The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1930-07-01
LEGAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE
PROPOSED Wet REFERENDUM


Petitions are being circulated for the
purpose of having submitted to the voters
of Illinois the three following propositions
under the so-called Public Policy act at
the November election, 1880:
l. Shall the Eighteenth Amendment be
repealed?
2. Shall the Volstead act be modified or
repealed?
3. Shall the Illinois search and seizure
act be repealed?
The first question proposes an express
sion of the voters of Illinois on whether or
not a provision of the constitution of the
United States should be repealed. The
constitution itself provides method of
changing the constitution, submission of
the question by Congress and its ratifica-
ton by three -fourths of the states The
constitution of the United States is beyond
change by any single state. If the question
of whether the Eighteenth Amendment,
placed there by the legal procedure pro-
vided through the action of forty-Six
states should or should not be permitted
to remain there, is proper question to be
submitted to the voters of state, then by
the same token it is proper to submit any
other amendment to them. Take the six
teenth amendment, for example: there is
much dissatisfaction. with the working of
the income tax law, then why not submit
to the voters of Illinois the question of
whether that amendment should be re-
pealed? There are those who believe, too,
that the people should have no direct voice
in the selection of United States senators;
that their election should be put back into
the hands Of the political bosses who can
more easily choose their man by manipu-
lation and control of the legislature. Then
why not submit to the voters the question
of repeal of the seventeenth amendment?
Again, there is certain brand of politi-
cians much welded to the old order of
things who believe that "woman's place is
in the home" They want the nineteenth
amendment repealed. Then why not sub
NIT the woman's suffrage amendment to
the voters to see whether or not Illinois
wants that provision to remain in the con-
stitution of the United States? And so on
with the other constitutional amendments.
There is no more reason for submitting the
question of the repeal of the Eighteenth
Amendment than there is for submitting
repeal of any other amendment or any
provision of the original constitution, or
the entire constitution for that matter.
AS to the second question, if vote on it
should result in what the vets want, name
ly, demand that Congress permit intoX-
1caI118 liquor NaIlu llldb Is MIldO
ton must mean for the Intoxicating
variety is permitted now the action would
be futile, because it would be Illegal and
unconstitutional if it should be put into
effect. The Eighteenth Amendment to the
constitution of the United States prohibits
Intoxicating liquor and congress cannot
permit what the constitution prohibits.
Therefore, if congress should attempt to
permit a liquor which is an intoxicating
liquor, that law would necessarily be de-
clared null and void by the supreme court
of the United States.
The third proposition submits the ques-
ton of whether or not Illinois should sup
port the constitution of the United States.
In other words, it proposes that 1t is legal
and constitutional for Illinois to withdraw
itself from the union so far as supporting
the Eighteenth Amendment to the conSti-
tuition is concerned. This submits the
question of whether Illinois shall permit
notification of the constitution of the
United States, because without state law
to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, Il