The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1910-03-01

/ assume the burdens and responsible
ties which will be cast upon us when
we become a state, we ought to realize
that il is a step upon which we should
not enter lightly nor without grave
deliberation, for when once we are
taken into the Union, these burdens
and responsibilities cannot be set
| aside SO long as the United States
EXISTS as a nation.
President Taft was absolutely
| right in the address which he deliv-
cred at Albuquerque last October. in
cautioning us to be very careful in
all the preliminary steps which we
must take before our admission to the
Union.
A Sane Constitution.
I'VE must elect our best men-men
Of experience and affairs, as delegates
the act under which the new state of
New Mexico shall live. so that our
constitution may be as nearly perfect
as the fallibility of man will permit
it to be. Let us make a safe n sane
constitution, a constitution which will
insure us good government at the
start, but which is also flexible enough
To answer our needs as we grow in
wealth and population, which Is Ger
tain to come to us quickly.
For one. / do not favor a constitu-
ton which contains much legislation,
but care must be exercised to so
frame it as to secure an absolutely
fair judiciary, for after all is SAID
and done, although the judiciary is
the weakest of the great coordinate
branches of government. still it is
the shield and buckler which protects
the poor n the well to do, the strong
and the weak, from the avaric and
greed of those who would taken ad-
| vantage of them. 1t even protects the
people from the executive and legisla-
tive branches of the government,
when they seek, as they sometimes
perhaps unwittingly do, to over-step
the boundary line of authority which
is given to them by the organic law.
Nothing is more dangerous or tends
more surely to overthrow the liber-
ties of the people than the encroach-
nents and over-stepping by the exc
cutive and legislative branches of the
government, of the limitations of their
power set forth in the written CON
situations. These encroachments,
when they exist, can only be restrain
ed by the actions of the courts, or by
revolutions. Our constitution must
therefore safeguard by every possible
provision the absolute fairness of the
judiciary.
Protect Public Lands.
I'm my opinion provisions should
be inserted in our constitution to
protect our public lands and save them
from being h prey of spectators
and the football of politicians and de
signing men, whose aim will be to &C
quire them for less than they are
reasonably worth. Let our ~constitu-
ton throw such safeguards about the
administration of this sacred trust
that generations as yet unborn will
bless its framing for having preserv-
ed the rich heritage of land given us
by the enabling act for the benefit
of the schools and the higher institu-
lions of learning m the territory. In
many of the newer states the admins |
tration of the lands donates by con- |
gress when the several new common.
wealths were created have been a by
word n a stencil in the nostrils of
the people. Let tie delegates to the
constitutional convention carefully
guard these lands, so that our entire
people may be benefited in a manner
commensurate WITH their value.
Another matter to which the most
careful Scrufinv sho,rd he 0iyar hv