New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-25
QTY HOME RULE
ARTICLE READY
TO BE PASSED
constitutional Convention
Turns Down Forty Pro-
posed Amendments.
LEGISLATIVE CHECK
PROVES UNPOPULAR
OIL Gives New York Sixteen
commissioners, Every Other
City Seven.

City seven.
s,.- Correspondent o. The Trioune.l
Albany. Aug. 24.--The home rule for
go ar,iele. with only minor changes,
- advanced TO the order Of final pas
-. in the Constitutional Convention
80 More than forty amendments
80 offered. several Of which sought TO
Give the cities a broader grant Of home
,rle than the Low proposal aims at
Thsse drafted by the Citizens Union
,,d the City Club of New York, were
al defeated.
Al Smith, minority leader Of the AS
.smblv. led the fight against the leGis-
l,.jye checks on cities in the Low pro-
pOssl.
This sort of nome rule you're giving
as said Mr.. Smith, ais the same that
he Federal government gives to the
,,r.eivilized. half dressed Filipinos."
aBut." answered Seth Low, chairman
n the Cities Committee. sit is the same
hat the progressive and enlightened
STATE Of California has given its
rtes."
AZ do not yield to the chairman Of
,be Cities Committee in his respect and
admiration for the great State of Cali
,ornia.o said Mr.. Smith, "but I'd rather
be lamppOst on Park Row than Gov
amor OF California"
Earlier in the debate, when a dele
rate asked him if it was not strange
hat he. a Tammany man, was offering
amendments prepared by the City CLUB
nd the Citizens Union, Mr. Smith re-
Piled:
Would Support Anything Decent"
ANY time any one has anything de-
cent. even if it is the City Club or the
Citizens Union. III support him"
The home rule proposal gives 10 the
rites OF the state complete control
syer their administrative affairs. While
this satisfies the extremists, the sec
ion providing that all charters and
amendments adopted by cities must be
submitted 10 the Legislature has proved
unpopular. This section declares that
II the Legislature does not act on
these before July l in the session TO
] which they are submitted they become
i law as a matter Of course. The pro
; possl also gives the Legislature SINH
lar check on all matters of state con-
Germ and the issuance Of bonds by
cities and the debt limit OF munlclpali-
ties
II the article is ratified by the peo-
pic next November each city must have
4 a referendum in 1917 TO determine If
! the celebrates Of the respective ~lu-
inequalities are for a new charter. II
they vote affirmatively charter re-
vision committee will take up the work
o. preparing a new charter, which will
be submitted TO the electors at the
next general election. Then the char
Ter must be referred TO the Legislature.
Sixteen Commissioners for y. Y. City.
In all the cities, except New York,
1 The commission shall consist of seven
commissioners. In New York City there
shall be sixteen, nine to be elected
I from the city ~ large. two from Man
J haitian, two from Kings and one from
j each Of the other boroughs.
One Of Mr.. Smiths amendments
/ sought to give the cities the sole right
TO map out their own aldermanic dis
,ricts This was defeated on the
ground that IL would lead to gerry
4 Wandering Another Of his amend
ments, also defeated, gave dismissed
4 policemen the right Of court review.
II you don't give the police this right
said Mr.. Smith, you will have 10000
or 10000 votes lined up against your
I constitution at once This is a live
/ wire proposition. There is more dyna-
mite in it than in anything you've
. iouched"
4 The convention also passed to the
4 order Of third reading the proposal Of
Meier Steinbrink, of Brooklyn, making
: the State Lunacy Commission constitu-
iional
Stirred by Literacy Test.
"A survival of Knownothingism" was
Louis MarshalPs Characterization to-
/ night Of Charles II. Young's proposal
making the reading or writing Of Eng
( lish a test of a voters qualification.
There are over million people in
4 this state who read only Yiddish," said
j Nj. Marshall. They would resent this
amendment if adopted as an insult
One Of the most fatal acts that this
sonyeI ton could make would be to
adopt it"
The author of the amendment pro-
dueed statistics showing that in the
twenty states now possessing a lit
sIaey test illiteracy had decreased,
while 1t had increased in this state.
In the Assembly district in New
York City which sent William Sulzer
10 the Assembly on the heels of his i'm
parchment in this very building" said
Ar, Young. there were 3,443 illiterates
AZ the time of his election. II is signf-
cant that Sulzer was elected by a ma
lorlty Of 1888"
Inc convention adjourned at II
o'clock when the debate had hardly
started.