The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1928-07-01


Second and Fourth-It is substantive
legislation. Il Is ordinary municipal
legislation.
These two may be taken together mean
ing substantially the same thing. Sub
stantive and municipal legislation OPP
crate upon the individual citizens as such.
1t has not 10 Go with the form and
manner or modes of government 1t is
cOntended that because the Eighteenth
Amendment is substantive municipal
legislation and not constitution making,
therefore, it Is invalid as constitutional
measure.
Is there anything in the Constitution
itself that operates on the citizens di-
rectly or any class of citizens. that par
takes of the nature of municipal and sub
Stantive legislation2
Article l, Sec. 9, reads thus:
And no person holding any Office OF
profit or trust under them Omitted
States) shall, without the consent of Con-
greSS, accept Of any present, emolument,
office, or title of any kind whatever from
any king, prince, or foreign state"
Here is a class of citizens numbering
hundreds of thousands that this proviso
operates upon directly. 1t is just as much
ordinary municipal legislation as the
Eighteenth Amendment.
But it may be objected that this is not
a fair example, as those persons are con-
nected with the government. and there
fore are a part of the structure of the
government. Very well, that objection
may stand and the above point yielded.
Article XIII of the amendments provides,
Neither slavery nor involuntary servi-
tude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject TO their juriS-
diction."
There is proyiSo fee from limita-
tons operating in the form of prohibi-
ton upon the citizens of the United
States-all of them and not any class.
There Is an example of the purest sub
stantive municipal legislation as can be
found. No act ever passed by Congress
or legislature is more SO. That amend
ment changed no part of the form OF
government. It pertained to no mode or
manner Of governmental functioning.
Congress never owned slaves. No south
ern state ever owned slaves. 1t is doubt
full if ever county, township, city or
town ever owned a slave. It was indi-
vidual slave holders that were affected,
and they only Mr.. Root did not object
to this precedent. Had he been In the
New York legislature there is not much
doubt but that he would have voted to
ratify this Thirteenth Amendment.
WHO MADE THE LAW?
II the Eighteenth Amendment Is in
valid because of It's being ordinary, sub
Stantive, municipal legislation, then the
Thirteenth Amendment is invalid for the
same reason.
Again, is this Thirteenth or Eighteenth
Amendment the first and only instances
where constitution making resulted in or
binary, municipal legislation? The indi-
vidual states of the Union had made con-
stitutions both before and after the Fed
eral Constitution was framed. All of
them have numerous commands and pro-
hibitions operating directly upon the
citizens of those respective states. And
every command or prohibition is law,
substantive, municipal. You cannot have
a law without law maker Where is the
advantage in drawing the fine distinction
between words and phrases such as "con-
stitution-maker" and "law-maker?" Both
result in law. It availS nothing to say
that, if the result of the supposed Con-
stitution making is municipal law, it is
invalid and therefore is no law. The
only substantial question is, who made
the law whether municipal in nature and