Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-25
Revision of PennSylpania's
Constitution Long Discussed

to the task, ii will need to get un-
der way early in the coming winter,
and Attorney General Schat'fer who
will be it's chairman, is q man OF
both the energetic temperament and
the steady balance that will be
likely to put the right sort of i'm
petus and continuity into whatever
method and schedule may be agreed
upon for the proceedings. It is be-
lieved that much of the inquiry will
be divided among the Commission
that is, that to groups of members
will be assigned 8he subjects in
which they are especially well in
formed and on which they will re-
port to the Commission as a whole
the data, information, testimony and
pleas which will be laid before them
by the public or which they may
obtain in their own studies.
Forty-six years will have passed
next month since the people of
Pennsylvania accepted the Constitu-
tion which the convention sitting in
this city-their hall, the editice of
the old Sixth Presbyterian Church,
which had been internally recon-
structed for them-drafted after
several months of sessions; and this
Constitution we still live under, save
the changes which have been made
every now and then by amendments
voted into it at the polls, This pro-
cess of amending is slow. uncertain
and sometimes clumsy or worthless
when the text has been carelessly or
ignorantly prepared. OF course, it
may be made to produce large re-
suits when many proposed amend
mentS are submitted to the people
at one time, as was the case in
Massachusetts last year, where not
fewer than twenty-one were laid be-
fore the people to pass upon at the
polls, although all but two, ] think,
were rejected. But when a Consti-
tuition as an organic law is framed,
it is usually rs nearly exhaustive OF
the subject matter as such a pact
can be made in the harm onizing OF
great variety of conflicting ideas
and ideals. 1t is likely to be up
to-date: it is in form which invites
the respect that we'll ordered
dignity receives; it has something of
majesty in it as one of those acts
which happen only once in a gen.
Grafton. Even then, however, it
may be turned down by the people,
as the product of the New York
Constitutional convention was, not
very long ago, although if ii had
been preceded by plan of opera
tions such as that which the new
Commission in Pennsylvania is now
to enter upon, it would probably
have been put into better shape for
popular approval.
Since the present Constitution was
adopted, there have been more
changes in the life Of the Common
wealth and it's people than prob
ably have ever taken pace in a like
interval. Nowhere else in the State
have they been more numerous and
notable than in Philadelphia. How
far we have come to ne from the
period in which the last Convention
sat may be inferred from the fact
/ that Governor Geary, under whose
administration that project began, is
! almost totally unknown to most
/ Pennsylvanians to-day, conspicuous
| as he was in his time as q soldier
and a politician. In the one hun
| dred and twenty-nine years since
| Pennsylvania became a State of the
! Union, she has had but three Con-
| stitutions. Forty eight years passed
between the first and the second;
| thirty-tve between the second and
| the third, and If the next Legis-
/ lature shall call convention to
frame another, about forty eight
years will have elapsed between the
adoption of the present one and the
submission of new one.
1t will not be the fault of the
! Governor and the Attorney General
! If, whatever may be the findings at
! which the Commission shall arrive,
there shall be any unreasonable de-
lay in putting them into effect
! The members have been appointed
with the understanding and eXpec-
! tat'on that they will take hold OF
! their duty in the broad spirit of a
high, practical service in clearing
the path for the genuine constitu-
tional reform which their eXamina
| ton and intelligent public opinion
may indicate as necessary or desir-
! able. In a way it VII be in the
nature Of a general inquest into the
workings of the Constitution o!
/ Pennsylvania to-day. and the sixty
thousand dollars which have been
appropriated for its expenses will he
a trihing outlay in comparison w tn
the value which should come from
this special undertaking. The av-
erage of the characte- and ability
in the Commission is 10th high and
| representative. and the Governor
| feebathat so goodly company OF