The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-03-05

lzZzzrlrs- s,sr1zSs
whom we have quoted several times,
notices this feature in the develop
ment of State Constitutions. In his
chapter on Written Constitutions, he
says: "Before pursuing this subject,
we may observe that American State
Constitutions have altered very much
in character since the first part of the
present century. The earlier Constitu
tions were confined to general out
line of the organization of the govern
ment. They did not undertake to make
the laws, but to prescribe the conditions
under which laws might be made and
executed. Recent STATE Constitutions
enter more and more boldly upon
the general work of legislation. For
example, in some states they specify
what kind of property shall be exempt
from seizure for debt; they make regu-
charges; they prescribe certain details
of practice in the courts, or they forbid
the sale of Intoxicating liquors. Until
recently such subjects would have been
left to the legislatures; no one would
have thought of putting them into a
! Constitution. The motive in so doing
is a wish to put certain laws into such
shape that it will be difficult to re-
peal them. What "a legislature sees fit
to enact this year it may see fit to re-
peal next year."-CiUU Government in
! the United States, p. 1874.
This practice is not altogether bad
one. In this way the people themselves
directly pass upon and enact certain
important laws, and put them beyond
the venality or .incOmpetency of the
legislatures. Moreover" says Mr..
Fiske again, ga direct vote by the peo-
pie gives weightier sanction to a law
than vote in the legislature. There is
also, no doubt, disposition to distrust
legislatures and in some measure do
their work for them by direct popular
enactment. For such reasons some re-
cent State Constitutions have come al
most to resemble bodies of statutes. Mr..
Woodrow Wilson suggestively COM
pares this kind of popular legislation
with the Swiss practice known as the
Referendum; in most of the Swiss
cantons an important act of the legisla-
ture does not require the force of law
until it has been referred to the people
and voted on by them" ps. 1876.
In making some adverse criticism
upon this practice, Mr.. Fiske continues:
at would, however, be premature at
the present time to pronounce con-
tidently upon practice of such recent
origin. 1t is clear that it's tendency is
extremely democratic, and that it i'm
plies high standard of general in
telligence and independence among
the people. If the evils of the practice
are found to outweigh its benefits, it
will doubtless fall into disfavor." p. 1876.
All of this goes to show that written
Constitutional government is still in
a state of development, that changing
conditions require revision in our laws,
and that written Constitutions which
undertake to deal with the great
problem of local government must
necessarily require constant amend
menti and that it must always be so,
until human wisdom and human nature
reach a state Of absolute perfection.
We have seen that some of the greatest
and most powerful States in the Union
have fixed in their Constitutions com.
paratively short periods for submitting
to the people the question of calling a
Constitutional Convention; and our
own experience has taught us the wis
dom of the provision. For many
years an effort has been made to have
the question submitted in this State,
but the legislature could not be pre-
vailed upon to consider the subject At
last, however, the popular demand be-
came so strong that the legislature
could no longer resist. This should be
remedied by provision in our organic
law similar to that in other states.
This article has gone beyond the
limits which we intended. We simply
desire to impress upon our readers
that written Constitutional government
is still in a state of development and
that con slant revision is necessary tc
meet changing conditions.
SAM HOLDING.