New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-18
"ARCADES AMBO.'

We called attention the other day 10 some
subtIettes in constitutional construction IN
folded in the House of Representatives by the
Hon George F. Burgess, of Gonzales, Tex.
Mr. Burgess brought his powers of dialecdc
to bear on the Payne Philippine Tariff bill.
then pending in the House. and, after a few
passes, a la Hermann Kellar, sent that
measure floating off into space, denuded and
IifeleSs The Texas statesman is one of those
Inquiries who go to the root Of things and
are not to be misled by surface phenomena.
In appearance. he confessed the Payne bill
was a measure reducing taxes laid on Philip
pine products entering the United States I'm
der that aspect it might command approval
from the minimizing But to the trained and
practised eye this alleged lowering Of duties
was a fraud and deIusion. AS a constitu-
tional expert the Texas lawmaker could not
wrench his conscience to admit that there had
ever been a tariff laid on products coming into
the United States from any territory owned
by or appurtenant to the United States'' But
if tariff did not and could not exist, being
unconstitutional and therefore void, it was
equally void. futile and unconstitutional to pass
a measure repeating a fiction and annulling a
nullity. Mr. Burgess was reminded by a less
subtle and more empirically minded Southern
colleague that some weight might possibly at
tach 10 the Supreme Courts verdict in the insu-
lar tariff cases. But. true to Texan tradition
the juriscOnsult from Gonzales retorted that
he would never be deferred from constituting the
Constitution in the light of pure reason and
inner consciousness by the chance fat Of a
federal court
Texas still leads the way in applying and
Illuminating the Constitution, as it did in the
DAYS when the Hon. Buck Kilgore kicked
down a baize door in the House of Representa-
tives TO vindicate the construction he put on
the legislative quorum phrases of that instru-
ment But there are other lights and guides in
constitutional exposition. In other states than
Texas great minds at work reading ideas
into or out of the sheet anchors of our lib
critics. Take Pennsylvania. for instance. The
Governor of that state, the Hon. Samuel w
Pennypacker. has just announced theory Of
constitutional Interpretation which challenges
in brilliancy the best achievements of the
Texas school Pennsylvania is struggling with
the problem of reapportioning representation
in her Senate and House of Representa- es
no redistribution of seats having been made
in the upper branch Of the legislature since
1874 and none in the lower branch since 1897
Governor Pennypacker has strongly recon-
mended the passage of apportionment bills
but. he told the legisla ture in his message
of January 10, the state constitution offers al
most nsuperable obstacles" to any satisfactory
distribution of representative power
This is beyond question true, for the constI-
tuition, recognizing the county as the essential
unit in politics and local government forbids
the division of any county unless 1t Is large
enough 10 contain two more complete leg
slative districts The constitution says expIic-
lily that In framing the Senate districts no