Other initiatives U'Ren associated himself with many initiative efforts, including banning free railroad passes, establishing popular election of U.S. Senators, and creating the first presidential primary in the United States. Two of the more significant early initiatives he sponsored were a 1906 constitutional amendment extending initiative and referendum powers to local jurisdictions, and a 1908 amendment that gave voters power to recall elected officials. In 1912, he proposed an amendment to the Oregon Constitution to essentially weigh each legislator's vote on proposed bills according to the number of votes he received in the last election; this measure failed by a large margin. In 1908 U'Ren led the successful effort to amend the Oregon state constitution to accommodate proportional representation that would provide voters with first, second and third choices on the ballot. He said, "Real representative government is impossible unless all political parties, minorities as well as majorities, are thus fairly represented in the legislature in proportion to the number of supporters that each has among the voters." U'Ren was a strong proponent of the single tax system advocated by Henry George, but was unsuccessful in getting it adopted in Oregon. After his defeat in a 1914 race for Governor on the single tax platform, he largely withdrew from active politics. In the 1930s U'Ren moved to the right and denounced President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, warning against dictatorship and a federal government out of control. He died of pneumonia at age 90, in Portland, Oregon on March 8, 1949. Footnotes Further reading Alexander, John K. "U’Ren, William Simon (1859-1949)" American National Biography (1999) 22:121-123. Etulain, Richard. "William S. U'Ren (1859–1949)" Oregon Encyclopedia (2022) online Etulain, Richard W. William S. U'Ren: Oregon Father of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall (Portland, Chaparral Books, 2020). Johnston, Robert D. The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland (2003), pp 127-137. Lindstrom, David Elvin. "W.S. U'Ren and the Fight for Government Reform and the Single Tax: 1908-1912." (Thesis, Portland State U, 1972). online McClintock, Thomas C. “Seth Lewelling, William S. U’Ren and the Birth of the Oregon Progressive Movement.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 68#3, 1967, pp. 196–220. online Morgan, Murray C. "The Tools of Democracy and the Woolly Rhinoceros Eaters," (Seattle: Junior League of Seattle, March 1972). Schuman, David. "The Origin of State Constitutional Direct Democracy: William Simon U'Ren and the Oregon System." Temple Law Review