The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1906-09-02

Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen of the
Ardmore Democratic Club:
want to impress upon every Demo.
crat here tonight the importance Of
the issues before the people of the
State of Oklahoma. There are eigh-
teen hundred thousand unorganized
United States citizens in the
two Territories The Statehood
Bill provides that these eigh-
teen hundred thousand citizens
may form a state, and be admi..ed in
10 the Union.
Since | made my announcement rs
a candidate for the Constitutional Con
yention. | have come in contact with
many people in the town and in the
country who are exceedingly anxious
that the best possible constitution lie
formed, but find what appears to me
TO be a general misconcepdon OF what
the constitution should contain, or
rather a failure to distinguish between
the constitution and the general stat
utos and laws of the state.
Broadly speaking, the Congress OF
the United States can pass only such
laws as it is permitted to pass by the
Federal Constitution, but the State
Legislature may pass any law which
its own constitution or the Constitu-
tion of the United States does not pro
hibit it from passing.
This is an important distinction, and
must be constantly kept in mind in
considering what should be put in our
constitution. The Constitutional Con
vention has, in the very nature Of
things, limited existence. II must
perform its work and in short time
pass into history. No one can under
estimate the. value of its work. But
the legislature of the State will have
a perpetual existence. 1t will meet
cording 80 the provisions of our Con
stitution, and matters OF legislation
will be constantly under control of
the legislature and OF the people.
think our Constitution should deal
with fundamental principles of gov.
eminent; that it should establish
them in the most solemn manner and
as far as practicable be restricted TO
those general ordinances and provis
ions which are of permanent nature,
and necessary TO the security of life
and property. ! think we should fol
ow the example of the other states
and adopt a Bill OF Rights which
shall consist of those political aXioms
established from time TO time in the
progressive history Of representative
government.
Those fundamental principles and
axionrs should be deeply laid as the
foundation of our state government. so
that every right and privilege of the
citizen which is essential TO his peace,
happiness and prosperity shall always
be inviolate and free from encroach-
ment by any law or officer of the
state.
CMr Lelbetter mere read a Bill OF
Rights which, in his judgement,
should be adopted for the State of Ok
lahoma, and then stated that he had
gone into detail on this question in
order to get before the people the
thought that there was a general de-
sire on the part of the people that the
Constitutional Convention should
remedy all the evils, and not wait for
the legislature Of the state to pass
laws covering the ordinary subjects of
legislation, and pointed out the fact
that the ordinary state constitution
contained about forty pages. but tha,
their statutes, which contained the
general laws OF the state, contained
from eighteen hundred to twenty-five
hundred pages; that the constitution
of the state should be confined as
much as possible to the formation of
a state government with appropriate
restrictions upon its powers, and
should not embrace matters which be-
long to general legislation)
When we go to form our govern.
ment, we will have the experience Of
all the other States tc guide us, but
the chief difficulty will be to make
proper selections. We will have to
settle not only the problems which
ether states have had to solve when
their constitutions were formed but
we will have to meet many new and
difficult problems which have arisen
in recent years. There is not
state in the Union that would not