The initiative, the referendum and the recall would not cure present evils, but would in fact only intensify and perpetuate them. The power and control of unrepresentative and irresponsible party machines would be largely increased instead of being curtailed. Better men would not be nominated and elected, but quite the contrary; the self-seeker, advertiser and manipulator alone would be nominated. The exercise of the initiative, the referendum and the recall would be determined by exactly the same people who now control our nominations and elections. It is absurd to suppose that the very men who so often choose incapable or dishonest representatives or neglect to vote at all would exercise greater efficiency in supervising legislation, in recalling public officers and judges, or in setting aside judicial decisions. Equally absurd is the idea of legislation by popular vote. The importance of framing laws and constitutional amendments in clear and exact language and the impracticability of doing so without careful consideration and discussion and comparison with existing provisions, as in legislative committees, must be recognized by all thinking men. Our system of laws is becoming more and more complex every year, and unavoidably so. The people at large cannot be expected to know and understand a great and extremely complex system of laws, and it is no reflection on them to say that they cannot grasp the details of legislation any more than it would be to say that there are few men in the community competent to administer as judges the unavoidably intricate system of laws under which we live. We have only to look at recent experience in the state of New York in regard to the adoption of constitutional amendments, the most important function that can be exercised by a voter, to appreciate the folly of the proposed remedies. The total vote for and against these amendments has frequently been less than one-half--and at times barely one-quarter--of those who actually voted at general elections. Thus, to take three recent experiences: the total vote cast in 1909 on an important constitutional amendment was only 477,105 as against a total vote the year before of 1,638,350; the total vote in 1910 on another important constitutional amendment was 664,892 as against 1,445,249 votes for the gubernatorial candidates, and seven amendments submitted in 1911 were defeated with an average total vote of 621,678. Similar and even more striking experiences will be found in other states. Is it likely that there would be a fuller or more representative and intelligent expression of public understanding in regard to complex legislative enactments, or in regard to the recall of judges or other public officers, or of judicial decisions than we find now in the case of important constitutional amendments?