The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-03-31
BY Chief Justice Walter Clark of tn
Supreme Court of North Carolina.

BY Chief Justice Walter Clark of the
Supreme Court of North Carolina.
(The following article, reprinted fro1l
the Arena" for March is, in substance
the address delivered by Judge Clark be
fore the Kansas State Bar Assertion at
Topeka, 9th January, 1903.)
Progress is the law of life. OF the
three learned professions, medicine has
been completely revolutionzed in the
last few years There are even those who
believe that there has been some progress
in theology; but the masses think that
law is the one stationary. unmoVing. and
unmovable thing in all creation, and that
precedents bind judges and lawyers to
the past, hand and foot The law how
ever has not been able wholly to escape
the influence of the age in which we live,
and in q great degree is a sure record
of the progress of civilization
AS to the progress of constitutional
law, it is sufficient to point to the numer
amendments thereto) which average it is
said one in every twenty years for each
State in the Union AS to the Federal
Constitution it is true the alterations
have been much slower, as much too slow
in fact as it may be the changes in the
State constitutions have been too fire.
quent In New York the State constitu-
tion imperativcly requires that the cues
tion of calling a constitutional conVen-
tion shall be submitted to the people every
twenty years, and permits this to be done
oftener if the Legislature shall think
proper. This being so in the 'effete
East" we cannot expect that sUch
changes should be more infrequent in the
progressive West
As to the Federal Constitution. many
causes have combined to prevent changes
| that the necessities of the time really re-
quire with the result that that instru-
ment has become antiquated and in many
respects unsuitable for the demands OF
| the present day. If the Constitution or
/ 1877 had been admirable in all respects
| and altogether perfect when adopted, the
| immense changes in population, in terri
| tory in public conditions, and in the
| needs of this generation, would make 1t
/ i'll adapted in some respects for our pur-
poses today. 1t would be strange indeed
if the men of one hundred and fifteen
years ago. when popular government was
new and untried and the environments
of the times were totally different could
have made better Constitution for us
/
perience could now make for ourselves.
Some would make of the Constitution Of
| 1881 a fetish, but it was the work of
| that day just as We're the State consti-
! tutions, and it is no more sacred than
| they, all of which have been materially
| changed. There is a wide difference be-
| tween the Union which the makers OF the
! Constitution intended should be per
| petual and the Constitution itself, which
| provided for its own amendment either
by Congressional action or the call OF a
! constitutional convention, thus recog-
| nizing its imperfections and that the pro-
gress of time would necesstate unknown
! changes.
| When the Federal Constitution was
adopted it was not considered hv its max
ers as perfect or entirely adapted even
| to the needs of that day In all its lead
ing features it was a compromise, and
therefore not expressive in it's entirety