Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-04
CHANGING THE INAUGURAL DATE.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

is claimed. be an improvement over the
present method in other ways. For in
stance. nearly all of the big filibusters
nave been conducted during the short
sessions of Congress. With the date of
adjournment left at the discretion of
possible for the filibustering tactics of
talking river and harbor bill to death,
or of like efforts at throttling legislation,
to meet with success.
Another advantage is the fact that
under the proposed new departure the
House, which is elected
Election by with the President in
the House. the, quad Ire a. elections,
which will count the vote and
select the President if no choice is made
in the electoral colleges. AS matters
stand today the House of Representatives
elected two years before the presidential
election would have to select the presi-
dent in the event such selections was not
made in the electoral colleges 1t might
thus happen that the candidate who was
far strongest before the people might not
be elected. The verdict of the polls might
indicate an unquestionable preference for
the candidate of one party. and yet the
other party might control the election in
the House itself
The law provides that where the choice
of a President is not made in the electoral
colleges. it shall be made in the House
of Representatives from among the three
leading candidates in the electoral col
leges Each state shall have one vote
in this election. The present House Of
Representatives is SO constituted that II
the next presidential election were thrown
into the House there would be an abso-
lutte tie. Each Of the two principal
parties would have twenty-five votes. In
a matter of such tremendous moment
party lines probably would be very rigidly
drawn, and there would be almost no
chance of breaking this tie. Nothing but
the death of some member of the House
from state the political COMPLEXION of
whose vote might be changed by the elm
ination of one man might serve to break
the tie. The complexion of the vote of
each state would be determined by the
number of members of each party in the
delegation. If there were more republic
cans than democrats in the delegation the
vote of state would go to the republican
candidate. If there were more democrats
in the delegation than republican its vote
would go to the democratic candidate
States in which the delegation was evenly
divided between the two parties would
have no vote at all. At present there
are four states which would thus be pre-
vented from voting in presidential con-
test in the House next year-Maine, Ne
braska, New Mexico and Rhode Island.
This is one of the few times in the
history of Congress, IL not, indeed, the
only time, where there has been such a
tie between the two parties.
There are many other situations which
oh
sary other methods of
Events Not selection than those
Provided For. the cnnst;t,t,o "" ~
the first. place, suppose the successful
candidate for the presidency should die
before the assembling of the electoral
colleges on the second Monday OF Jam
uary, how should they vote? The de-
feated candidate Of one election did die
Horace Greeley. The state Of Georgia
voted for him in spite of his death. but
it's vote was not counted. In the second
place. If the successful candidate should
die after the voting Of the electoral coll
leges, and before the counting Of that
vote by the two houses, who would be-
come President? In the third case, IL
the President-elect should die between
the counting Of the vote and the date
Of the inauguration. how would a Presi-
dent be chosen? Practically all the con-
stitutional lawyers agree that IL both the
President-elect and the Vice President
elect should die. the Constitution leaves
no method by which President could be
selected to I'LL the vacancy. Under this
condition there would be no President to
convene Congress- in extra session, and
no laws could be made because there
would be no President to affix his sig
nature to them. Only the courts would
continue and q condition Of political
chaos would be certain to ensue Many
believe that the Vice President-elect
would not be eligible to succeed the
President-elect IN any Instance. and this