Lowell Mill Girl

Back in Lowell, Mass, the first planned industrial city, they recruited farm girls to work in the textile mills.

To encourage the girls to stay out of trouble (not sure what trouble lurked in Lowell back in the early 1800's) and to give them opportunities to improve their mind and their character, they offered lectures that the girls could attend in their non-work hours.

Keeping up this tradition, the Oregon State Library offers lectures at the noon hour to those who happen to be around the capitol mall during the day. Which ends up being a lot of state employees. Today the Oregon Humanities offered us a "conversation" (their new style, instead of calling it a lecture as in the old days) about the Initiative Process in Oregon.

Factoids from today:
* Oregon ranks #1 in the number of initiatives over time (since 1904). Thanks Bill Sizemore!
* A book written in 1912 called out the good and the bad about initiatives, most of which is still relevant today: On the positive side, it allows citizens to influence our legal system, and provides for "direct democracy". On the negative side, it can allow a minority to influence and change the state constitution, can allow buying and selling of names and issues
* One-third of the initiatives have passed, cumulatively (so, 2/3 get defeated)
* Voter turnout is 3-8% higher in the 24 states that have an initiative system
* Womens suffrage - due to the initiative process (1912, a banner year)
* New this year - a Citizens Review panel (look for their comments in a Voters' Pamphlet near you)
* Oregon has the most open of any state initiative process. In other states crafty lawyers have to vet and review them. We allow an open process by the citizenry. Just like the western pioneering state we still think we are sometimes..

The process itself is interesting. The "ballot title" (what it is listed as in the Voters' Pamphlet and on your ballot) is written by the Attorney General. The Secretary of State is responsible for validity of signatures collected (by random sample, they don't check every name, and they work with the county elections offices). Interesting that both these positions are elected partisan positions. (Is this fair?)

Some initiatives of note:
Measure 60 (1998) - vote by mail
Measure in 1914 sponsored by the Socialist Party - would have guaranteed a job to anyone who wanted one. An actual third party got an initiative on the ballot!