and, in not exceeding twelve words, the form in which he wishes them printed after