Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1910-10-27


Charles A. Spiess moved that the
compittee rise, as the members of
the minority lacked the rugged
contitution to continue without recess.
The committee reported progress
TO the convention which took a recess
until 1:30 p. m.
Afternoon Session.
This is the way the first section of
the Article on Legislative Department
of the Constitution will read after
the convention gets through with it
tonight:
Legislative Department.
Section /. The legislative power
shall be vested in a Senate and House
of Representatives, to be elected by
the people, which shall be designated
the Legislature of the State of New
Mexico, and shall hold its sessions at
the seat of government
The people reserve the power to
disapprove, suspend and annul any
law at any session of the legislature,
except laws providing for the preser-
walton of the public peace, health or
safety for payment of interest or
principal of the public debt, for the
current expenses of the government,
or for the maintenance of the public
schools or state institutions, or local
or special laws, such power to be ex-
s17 4bN f111
Upon the filing with the secretary
of state not less than four months
prior to any general election, of pc
tition or petitions, signed by not less
than ten 10) per cent of the quail
fed electors of at least three-fourths
OF the counties and in the aggregate
by not less than ten per cent of the
total number of qualified electors
of the state, as shown by the total
number of votes cast at the last pre-
ceding general election, disappearing
any law, other than those above ex-
cepted, passed at the last preceding
ton of the approval or rejection of
such law shall be submitted to vote at
such general election; and if majori-
ty of the legal votes cast thereon at
such election and not less than forty
per cent of the total number of legal
votes cast at such general election
be cast for the rejection of such law,
it shall be considered annulled; other,
wise it shall remain in force, unless
subsequently repealed by the legisla-
ture
If such petition, or petitions, be
signed by not less than twenty-five
(25) per cent of the qualified electors
of at least three-fourths of the coun-
ties and not less than 25 per cent Of
the total number of legal votes cast
at such general election of the state,
as shown by the total number of
votes cast at the last preceding gen
eral election, and be fled with the
secretary of state within ninety (90)
days after the adjournment of the
session of the legislature at which
such law disapproved by said petition
was passed, the operation thereof
shall be thereupon suspended, and the
question of its approval or rejection
shall be likewise submitted to vote at
the next ensuing general election; and
if majority of the legal votes cast
thereon at such election and not less
than forty per cent of the total num-
Der of legal votes cast at such general
election be cast for it's rejection, the
same shall be considered annulled
otherwise, it shall go into effect upon
publication by the secretary of state
or his certificate declaring the result
of the vote thereon.
1t shall be felony for any person
to sign any such petition with any
name other than his own, or to sign
his name more than once for the same
measure, or to sign such petition
when he is not a qualified elector In
the district specified in said petition:
Provided, That nothing herein shall
be construed to prohibit any person
who cannot write from signing with
his mark.
The legislature shall enact laws ne
cessary for the effective exercise OF
the power hereby reserved.
At 1:45 p. m. the convention again
went into committee of the whole
with H. o. Bursum in the chair.
A. B. Fall moved that the report OF
the majority on Legislative Depart
ment be adopted. He spoke as one OF
the pail bearers at the open grave OF
the funeral of which H. M. DoughertY
had referred to so touchingly in the
forenoon. Looking around through
his tear-dimmed eyes, he recognizes
certain gentlemen he had known OF
old. He sees Cassius, or possibly, his
friend from Rio Arriba or Louis XIV.
or possibly the Great Tribune, even
he from Socorro, and twenty-seven
others mourning over the child. Il un-
derstood the child's name was 'sThel
Oregon Plan,' but as I look into the
open grave, l see there has been a
change, an adaptive child to suit the
exigencies of the occasion has been
substituted A horrible crime has
been committed and the real child has
been strangled, as is apparent from
the minority report before the con
vention ~
The minority seems to think that
the initiative and the referendum are
Siamese twins that cannot be sepa-
rated. that the Oregon system is a
recent, their own discovery or recent
discovery of their co-thinkers As a
matter of fact, the men who wrote the
constitution of the United States, were