The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-16

viii have this opportunity to deliber- ate. to consider. and to examine and
 thus avoid the difficulty of refusing to permit a good measure to become e | law by reason of the lack of opportun- | ity afforded him to examine it. What | is the harm, 1 repeat, and as has been repeated heretofore? If he approves
 the bill, 1t is . law; if he refuses to ap- prove it, 1t is not a law. What harm
 is 1t to give him a little time ti say
 whether he will approve 1t? His appro-
 val of it before the adjournment of the l Legislature can have no possible effect different from his approval of 1t ten
 days after the adjournment, and the arr gument made by my friend from Mont gomery has no force when he attempts to show that 1t would have the effect of preventing the return of the bill to the Legislature. It can have no such effect as that. If he Is satisfied, if he has examined, If he has deliberated and come to a conclusion that 1t is not a good bill. any conscientious Governor would return it to the Legislature and give them their Constitutional power to re-examine 1t. But it is because of this lack of time that good laws may fail as they often have.
 Now there is another effect that arises under the present law. My friend from Montgomery does not seem to lay any stress upon the fact that
 local bills are signed by the Governor in this hurried manner when, upon de- liberation, he would not sign them. We have an instance before us here today This very convention will be confront ed with a proposition that bill was passed by the last General Assembly of
 Alabama through fraud, and you will
 be asked to undo that fraud. And why
 was that possible? Because 1t was pre-
 scented on the very last day of the ses-
 sion. It appeared to the Governor to | be simply a local bill. He instituted no | inquiry about 1t. He approved it. If he had held that bill for ten days, if the facts that have been presented to
 ono ofy our committees had been pre-
 scented to hims he never would have ap- proved 1t. and this evil with which we are now a icted on account of this complaint that comes to us would have been avoided. do hope that this con- vention will consider this matter care fully and will adopt the suggestion of | the Committee on the Executive De- pertinent.
 Mir. Fitts--I move to table the
 amendment of the delegate from | Chambers.
 Mir. Sanford--I hope you will with | draw that. I just want to say one | word.
 Mir. Fitts--I will withdraw 1t if you will renew 1t for me when you say that word.
 Mir. Heflin (Chambers)-I wish the gentleman would withdraw it for me. MT. Fit.s-No, sir.
 Mir. Heflin-Al1 right, will pay you back.
 MT. Sanford-Ordinarily when the | legislature adjourns, all legislation for ! that session ceases. But if this section
 is adopted without amendmpnt it will | be impossible for tn epeople of Ala bama to know what the law will be at the adjourning of the legislature.
 may be involved in 1t. Crimes may be
 involved in 1t. When the legislature adJourns, all the acts are known to the people but here ten days after
 wards. an act today may be perfectly innocent Is made crime.
 | Now. as to questions of property ln- volved in 1t: Men make contracts and | transactions of every description that
 are perfectly valid but law Is ap-
 proved ten days afterwards of which
 the parties to the transactions have no knowledge what ever and they become
 invalid and this will give to rise to llt-
 igation. 1 can see no reason for con- | tinuing legislation when the General Assembly is not in session. For ni1e- | ty years we have gotten along without such rule. When the General Assem-
 bly adjourns all legislation for that l session ceases. I can see no reason I why we should depart from that rule
 now and I hope the motion of the gen. | tleman from Chambers 60 strike out
 will prevail.
 And now, in accordance with my promise to the delegate from Tusca- | loosa. although against my Judgment and wishes. renew the motion to ta- | ble the amendment.
 | MT. Jones (Montgomery)--The Com-
 mittee will withdraw the motion to ta-
 bie so as to allow those other gentle
 men to be heard. although they would
 not let me speak the other day under | the same circumstances.
 i MT. Heflin (Chambers)--I do not de- sire to detain the Convention at this time with a speech. but l differ with
 my friend from Macon who says he
 does not see anything in the argument
 of the gentleman from Montgomery. | We have three departments of gov
 ment in this State. the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislative. They
 are supposed to be independent of each other but the position the gentleman | | tive Department absolutely in the | hands of the Chief Executive after the
 General Assembly has adjourned and
 the members have gone home. This
 Committee, in some of the lines above
 this part which 1 desire to strike out
 has provided that when a bill goes tc
 the Governor and he finds objections
 thereto. he can return his objections
 with the bill to the House and the | House can amend to suit his objections
 and the Senate can do the same, re-
 turning it then to the Governor who
 has the power to approve. It provides | further that if the House falls to agree
 with the Governor in his suggestions
 they have a right to ignore those sug- | gestions and, representing the sover- eign people of Alabama, to override the l veto of the Governor of the State Il | is a right that members of the General Assembly have representing their con- stituents. l submit to this Conven- tion that a Dill could be submitted tc the Governor within five days
 Mir Sanford-Will the gentleman
 submit to a question! 7u 1,.
 MT. Heflin-I will r4n
 MT. Samford--Suppose bill Is pass. cd by both Houses of the legislature lr the last five days of the session ana IS
 sent to the Governor, has he not the power to keep 1t and not return 1t tc
 the legislature and thereby make nm, self part of the legislative power Just aR much as under this clauseE
 | MT. Heflin-That is true.
 MT Samford-IIoes this change his
 potvcr over the legislature? Is not the effect simply to give nm Hlole llihe .l l tiOnp