The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-11-17
Impeachment Of I.
STATE OFFICIALS
CUMBERSOME JOB
Special Session of Legislature
Would be Necessary, Only
Lower House Having Power
POLITICAL DOPEsTERs
LET VACCINATIONS RUN

Political dopesters at the capitol al
ready are engaged in selecting sue
cessor for, Thomas Hall, as secretary
of state. Not that the job is open nor
than anyone has any certain informa-
ton that it will be, until Mr.. Halls
term expires in the due course of hui
man events, Dec. 81, 1918. That little
fact, however, doesn't curb the imag.
ination Of those politically inclined,
and there already have been enscon-
ced in Mr.. Halls well-filled brogans
at least three tried men and true.
The trio includes Frank Wilder, now
deputy secretary of state, and prom
inently mentioned" in connection with
the secretaryship of the state board
Of regents, which Col. Charles Brew
er will vacate december l; John An
drews, former deputy secretary OF
state and proprietor of the Lidger-
wood Broadaxe, and Howard R. Wood
of Deering, speaker of the last house
of representatives and at this day
and date state manager for the Non
partisan league.
There are several obstacles which
the dOpesters haven't taken into con-
sideration. In the first place, the Of
flee isn't vacant and can only be de-
clared vacant after it's present holder
has, been impeached, and he can be
impeached only by the house or rep
resentatives, in which sole power is
entrusted by the constitution of North
Dakota; and the house or representa-
tives can impeach only after an Of
Tending officer has been tried by the
senate and after two-thirds of that
body have found him guilty. In the
house majority OF all The members
is necessary to impeach. W
Therefore, even though a state Of
ficer might be found guilty of some
crime; even though me might be sent
to the penitentiary5h he would still be
a state officer until impeached after
the constitutional fashion, and there
would always be the possibility that
the senate or the house of represen-
tatives might not agree with the dis
trict court or with the supreme court
in their findings And even should IN
elective state officer be impeached
his successor would be chosen not by
the political dopesters, but by the
people, who would have an opportun-
ity to vote on the question at a spe-
cial election.
There would be necessary, then,
first conviction in the district court;
in all probability an affirmation of
that conviction in the supreme court;
an Impeachment in which two.thirds
of the senators and a majority of the
representatives concurred, and finally
a special election to name success
sOr.
A special session of the legislature
around January 1 might not be objec-
tiOnable to the administration from
political standpoint. There's moth
ing like legislative session, special
or otherwise to create new political
issues, and with the primaries only
few months off this ammunition prob
ably would come in handy.
There is another contingency to be
considered in this highly hypothetical
case and that is the probability that
any state officer convicted of a crime
Az tAS SOuA 10 VI CAO OIuCO "OuAu ~
sign, thus saving the commonwealth
the expense of impeachment.
This explanation is made not with
view of trying anyone or any issue
in the newspapers, but to answer
numerous questions and conjectures
from Tribune readers. 1t had been
quite generally assumed that should
Mr.. Frazier choose he need only drop
into the secretary of states office and
say, "Tom, come out of it," and the
deed would be done. In order to cor.
rect these erroneous Impressions, the
above exposition of the facts is
given.
Wise heads around the capital are
not banking on special session, and
the secretary of state, back on the
JOB once more, is wading into accum-
ulated correspondence and digging just
as diligently as though nothing had
ever happened or were liable to hap
pen. If possible future developments
worry him at ALL Mr.. Hall is an ar
fist in concealing his emotions.