Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-02-07
Resolution for Statewide Pro-
hibition Is Found to Contain
No Provision for Submission
to VDte of People.
COUP SPRUNG MONDAY
MERELY WASTED MOTION
Joke Is on Leaders Who Re-
fused to Allow Modification
of Measure Lest It Be Beat
en-; Result Nothing,
(By II. Il. ID. McAllister, Staff Core
spOndent.)

spondent.)
Santa Fe, Feb. 6.-Did the legisla-
ture of New Mexico, in a frantic effort
to rush through both houses a meas
ure providing for statewide prohibi-
ton, do a vain and foolish thing?
Has anything in the way of a propo-
sition to amend the constitution been
put before the people upon which
they can legally vote?
What is the status of statewide pro-
hibition in New Mexico, anyhow?
The foregoing are questions that
careful students of legislation in Santa
Fe are asking themselves today. Yes
terday afternoon prohibitionists were
jubilant over what they believed to
be a victory for the cause of consti-
tutional prohibition. Today they
don't know whether they have won a
victory or have just been fooling
around
Defect in Resolution.
For attention was called today to a
defect in the compromise resolution
passed by the legislature yesterday
which some of the ablest lawyers in
Santa Fe believe to be fatal to its eff
fectiveness. This defect is so elemen-
tai that it seems astounding that none
of the eminent lawyers who worked
on the resolution, among them mem
bers of the highest court In the state,
should have detected it.
The defect is that the resolution I'M
dertakes to amend the constitution of
the state by direct legislative action
without submitting the question to a
vote of the people.
The usual form of resolutions to
amend the constitution is as follows:
BE it resolved by the legislature of
the state of New Mexico that there
shall be submitted to the qualified
electors of the state of New Mexico
for adoption or rejection, an
amendment to the constitution of the
state, following this language by
setting out the language of the pro-
posed amendment
The compromise resolution passed
Monday begins as follows: BE it
resolved by the legislature of the
state of New Mexico, that the consti-
be, and it is hereby amended by add
ing thereto a new article" etc.
Nowhere in the resolution is there
one word regarding the submission of
the proposed amendment to a vote of
the people.
Can 1t Be Cured.
That the resolution was crudely
4 Il, I,,1it Nv hn OF
enthusiastic of its supporters. One
disguised prohibitionist remarked this
morning that 'it might have been
drafted by drunken washwoman."
The question that is now bothering
the drys is, can the admitted defect i'll
the measure be cured by supplement
tai legislation?
There are already pending in both
houses bills providing for the machin-
cry to hold special election on the
subject of adopting the amendment
proposed by the resolution: but the
question arises, has any amendment
been proposed? Well informed law
yers declare that there has not, and
maintain that before any bill can be
enacted that will amount to anything
there must be resolution proposing
such an amendment. The resolution
passed, they say, proposed nothing
it undertakes directly to amend the
constitution out of hand.
There is one way that the matter
can be remedied, and that is to take
up for consideration one of the other
resolutions for statewide prohibition
that have been introduced, amended
to suit the views of the majority OF
prohibitionists and pass upon it.
Whether this can be done now that
the strength of the prohibitionists has
been spent on the compromise resolu-
tion passed Monday, is q matter of
serious doubt. Certainly it will be
much more more difficult than the
passage of the resolution jammed
through both houses Monday.
In, the meantime, the bone drys are
chuckling to themselves Senator
Barth especially is enjoying the sit
uation. Had opportunity been given
to amend the resolution. say the bone
drys, there should have been every
likelihood that the glazing defect in
1t would have beep corrected. But