, 1889-08-02
EXPERIMENTS WITH CONSTI
TUTTONS.

One who has followed with any close
ness the process of the constitution max
ing in in the four conventions now in ses-
sion prepatory to the admission of new
states must be struck with the apparent
lack of originality and the disinclination
to experiment which the details of their
work reveals. says the Pioneer Press. 1t
is thirteen years since last a state was ad-
mitted. In only a lew of the larger and
more important states have new constitu-
tons been adopted within recent years.
Meantime the ~inadequacies of the consti-
t%utional remedies and constitutional guar
anlees have become obvious. 1t ought
to be possible to-day, in framing an or
ganic law for n new commonwealth, I
make a distinct advance upon most of the
time worn documents that fix the limits
within which state legislatures are TO act.
Yet we find in the proceedings of these
bodies, little but routine; the strongest
moving force appealing to them seems to
be desire Of inhalation and reverence
for precedent.
Mr.. Bryce has noted and mourned this
tendency in American states. In his
American Commonwealth" he expresses
his surprise and disappointment at finding
our state constitutions little better than
proof impressions from a single original.
One would have imagined, he says, that
the people of thirty-eight different states,
in forming new governments, would
adopt forms so diverse and venture upon
departures from the original pattern so
extensive as to supply to the student OF
governmental policies the most abundant
and interesting material On the con-
trary, all of them have moved upon par
allel lines. And the record Of work in
these present conventions proves the ac-
curacy of his observations. 1t contains
little or nothing that is exceptional.
Each local body has, of course, been
pestered by the advocates of some partic-
ular fad like constitutional prohibition,
woman suffrage, and the recognition of
God in a political document. Each has
felt the pressure, and all have yielded too
To the tendency Of the hour, which is to
make a constitution cover the ground
properly belonging to legislative action
and to fill these new organic acts with
minute prescriptions regulating salaries
and other details purely Of legislative CON
Germ. But, aside from this, the debate
in the North Dakota convention over n
proposition to have the new legislature
consist of single house is the only init
nation of disposition in any quarter to
Introduce the novel or to encourage ex-
pertinent.
The fact Is but a renewed proof of the
inherent conservatism OF the American
people. Limited IN our political action
only by the will of the majority, accord
ing to the pure democratic theory, we
are, in reality, cautious of innovation and
timorous Of change. 1t is because this is
80 that the republic has endured. 1t
would be pleasant, doubtless, for the stu
lent of political science to be able to note
from personal observation the results of
liberal experiments in constitution max
ing, just as 1t is a great gain to medical
science to observe tho workings OF differ
ent medicines on the human frame. But
the process is far ~pleasanter to the OBJ
server than to the subject.
The world has one republic that loves
change for the sake of change, and the
experience of that one does not invite i'm
~itation. These new commonwealth of
ours, pioneered though they have been
by hardy and daring men, free as they
are from the letters of custom, and i'm
patient of leading strings as OF nothing
else, as yet are hesitant as the Oldest
when they come to the serious business of
setting up the foundations of a system Of
self government. We could have wished
them to be a little less inclined TO adopt
the latest fashions in constitutions as a
matter Of course; but better far that than
a rash coquetting with theories untried
and possibly disastrous.