“It is useless to simply change the men in office. It is the system itself, the real source of corruption, that must be changed.” — Dr. William Preston Hill, a St. Louis physician, reformer and leader of the Referendum League, which championed the Initiative and Referendum Constitutional Amendment, approved by Missouri voters in 1908.
Here is a partial timeline of the “initiative and referendum” constitutional amendment, approved by Missouri voters in 1908:
Jan. 3, 1907 — Gov. Joseph “Holy Joe” Folk calls on the General Assembly to adopt a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to adopt an “initiative and referendum” process. His message: “Government by the people is best where the government is nearest to the people. I hope you will adopt a resolution for a constitutional amendment providing for the initiative and referendum in legislation. This will eliminate the incentive for corruption in legislative affairs, for the control will then rest with the people. By this system a certain number of the voters can, by petition, originate legislation, and legislation of a general nature will have to be voted on by the people before it becomes a law. No bill that cannot stand the light of publicity should become a law. Wherever the initiative and referendum has been tried — and it has in Oregon and other states — the result has been most satisfactory. It puts an effective stop to bribery in legislative halls, for bribery of legislators would be useless where the people are the final arbiter of a measure. I regard this as of much importance in the final elimination of corruption and the establishment of a true representative government.” (Globe-Democrat, Jan. 4, 1907)
Feb. 25, 1907 – The Missouri Senate votes 19-6 to approve the resolution submitting the initiative and referendum to the people at the next general election. Passage was possible with the votes of two Republicans — Sens. Fred S. Hudson of Chillicothe in Livingston County and George R. Curry, near Thornfield in Ozark County — who joined the Democrats in favor of the measure.
March 15, 1907 – The Missouri House joins the Senate in approving the I&R resolution by a vote of 90-7.
Jan. 2, 1908 – The Joplin Globe strongly endorses the initiative and referendum amendment. “The initiative and referendum simply means bringing the government back to the people. … The political party that commits itself aggressively in opposition to the initiative and referendum is bidding for early retirement from power.” (The Joplin Globe, Jan. 2, 1908)
April 19, 1908 – Dr. William Preston Hill, a St. Louis physician and president of the Missouri Referendum League, tells a St. Louis ward organization that the referendum would cause three classes of robbers to vanish: “trusts, big cinch contractors and gamblers.” Hill continued: “We are governed by boodlers. The remedy is the initiative and referendum. At present the power of the people ceases with election; with the referendum it continues.” (Globe-Democrat, April 20, 1908)
Nov. 3, 1908 — The initiative and referendum constitutional amendment is approved by Missouri voters by a vote of 177,615 to 147,290, or roughly 55% to 45%. It amends the state’s third constitution, the one adopted in 1875. (The initiative and referendum language survives mostly intact in the state’s fourth and current constitution, approved by voters in 1945.) (Post-Dispatch, Nov. 19, 1908)
Dec. 2, 1908 — The Missouri Referendum League holds a banquet in honor of Dr. William Preston Hill, celebrating the passage of the initiative and referendum constitutional amendment. Hill recounts how the Referendum League was born 15 years earlier at the Southern Hotel in St. Louis; the Nov. 3 vote was the fulfillment of the effort. “The referendum idea has been slowly taking possession of the American people,” Hill said. “Eight states have now adopted this great measure of self-government, and it is knocking at the gates of twenty more. It has swept from Oregon to Maine, and the reason is that the people have lost faith in the integrity and efficiency of our State Legislatures. They have been disgusted with the corruption which has prevailed in our political life, and they now realize that you cannot entrust uncontrolled power in the hands of the average man without having it abused. They know, too, that it is useless to simply change the men in office; that it is the system itself, the real source of corruption, that must be changed. For this reason they are adopting the initiative and referendum, for they have found that if they want good government they must attend to it themselves.” (Globe-Democrat, Dec. 4, 1908)
June 24, 1931 — Dr. William Preston Hill dies at the Mark Twain Hotel in St. Louis. He was 73. After founding the Missouri Referendum League, he organized the People’s League, fought a new city charter in 1911 then supported a new city charter in 1914. (Post-Dispatch, June 25, 1931) After his death, a woman claiming she was his wife sues; Anna Beard Simon (listed in the 1900 Census as Anna Beard, his niece/housekeeper, now a resident of Yuma, Arizona) gives a deposition in 1938 refuting the marriage claims. She died in 1953.
2024 — The Republican super-majority in Jefferson City backs changes to the initiative and referendum amendment, hoping to increase the threshold for approval beyond a simple majority in an effort to raise the bar for any amendment enshrining abortion rights in the Missouri Constitution.
Roland Klose 