Arizona republican., 1900-12-16
CUBAN CONSTITUTION
Assertion That Draft Will Be
 Ready by February.
An Interesting View of the Havana Convention - Thirty-0ne Dele gates With as Many Ideas of the Islands Needs.

ing is progressing in Cuba. While there is little on the surface several of the members of the convention who are engaged in the work tell ne that they will complete it and have the draft ready for the president and congress by the first of February. This IS q sur prise.
 am not sure the information will prove true, yet the convention is really making headway, and those members who are sanguine of finishing their work within two months may be cCr- rect in their view of the time that will be taken. The common idea has been that the convention would drag through six or eight months and that the United States as the intervening power would not have to meet any new phase of the Cuban situation for year.
 One reason why the idea has got abroad that several months would elapse before definite results are ob- tained has been that the convention was doing nothing in public. After it's organization the convention was divid- en into committees or sections for the purpose of discussing al! the projects for constitution which might be sub mftted. This was a clever way of avoiding discussions in public of some subjects which would have to be settled by agreement among the delegates. The Cuban people are 20 suspicious and distrustful that if the sessions of the convention had been made secret, it's members would have bean under q cloud all the time. They met the diff culty cleverly by the present plan.
 When the preliminary work is done then the public sessions will be inter esting. Of course, the voting on the various propositions will be open, and there will be considerable discussion by the delegates, particularly on con- troverted points on which they are un- able to agree in their private confer ences. Yet as a whole i5 must be said that they have taken tre wisest means of formulating a constitution.
 There are thirty-one delegates in the convention, and I think likely there are thirty-one separate constitutions. Each member has his own idea, and he has taken that as a basis on which to form ulate an organic law for the island. Not all the delegates admit that they are carrying around drafts of constitu- tions, but when pressed most of them draw out of their pockets pretty full memoranda. I have gathered sheaf of these drafts for stu6y, and probably the sheaf will grow.
 In spite of this wealth of material there does not seem to be radical diff ference on the main points. All the prospective constitutions which I have seen take the United States for their model. They follow the bread line of division into executive, legjsla- tive and judicial branches of the gov ernment. A number of them have a good many ideas adapted from the French system, while two or three are extreme in their democracy-more so than Switzerland, probably. They arc theoretical distractions of ideal govern ments, and their authors do not expect them to be adopted, o"t think that some of the suggestions may be incor- porated into the Cuban constitution As against these distractions there are some propositions which look to limit ed popular government.
 One plan which I have seen provides
 
 congress, instead of by the people. Its author is imbued with French notions and wants cabinet also which will re- sign whenever the legislative assembly or the congress. passes a vote of lacl of confidence. But the tendency l: against these continental notions wher'
 ever they come in conflict with the American system.
 The delegates show weakness no uncommon among constitution makers This is the tendency to put everything
 into the original document, and leave
 no laws to be enacted in pursuance O
 the constitution. Something of thu same sort was seen wh9u several of tht
 western territories in the Cnite1 State
 were admitted into the union, and dt not know that this tendency is pecu liar to the Latin constitution make rs But al present it is quite marked.
 Some of the proposed constitutions, i constructed on the basis suggested
 would be as long as the code Napoleon and would leave no work for law making body. When ti.ey find in thei discussions what an abundance of ma teriaI of this kind they have accumu lated, it is probable that the delegate will see the necessity Of leaving som laws to be enacted, but they will hard ly appreciate this until they lind jus
 what it means to overload a consttu tiOn with immaterial provisions. 5 far they do not appreciate the difiicui | ty, because their private discussion | have been on two or three 4eadln; points. Much of the real work ahea' of them is in pruning and winnowing.