Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1925-10-29
an County Democrat Mcconnesvis Thursday

of the constitution, for which moth
ing is substituted. 1t provides that
no person shall serve as sheriff or
county treasurer for more than four
years in any period of six years.
If the amendment becomes the
law persons now in the offices of
sheriff and of county treasurer will
be able to serve longer than the
constitution permitted when they
were elected. The provision that no
person can be sheriff more than four
years out of six is more than 100
years old and the same restriction
has been on the county treasurer for
rs years. Why change it now?
There is no reason for it, no public
demand for it, no justification for it.
Further, Section of Article II of
the constitution now fixes the min
imum term for which the judges of
the supreme court, the common
pleas court and the probate court
shall be elected, and limits the term
of other judges to six years, and also
tive township, municipal and school
officers to four years. If this
amendment carries, these provisions
will be repealed and annulled and
nothing provided to take their place.
What are the unannounced reasons
for repeating these provisions? The
legislature submits the repeal of
these provisions without debate and
asks the people to annul them. The
present Section of Article II also
provides that any vacancy which
shall occur in any elective state Of
fee other than that of member Of
the General Assembly or of the Gov
ernor, shall be filled by appoint
ment by the Governor. If the
amendment carries, this provision
will be repealed.
Let it be borne in mind also when
and under what circumstances the
General Assembly adopted the reso
luton submitting the term eXtender
amendment with all it's unreyealed
ramifcations. 1t was on the most
notorious and colossally expensive
Legislative day in Ohio history
April IT, 1925-right after the SEN
ate had rejected my appointments to
the public utilities. tax and civil ser
vice commissions-the day when the
General Assembly repassed over my
veto 81 bills, mostly tax raising
measures, and ground out a grist Of
"a new bills, many Of them bad,
which the Assembly in its saner de-
liberations of the previous weeks
had been afraid or unable to pass.
That was not proper time to adopt
anything The term eXtender reso-
luton was put over without debate.
l question whether many members
realized the carefully cloaked pro-
visions of the amendment, which
were contrived and understood only
by the seheming few in control with
in the Assembly and handful of po-
litical bosses on the outside. The
amendment is a typical example Of
the sort of sleeper-laden bills which
the General Assembly sometimes
passes, and especially so in the
midst of legislative orgies of tenn
porarily power-mad, lobby and
cabal-controlled leaders, as wit
messed in Ohio on April IT, last
The manifest purpose of the amend
ments is to build up political oil
garchy with plenty of food in the
trough for those who may be for
the time being on the inside" of
things.
With respect to the proposed
property classification amendment,
there has been much effort on the
part of its proponents to explain that
it is the best ever submitted-that it
is limited, and not open to all prop
erty-that only certain classes of
property may be classified and taxed
at rates lower than the rates under
the uniform rule which still is to
apply to real estate, the home owner
and farmer. These explanations
are deceptive and in keeping with
the misleading representations made
in behalf of the term extender
amendment. The truth is that the
proposed amendment merely states
a little more specifically the only
and very things which the classifi-