The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-31
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC }. HAsKIN. Directory
Washington. D. O
nTON

Washington, D. c.. Oct. 2S.-Tinker-
| ing with the constitution will be sub
| jeet much discussed when congress
gets back on the job after the cleo
tons. Several changes in the organic
law of the nation will be proposed
and at least one of these will be d.
rected to the purpose of making 1t
easier to effect constitutional amend
| ments.
In short, not only is there a mani
( fest disposition to do some tinkering
with the venerable document, but
there is insistence that the tinkering
should be made less difficult of ac-
complishment.
The latter proposal is a decided de-
barture from the ideas of the fore
| fathers who framed the constitution
| and in doing SO made clear their
| judgment that it should be safe
! guarded in every way against hasty
or ill-advised alterations. They I'M
dertook to see that no amendment
could be effected that had not been
| scrutinized carefully and that did not
have back of it an overwhelming SEN
| tin1ent of the people of the country,
and that they made a good job of 1t
is attested by the fact that since the
constitution was adoped in 1888 it
has been amended only nineteen
| times and ten of these amendments
embodied the so-called bill of rights
at the time the constitution was
drafted and were adopted in 1871.
The eleventh amendment, providing
| that a state can not be sued by citl-
zen of another state, or by citizens or
subjects of any foreign country, and
the twelfth, providing for the naming
| of candidates for>president and vice
president separately, followed within
few years-the one in 1898 and the
other in 1904. Then there was a lapse
of Il years without single change
in the constitution, with the three
growing out of the Civil war coming
| in 1865, SSS>and 1870.
! Forty-three years passed and two
amendments were declared in effect in
| 1913-the sixteenth, known as the in
come tax amendment, and the seven
! teenth, which provided for the cleo
| ton of United States senators by di-
rect vote of the people of the several
states. Seven years later the amend
ments were made effective which gave
the country prohibition and woman's
suffrage.
Four Carefully Considered.
The last four of the amendments
| appear to have passed the test con-
! templated by the forefath :. Certain
ly they were debated pro and con for
years and were considered with care
and deliberation, and it would seem
that they must have been demanded
/
Indeed, it was the difficulty with
which these constitutional changes
were brought about when it was evil
dent that a majority of the people
wanted them that led to the proposal
that amendments be made easier.
l. Senator Owen of Oklahoma is the
! sponsor for this idea and has intro
| duced resolutions on the subject in
| several congresses. One of these reso-
lutions is now pending before the SEN
ate committee on the judiciary. It
| provides that the constitution may
be amended sin the following man
ner and in no other way:
! can amendment or amendments or
| the calling of a constitutional con-
1 vention may be proposed:
| by a majority vote of the members
| of each house of congress.
"By either house should the other
house twice reject the proposal, and
a failures for three months to act
favorably shall constitute a rejection.
! Congress shall propose an amend
ment or amendments or the calling of
a constitutional convention when re-
| quested by a majority of the state
| legislatures. Congress or either house
may submit competing measures"
| This differs radically from the orig
| inal provision of the constitution I'M
der which congress can propose
amendments only when two-thirds of
| the members of both houses shall
| deem it necessary, and can call a con-
| stitutionaf convention only on the an
plication of the legislatures of two
| thirds of the several states. The con-
| stitution stipulates that amendments
SO proposed shall become effective
only when ratified by the legislatures
of three-fourths of the several states,
or by conventions in three-fourths
| thereof, as the one or the other mode
of ratification may be proposed by
| congress.
Senator Owen would change the
method of ratification by providing
that amendments after being pro-
! posed after one of the ways set forth
| in, his resolution, shall be voted upon,
not by the state legislatures, but di-
rectly by the people of the several
| states. "A majority of the votes so
| cast in a majority Of the congressional
| districts, together with a majority of
all the votes cast turnout the country,
shall ratify.>
LaFoIlette After the Courts.
Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin is
understood to favor the Owen pro-
posal, but he has one of his own in
| which he is even more deeply inter
ested. He is one of the members of
/ congress who are Jealous of the rights
and prerogatives of that body and he
f, is especially aroused over what he re-
CARDS as an invasion of the powers
of the legislative branch of the gov
eminent by the judiciary. He does
not believe that the courts should be
able to nullify an act of congress by
| declaring it to be unconstitutional.
| Accordingly he will urge an amend
ment to the constitution which will
! provide 40 that no judge of an in
(, ferior federal court shall set aside a
law of congress on the ground that it
is unconstitutional, and CD that if the
supreme court of the United States
shall assume to declare any law of
congress unconstitutional, or by ju-
diciaI Interpretation shall assay. a
public policy at variance with the
statutory declaration of congress,
which alone under our system of gov
eminent is empowered to determine
public policies, the congress may by
| re-passing the law nullify the action
of the court.
The LaFollette amendment. which
| is said to have the backing of the
American Federation of Labor, is
generally regarded as even more rad