The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-24
ADVOCATES SOON ID PRESENT VIEW
 ON CONVENTION
'Carnley Resolution, Now With Judiciary Commit tee, Expected to Reveal
 Will of SOlons

Montgomery, January 2S.--(Special) Advocates of a constitutional convention will have an opportunity to present their views on this subject when the resolu- tion introduced on Thursday by Repre- sentative Carnley comes up from the judiciary committee for action. One pur- pose of the resolution was to ascertain the will of the house and senate on the matter of making provision for a general change of the organic law. In his reso- lution Mir Carnley says:
 Whereas, nothing that is human is per- feet, therefore our constitution is not perfect. The father of our country said the basis of our political system is the right of people to make and to alter their constitution and government" The makers of our constitution have usually been among the wisest of wise Americans, and they recognized the truth that no hu- man government could be perfect, and that no one age could foresee or guard against all the exigences of future ages; that constitutional provisions suitable to the necessities and happiness of one age, may be wholly unsuited to fhe succeeding generation, and they therefore provided Tn advance, fors amending and revising the constitution which they made. They therefore sought to make the changes practicable but not too easy, the mode provided by a constitutional convention secures deliberation and caution A gov ernment or constitution forever changing and changeable borders upon anarchy and confusion; but one unchangeable by peaceful means leads to despotism or re- bellion-one or both.
 e fa anf of oil men that our present constitution con- tains many provisions that have outlived their usefulness, if they ever possessed such functions. This legislature and it's predecessors, are so tied and bound by many of these provisions, that they can- not enact laws which the people for years have been demanding and are now demanding.
 Whereas these provisions are en- tirely too numerous to attempt to estimate them by separate amendments. The better and safer plan is to revise the whole by constitutional convention. Therefore, be it resolved, That the legislature provide for the calling of a constitutional convention before it ad- journs.
 ?. Be it further resolved that the words of Thomas Jefferson are as applicable today as to the amendment of the state constitution, as they were hundred years ago when uttered as to the propriety of amending the federal constitution, when, among other things, he said:
 Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I know that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with
 
 was very like the present, but with out the experience of the present.; and 40 years of experience in government is worth century of ebook-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to arise from the dead l am cer- tainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitu- tions, because, when ence known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more en- frightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of cir cumstances, institutions must advance also and keep pace with the times"
 We might as we'll require man to ~ wear still the coat which fitted him when boy, as civilized society to re- main ever under the regime of their barbarous ancestors. It is this pre- posterous idea which has lately deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, in stead of wisely yielding to the gradual z change of circumstances, of favoring progressive accommodations to pro- gressive improvement, have clung to old abuses, entrenched themselves be- hind steady habits, and obliged their ssubjects to seek through blood and vio- 1ence, rash, and ruinous innovations, which, had they been referred to the peaceful deliberations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have been put into acceptance and salutary forms. Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering it's own affairs.
 The dead have no rights. They are nothing; and nothing cannot own some thing. Where there is no substance, there can be no accident This cor poral inhabitants, during their genera ton. They alone have a right to di- rect what is the concern of themselves alone, and to declare the law of that di- rection; and this declaration can only be made by their majority. That ma jority, then, has right to depute representatives to a convention, and to make the constitution what they think will be the best for themselves.