The age-herald., 1900-05-20

to taxation upon property, landed and per- sonal protects them, the provision has not been effective to prevent great abuse of the taxing power in the matter of local Improvements and licenses upon occupa- tons, and the fruits of industry outside of occupations and business which are not of common right or are unlawful without special legislative authority There should be some limit as to the amount of licenses imposed, and as to the limit of the rate at which rents and incomes may be taxed.
 12. Experience has shown that in the de- sire Of cities to further their growth and to promote enterprises which will aid in their development, the most valuable fran chises are either given away or parted with for insignificant considerations. While the utmost liberty should be allowed local authorities to encourage enterprises and induce transportation facilities in the be- ginning, there should be provisions that, under regulations prescribed by law, after a certain date, all public franchises should be leased or sold for a term of years to the highest bidder. It is certain that our constitution needs amendment along this line.
 13 Provisions regarding amendments to the constitution should be changed Now, amendments are required to be submitted at general elections only, and the fate of policies is oftentmes so intermingled with their effects upon the fortunes of candi- dates and combinations resulting there from, that amendments cannot be fairly considered upon their merits, and reform, however desirable, must be postponed for two years after the amendment is sug- gested
 14. The evils of our present penal system suggest the question whether the constitu- tion itself should not contain the funda- mental principles of the system and the mode of compensating officers for services in bringing offenders to justice We nave state convicts and county convicts. A sys- tenn of fees payable on convection, instead of official salaries or stated allowances for services without regard to conviction or offenders and the multiplication of misde- meanors and felonies for comparatively slight offenses, punishable by hard labor for both fine and cost, induces scores and scores of officials to daily hunt down small offenders, who might, far as the good of society is concerned, be left alone. Our jails and penitentiaries are crowded with inmates who might be sufficiently punished for the first offense, at least, by lighter different less costly punish ment. Once convicted convicts become collateral security for the payment of costs, whether the state realizes the amount from his hire not The cost of feeding prisoners has become enormous, and continues to increase The legislature seems powerless to change or better the situation. It may be that the deliberations of men chosen specially to consider changes in the organic law might be able to evolve a much better system.
 The subjects outlined, it occurs to me, include most of the vital matters in respect to which the constitution needs revision, though there are many others in which the present instrument might be improved.
 The framers of our present constitution seem to have forgotten. in many instances, the fundamental American principle, that the legislature of a free state has all the powers of government which are not ex- pressly or by necessary implication denied by state and federal constitutions, and in consequence our organic law is numbered up with many grants of power to the gen. eral assembly, which would exist just the same if the constitution had been silent.
 THOMAS G. JONES.