The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-22
\ COMPLETE FAILURE
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x %&%%*E %&%#%*~%%#&x Applying to the Constitution of the United States the same kind of criti- cisIn that is directed against the Con- stitutton of the League of Nations, 1t 1 becomes apparent at once that the l Constitution of the United States is a 1 complete and miserable failure and i that the Government of the United l States is non-existent- What is still more deplorable, under such q Con- stitution there can be no Government of the United States. The American people have been tricked and betray- | ed by the impractical tdealists and | sentimentaIists of 1787.
 With the consent of Senator Lodge. | Senator Knox and Senator Borah we i desire to call public attention to some of the unavoidable provisions of this ! paper Constitution which was fotsted | upon a credulous country by George | Washington and his rubber-stamp as | soCiates, many of whom were infected | with the Hcentious political theories of the ribald French encyclopedias of that lamentable period of history. l To begin with, the Constitution of | the United States creates three tnde- pendent, coordinate branches of the Government legislative, executive and | judicial, but owing to the carelessness or ignorance of the convention these branches are neither independent nor l coordinate. AS Nicholas Murray Butler would say, ''the draft itself is as clumsy 8 bit of workmanship as the history of national agreements af- fOrds"
 The money power is all vested in the hands of the legislative branch n afSh IT a1nna can make appropriations. The ex- ecuttve and judicial branches are therefore wholly dependent upon the legislative branch for the very means of existence. Instead of being inde- pendent and coordinate, they are the creatures and slaves of the legislative branch and must do its will or perish. Without the consent of the Congress they can exist only in name.
 To make a bad matter infinitely worse, the judicial branch is forever at the mercy of the executive. AL l though the Constitution provides for "one Supreme Court and such in- ferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and es- 1 tablish," this judiciary has no au- l thority whatever to enforce its de- crees. This power Is all vested in the executive. The President alone is
 
 Navy. and unless the Federal courts . decide causes to suit the whims of the President their decrees are not executed and their decisions are nulli- fled. Yet George Washington. Alex ? ander Hamilton, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin had the unspeak- able effrontery to pretend that this thing of shreds and straw was an in- dependent, coordinate judiciary! The situation in respect to the 1egts- , lative branch is hardly less lament : able. The Congress can enact laws, but its laws are worthless unless they are enforced by the executive, and : this the executive will refuse to do un- } less the President personally approves . of the legislation that Congress enacts. 7 Inasmuch as the army and navy are J subject to his command, and to his command alone, the President can g alive employ the military power to r coerce the Congress. By sending his s troops to take possession of the leg n islative chambers he can prevent the :. Congress from sitting, and his physi- 7, cal control of the Treasury enables
 him to employ these military mer- }, cenaTies to override this legislative Q branch of the Government To be
 sure, the House may impeach the @ President and the Senate may try the impeachment, but what does this |, power amount to when the President 7 may use the army and navy to defy
 both the impeachment and the verdict ,- and keep himself in office as long as D he chooses to maintain his arbitrary 7. and despotic sway?
 f There are many other disastrous r weaknesses in the Constitution of the United States, to which we need not devote extended consideration at this
 time, which not only make 1t unwork. , able but which destroy the Union that
 it professes to create. We refer es- ' pecially to the fact that by makine
 population the basis of representation - in the House the larger States, and by
 giving all States equal representation
 in the Senate the smaller States car
 completely coerce the larger States.
 This Constitution of the United
 States is based upon the revo1utionary l. doctrine that the people are capable L. of exerec cising self-controI in politica s- affairs, that the several States are
 capable of acting in good faith towart
 one another, and that various branch. F. es of the Government are capable O. le respecting the limitations upon theil e own power and of having due regart 70 for the authority of other branches O. el he Government. And 1t seriousl, St proposed that the rights, the Itbertie.
 and the security of the people be
 staked upon this theoretical, irnprac.
 ticable and untenable covenant which = defes the whole experience of man.
 kind
 Did anybody ever hear such non.
 sense outside of Bedlam and the Con.
 vention of 17S7?-New York World.