River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-02-06
WORKS BILL PASSES
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
SECURES ONE VOTE MORE
THAN is NECESSARY.
SIX YEAR PRESIDENTIAL TERM
House and Thirty-six States Muct Rat
ify II First, However-BiII May
Affect WiIson-At-
temptS to Alter.

Washington, Feb. By q vote or
forty-seyen to twenty-three, just one
more thar the required two-thirds ma
FORTY, the senate late Saturday passed
the resolution introduced by Senator
John d. Works of California, which
would 50 amend the constitution az to
fix the presidential tenure Of Office at
six years instead of four. The consti-
tutional amendment, which must be
ratified by the house of representa-
tives and three-fourths of the states,
also provides that any person elected
to the office is ineligible for re-elec-
ton
May Extend Wilson's Term.
If the measure is approved in the
lower legislative chamber and ratified
by the states within the next four
years, it is possible that it will auto
,matically extend the four-year term
to which Governor Wilson was elected
last November to March 4, 1919.
Works resolution contemplates sub
.stitution of the following in lieu of
the first paragraph of section /, arti-
Gle II, OF the constitution:
the executive power shall be
vested IA a president of the Unit
ed States of America The term
of the Office CT the president shall
be six years and no person who
has held the Office by election or
discharged it's powers or duties,
or acted as president under the
constitution and laws made in pur-
suance thereof, shall be eligible
to again hold the Office by election.
THE president, together with a
vice president, chosen for the
same term, shall be elected as
follows:
Here the language of the constitu-
tioa Is resumed.
The Vice Presidency.
The proposed constitutional amend
ment would not affect the vice presi-
dency except to lengthen the term to
six years. There would be no prohi-
bition against reelection Of the presi-
dents running mate. Several senators
were uncertain, however, whether, in
case vice president succeeds to the
chief magistracy, he could again be
elected to the presidency. Senator
CumminS Of Iowa, who reported the
Works resolution, however, held it
was plain that if vice president held
the presidential Office even for a
short time, it would make him eligible,
under the proposed amendment, to as
sumo the presidency for another trem.
Probably never before in the his
tory of the senate did a single meas
ure provide such fertile field for au-
thority. Saturdays discussion ranged
from the rise and fall of the Roman
empire, through the reign of tie Ma
poleons in France and the revolution
airy days in America up to and includ-
ing the issue Of new nationalism OF
today.
1t precipitated a lengthy wrangle be-
tween Senators Cummins of Iowa and
PoindeXter of Washington, wherein
the latter predicted the ultimate dis,
solution of the republican and demo
cratic parties, and the forming of two
new political ganizations-progres
sives of both old parties arranged
against the reactionaries of both old
parties. Cummins could not agree.
The debate between these two led
Senator Williams of Mississippi. bit
tcrly to denounce Roosevelt and the
new nationalism. He characterized
the bull moose leader as the knight
of the twentieth century with the pol
itical theories OF Alexander Hamilton"
but nevertheless opposed any amend
ment to the Works resolution which
might specifically prohibit Roosevelt's
reelection, declaring that the six-year
term would certainly be rejected by
the states, if such a provision were in
Guided.
Following Williams speech, the
senate rejected Senator Hitchcock's
amendment, fixing March 3, 1917, as
the time when the six-year term and
no reelection provision shall become
effective.
Senator Suthcrland's plan to fix the
term for president in Office at the time
of final ratification of the constitu.
tional amendment at four wears was
then rejected, q to 50.