Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-02-12
A SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT

A SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT
 Recently the senate, at the instance of MT. Bacon, passed 8 joint resolution proposing an amendment to the consn- tuition relating to the presidential sue cession in the event of the death of the prcsident-elect prior to taking tho oath of office. This is contingency which has never actually arisen, but its possi- bility has aroused general discussion, which led the senate judiciary commit tee to formulate proposed sixteenth amendment, as follows:
 'sIn all cases not provided for by
 Article IT, clause 6, of the constitu-
 tion where there is no person en-
 titled to discharge the duties of the
 ofice of the president, the same
 shall devolve upon the vice presi-
 dent. The congress may by law
 provide for the case where there is
 no person entitled to hold the ofice
 of president or vice president, de-
 claring what officer shall then act as
 president, and such officer shall act
 accordingly until the disability shall
 be removed or president elected
 The process of electing president and vice president comprises several dis tinct acts-the choice by the people of electors, the casting of the vote by the electors, the counting of the vote and declaration of the result. and finally the actual assumption of presidential duties by taking the oath of ofice. These proceedings cover a period of four months, during which time many things may happen. Cautiously enough, in the whole course of our history. nothing has happened in those four months to pre- vent the inauguration of perisednt chosen in one or another of the consti- tutional modes, though in one instance the new president died shortly after taking office, and in another he was as sassinated within few months after. In these cases, of course. there was no question of the succession, for the con stitution and the statutes make ample provision for any conceivable contin- gency occurring subsequent to the date of inauguration.
 The proposed sixteenth amendment, which the senate has just approved with out word of dissent, is intended to take care of contingencies arising in the four months period between the Novem- Der election and the March 4 following. Strictly speaking, perhaps we should say the period between the meeting of the electoral bodies in January and the date of inauguration, for, in the event of death of the presidentelect before that meeting. another could be substi- tuted for the popular choice. In the event of death subsequent to the choice of the electoral bodies, the natural thing would be the installation of the vice president and his succession immediate " thereafter to the office of president. For this succession the proposed amend ment provides. as well as for legislation fixing the succession in the event of the death or disability of both the pres identelect and the vice president-elect.
 It is worthy of remark that the sue cession of the vice president in the manner prescribed by the proposed follows the precedent of the constitution itself, which provides that in case the house of representatives, when the duty of choosing president falls to that body shall not choose president before March 4, then the vice president shall act as president, as in the case of the death or other consti- tutional disability of the president. !" Though the constitution has provided for the failure of the electoral machin- cry to do its work, 1t does not provide for the possibility that the presidential choice might be unable to take office. This defect the sixteenth amendment 4a