Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-12-24
JAN SUBMIT AGAIN THE ORGANIC LAW 10 THE
 PEOPLE ID CONSIDER
-',sorhey ey General So Declares, and nn"rrofts Opinion With Legal Au. thorities to Back It ID.

niL,t '' VPiiioH " Nfh Legal Au- 'hori'ies to Back It ID.
 1i'I'e MOCK, Dec. 23.-That the legis- idtufe Which is to meet in Januarv b.. a flsht to adopt the defeated constitu~ lioh ana to order it's resubmission and !o eHmlnate therefrom parts of ob- Jlclio'ilple clauses and articles. is the opililon or John D. Arbuckle. attorney seheral, written Monday morning af- i ter careful study of the question of such resubmission. Mir. Arbuck1e,s opinion follows:
 1 Mr. Arbuckle's Opinion,
 A constitution is social compact
 pS winch the whole people covenants "ith each citizen and each citizen "llh the whole people that all shall
 oe governed by certain laws for the common good; and this constitution may be oral or written.
 constitutions embody simply the lundamental principles of government, ana although not always, freouently rely upon the enabling acts of legis
 latufes to place their provisions in force.
 Il America we find the first writ ten constitutions. In the constitution of this State is found no direct nrovis- lon whereby the constitution can be ohahged In toto, but Jameson in his Constitutional Conventions,' has the following to say:
 l. That whenever d cOnstitui ion needs general revision, a convention IS lndlspensably necessary: and if 1here IS contained in the constitution no provision for such body, the call ing of one is believed to be directly within the scauc of the ordinary legis- lative power
 That were it not a proper eX- erclse of legislative power, the unsur- patton has been so often committed With the general acquiscence. that it IS now too late to quetsion it as such. 1t must be laid down as among the es- abolished prerOgatives of our General Assembly that, the constitution being silent, Whenever they deem it exped- , lent, they may call conventions to re- vise the fundamental law.
 ,"Roger sherman Hoar, on "Consti- tutional Conventions" at page fl, has the following to say:
 There are now 12 states which have no express constitutional provis- ions for the calling of conventions, yet in eight of these (of which Arkan- sas is mentioned as one) conventions have been held without any serious question being made as to their legal ity.'
 Daniel Webster, in the famous case of Lutnher vs Borden, used the fol- lowing expression:
 When it is necessary to ascertain the will of the people, the legislature must provide the means of ascertain ing it..
 The Massachusetts Supreme Court Court had the following to say upon the question::
 Tt is undoubted that conventions have in the past been called by legis- latures without advanced opinions from the voters, but the growing ten dency has been to take d popular vote.' Another authority has this to say:
 "'Where d change ill the constitu tion is made under proceedings ini- tiated by the legislature, it is not be- cause the existing constitution through a convention, but because it is the only means through which an author ized consent of the whole people, the entire State, can be lawfully obtained.'
 Right of Legislature. "A constitution is compact that must be some proper manner framed and ratified by majority of the elec- tors of the State. The demand for a hn fore an effort is made to supplant the old But when this demand has be- come sufficiently great, it is entirely proper that the legislature of the State should submit to the people of the State the question of whether or not a convention should be called and we are of the opinion that the legislature can go further and by statute provide for the calling of a convention for the purpose of framing a new conStltu- ton. We are also of the opinion that there is this difference, that when the legislature has submitted to the people the question of calling a con- stitutional convention and the people by majority vote have signified their desire for such a convention, and the constitution has been submitted thru proper election machinery provided by act of the legislature, majority of those voting is all that is necessary to the adoption of the constitution. But when the convention has been called by the legislature itself and the peo- pie have not had an opportunity Co speak by means of the ballot on the question of calling the convention, it then becomes necessary that the constitution so framed shall be voted on favorably by a majority of the electors of the State and not those voting at the particular election at which it is adopted.
 "As to the question at issue, we are of the opinion that since the lesls- lature has called a constitutional con yention, and since this convention has framed a constitution, that the coming legislature, being the representative body of the people, would have the same right to adopt the work of the convention recently held and resub- init to the vote of the people the con- stitution framed by them as the for-