The American Issue (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 8, Ed. 1 Monday, August 1, 1910 Page: 3 of 20
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American Issue
VOLUME VI OKLAHOMA EDITION, AUGUST. 1910 NUMBER 8
Resubmission
The liquor people have filed their petition asking
for a resubmission of the prohibition question to the
people. The governor took the position, when this
petition was presented for filing, that the initiative
law was not intended for the introduction of uncon-
stitutional questions; that the prohibition question was
settled for twenty-one years, not only by the terms of
the Enabling Act, but by the Twenty-one year Irrevo-
cable ordinance in our constitution; and that a vote
upon the question would be null and void and a vain
thing to do. He said, in his statement, that he would
submit this question to the people when the courts
decided it was a legal question, and refused to be
present at the filing of the petition, as is required by
the law.
The supreme court refused to take jurisdiction on
the constitutionality or legality of the questions in-
volved, and ordered the secretary of state to file the
petition, which has been done. The ballot title has
been properly furnished by the attorney general and
the petition certified up to the governor by the secre-
tary of state.
The liquor people have persistently published in
the papers the statement that the election would come
on automatically on the 8th of November at the gen-
eral election, unless the governor should see fit to call
a special election upon this question. We can find no
warrant for this statement in law, and no way under
the law by which the question can be voted upon, ex-
cepting by proclamation of the Governor. The liquor
people have raised a great hue and cry that the Anti-
Saloon League was blocking the election and inter-
fering with due process of law, and many of our
friends have said, “Why not have an election and set-
tle the matter?” In the first place, we have not so far
attempted to block any election. That has not been,
and is not yet, necessary. We have sought to have
the constitutionality, or legality, of the election settled
before it was held rather than after.
The decision of the supreme court, which was,
briefly, that all questions proposed under the initiative
must be submitted to the people by the executives, no
matter how unconstitutional or illegal, would admit of
an election on all sorts of questions and multiply the
expense to the people, only to have the elections de-
clared null and void after they had been held. We
have gone through an experience of that character in
Oklahoma within the past two years, and voted upon
the agency question, and after the vote was cast and
counted, the supreme court declared the election un-
constitutional.
If an election would settle the matter, it would
be altogether a different thing; but under this de-
cision of the supreme court another election on the
prohibition question would leave us just where we are,
no matter which way it went, and the question itself
would have to be decided by the courts.
We held an election upon this question on Sep-
tember 17, 1907, and by a majority of 18,200 decided
that we would not vote again upon it for twenty-one
years, and wrote prohibition into our constitution,
covering tfce entire state of Oklahoma, as an Irrev-
ocable ordinance, and yet we are trying to vote upon
it again now, and the supreme court holds that they
will not consider the constitutionality of that vote
until after it has been cast.
If the liquor men should win this election, we
would immediately go into the courts to have it de-
clared unconstitutional, and seek a settlement of the
question upon its constitutionality. On the other
hand, if we should win this election, the liquor men
could bring it up again and again as rapidly as they
saw fit, and we would have to vote upon it every time
before we could get a settlement as to the constitu-
tionaHty of the election.
People are complaining now about numerous
elections, but under this policy elections would be
multiplied galore, only to be declared null and void.
The moment that the courts will decide as to the con-
stitutionality of the election, we will be glad to co-
operate to bring it about, if it is declared legal.
No one familiar with the history of the past three
years of prohibition, during which Oklahoma has en-
joyed prosperity to an extent unknown in history and
unparalelled in the settlement of any state, would
doubt for a moment the outcome of such an election.
It would simply be a matter of getting out the vote,
but under present conditions it would not settle the
thing, and would only leave us where we are now.
The people wrote the prohibition law in the con- •
stitution by their own vote and said we would not
vote upon it for twenty-one years. They either had a
right to do this, or they did not have a right to do it.
and that is the question that should be decided by the
courts. *
In the meantime, the matter rests in the hands of
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Cherrington, Ernest H. The American Issue (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 6, No. 8, Ed. 1 Monday, August 1, 1910, newspaper, August 1, 1910; Westerville, Ohio and Oklahoma City Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc941764/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.