Evening star., 1935-02-03

representatives In congress OF
tcher of Marion is chairman.
Congress on the first Saturday after
the second Wednesday in January in
stead of on January 8 as provided by
section Is of the Revised Statutes.
Election Date Changed.
In addition to the foregoing there is
a definite proposal by Representative
Summers of Texas, chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, to set the
time of the election back to the first
Tuesday after the first Monday in
October during presidential election
years.
A study of all this proposed legisla-
ton and the suggestions for amending
the Constitution brings to the fore, it
is pointed out, the imperative need
for providing election machinery by
the anactment of law that will pro-
vide method of filling vacancy oc-
casioned by the death or failure of
both the President and Vice President
elect to qualify. Congress is author
lied to provide for such occasions by
section 3 of the twentieth amendment.
Unless this is done, it is the claim
of legal authorities that contingency
may arise in the future, as it has
arisen in the past, where the election
must ultimately be decided by the
House of Representatives. Such a
method of election was first utilized in
1900, when Thomas jefferson was
elected by the House of Representatives
over Aaron Burr.
The propinquity of the date for the
counting of the electoral votes for
President and Vice President on
January 6 and the Inauguration on
January 20 leaves insufficient time to
settle any contest that may arise and
to give Congress an opportunity to
select President, it is declared by
constitutional authorities. Therefore,
it is emphasized there is need of q law
to provide for every contingency be-
cause of the passage Of the so-called
'lame-duck'' amendment.
AS chairman of the committee
Representative Fletcher is making a
survey among the outstanding colleges
and universities of the Nation. The
findings of this research will be
analyzed to secure the most practical
method which, when enacted into law,
would forever eliminate the possibility
of our Nation being temporarily with
out Chief Executive.
Qualification to Act.
The testimony before the House
Committee shows that because of the
weakness of the twentieth amendment
the failure to have a man qualified to
act as President when Inauguration
day arrives might be due to the death
OF an elected candidate, or it might
be due to mis- incapacity to act as
President because of a mental or
physical inability or legal disqualified
ton.
1t is not beyond the point of prob
ohi1ift fhof DrociIook v,,inIof
become mentally or physically in
capacitated. He might even be kid
naped and Congress might not know
whether the President-elect was alive
or dead, the testimony presented to
the committee pointed out Also it
might develop that the President
elect was not a native-born citizen
and therefore not legally qualified to
be President.
Members of the committee feel that
now is the appropriate time for Con-
gress to provide for selecting a Presi-
dent, regardless of what the cause
may be for the failure of the Presi-
dent-elect to qualify. In SO doing
it is pointed out the language of the
act should be broad enough so that
Congress will have unquestioned power
to provide for the contingency. The
twentieth amendment says that Con-
gress shall provide the manner in
which a person shall act as President,
but there is no statutory provision for
the mechanics of the procedure Con-
gress must follow in so doing, and a
debate over a last-minute method
might result in the arrival of inaugu-
ration day without qualified person
to act as President.