Evening star., 1901-01-29
WANT EARLY ACTION
Continued from First Page.)

it's leading features. Final judgment should
not be formed on a hasty and Imperfect
translation, especially where the effort fs
to transcribe both the spirit and the letter
of Spanish laws. 1t will be noted that In
the constitutional guarantees OF personal
and civil rights there is an admixture OF
the Spanish constitution greater than the
bill Of rights understood by Americans
1t will also be noted that the conditions
under which the constitutional guarantees
may be suspended apparently are broader
than the proclamation OF martial law would
be in the United States.
Government Of Divided Powers.
The island government which is provided
Is one of divided powers. The American con-
stitution has not been followed in all de-
tails because there were necessary adapta-
tions to Spanish law, and moreover the
Constitution is not one of federated states.
The general principles Of the executive.
legislative and judicial branches Of the
government are similar to those provided
in the American Constitution, but there are
checks and balances throughout which are
unknown to Americans. This Is due to the
Latin distrust and jealousy of executive
usurpation. 1t might even be said that the
executive power is not fully coordinate
with the legislative and judicial power. for
the President is subordinated to them be-
yond the usual limitations.
One provision which seems to imply teal-
ousy of possible woud-be dictatOrs lies in
the process of Impeachment. Nominally
this provision is similar to that which OBJ
tains in the United States, but actually 1t
suspends the president from the exercise
of his functions during the period when
the senate may be sitting as court to
try him on the Indictment of the house. The
house also is allowed to bring the accu-
sation on the vote of two-thirds Of its men,
bers in secret session. This secrecy and the
of
tions probably will strike the American
mind as serious defect. However. the
president Is not made puppet of minister
ial parliamentary government after the
manner of the French executive as was
urged by some OF the delegates. 1t may also
be noticed that while the president is chosen
by popular vote, he must have an abso-
lutte majority of the votes rather than a
plurality and that If no candidate has this
actual majority, the choice is to be made
by the congress between the two highest
candidates.
Congress Continuous Body.
A provision differing from that in the
American Constitution makes the congress
in both branches a continuous body. This
is obtained by fixing the term Of the mem
bers Of the camara house at four years.
one-half of whom are to be chosen every
two years, while the senate provision fol-
lows the same line except that the sena-
torial term being for six years only third
of the senators to be chosen biennially. An
earnest effort was made to have the term
of the president co-equal with that Of the
senators and to prohibit his reelection, but
the compromise was made by keeping the
term al four years and prohibiting third
consecutive term. novel proposition is
contained in the reversal of the American
practice with reference to the laws which
are passed during the last ten days of the
sessions or congress. Instead OF the presi-
dent being left with the power of pocket
IN c ION fhn 1,n{ l.,
empowered to keep congress in session long
enough to pass upon the legislation.
with the exception of members of the
senate, all officials from president down to
alcalde are TO be elected by direct vote but
the convention or the central committee
seeks to postpone the great issue of uniyer-
sal suffrage by leaving that to general law,
which shall be passed by the congress later
rms Is not bad way of keeping out of
the constitution provision which many
members believed unwise, though it takes
ay q haIay imagination to presume that any
Cuban congress in the future will pass a
law for restricted suffrage
Relation of the Provinces.
In many respects the provincial regimen
Is the most important part Of the congtt-
tuition, for that relation would have to be
determined If Cuba were becoming an
American state or territory just as much
as II 1t were exercising the functions of
an absolutely Independent sovereignty.
The changes made from the original draft
nave improved the sections relating to
the provinces. The proposed federation has
disappeared and the unitarian or central
republic takes its place. The substance
rather than the form of these provisinns
and of the old Spanish system must be nm
derstood In determining the relation Of the
provinces, but in a broad sense It NAV he
said that there is nothing approaching a
federation of sovereign states The sim
1Iarltv to state he
in the provision for civil governors of each
province, TO be chosen by popular vote
ana In the equal representation of the
provinces in the senate. Each province Is
to have six senators, which is good pro-
vision, because 1t limits the danger of a
legislative oligarchy The senators are to
be chosen jointly by the provincial council
and by an electoral college of equal num-
Der chosen by the people. This is a COM
promise which is not far from the election
Of senators by popular vote.
The provincial council is a misleading
term which might give the notion that the
province is in the nature of state. But
this council is not a Legislative body, as
legislatures are understood, because it has
only one branch, and its functions are very
largely administrative. 1t is revival Of
the old Spanish provincial deputations with
some of the attributes left out. Like the
ayuntanhentos, it is under the regulation
Of the higher executive authorities and
also of the supreme court.
The points in which the provinces do not
correspond to states are marked. The re-
strictiOn on the faw-making power is quite
general and there is no intention of es-
tabishing provincial courts, which would
be in the nature Of state courts. Instead
the judicial tribunals are to be uniform
throughout the island depending on the su-
preme court as the basis and the uniform
fly Of laws, in the opinion of the Ccnsti
tuition makers. Is fully assured. That was
one point they sought to preserve in all
the contention over centralized and decen-
tralized government That the provinces
geogra phically politically could be wiped
out never was supposed, nor was 1t desra-
BILE. They preserve their identity, and
some useless machinery is established
which will create unnecessary offices. But
these incidental evils due to the COM
promise between centralized and decentral-
ized authority in avoiding the danger of
trying to create sovereign or federated
states when there was no ground work
for them.
Protection of Vested Rights.
Much interest probably will be shown in
the guarantees given by the Cuban con-
stitution makers for the protection Of vest
ed rights and the observance Of contracts.
On this subject two widely separated ar
| ticles should be taken together One is
article Ill Of section III. which designates