Evening star., 1938-08-28
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

Anthony j. Dimond, delegate in Con-
gress from Alaska. reminds us that on
September l3, obedient to an act of Con-
gress providing for a referendum, the
people of Alaska will vote on whether
they desire establishment of q one house
Legislature. Three years ago the Terri
torial House unanimously approved such
a memorial, but 1t was defeated in the
Senate by 6-to-2 vote Since then Ne
braska changed its legislative system
from two houses to one Delegate Di-
mond explains that the one-house legis-
lature is being urged on the ground that
1T will simplify the legislative process.
thus making it easier for the people of
the Territory to understand it and to
make their desires effective; that it will
fix responsibility SO that no member of
the Legislature. through weakness or
carelessness. will be able to say that the
fault Of what was or was not done lies in
another body; that it will entirely elimi-
nate the inherent faults Of what al
most amounts to secret legislati manip-
ulation through the conference commit
tees. and that it will restore to the Legis-
to pass upon every feature Of every bill
in the full light Of public discussion and
in open view"
He points out that Alaska's next door
neighbor, British Columbia, bearing
somewhat the same relation to the Do
minion of Canada that Alaska bears to
the United States and with more than
10 times the population of Alaska, is
WI nvpn nric c1a
ture. Mr.. Dimond also emphasizes that
"the two-house legislative system. as we
have inherited it from England, had its
origin in class distinctions, because the
so-called high-born. those who belonged
to the nobility refused to sit in the same
body with representatives Of ordinary
people, the commons"
Representative Maury Maverick of
Texas, defeated In the primary for re-
election and barred from the ticket as
an independent has announced that
he will write 50-cent book on the Con-
stitution. He got some experience in
book writing during the last Congress-
when he produced The American
maverick" mote the small M largely a
story Of his famous Virginia ancestry
And he has q good start on writing
about the Constitution because he put
several speeches in the Record on that
subject. He called our Constitution "a
stream through the ages" He stresses
that "the Bill Of Rights of the Ameri-
can Constitution, containing the first 10
amendments to the Constitution adopted
in Philadelphia in 1887, is q statement
of human rights inherited through sew
eral centuries of developing constitu-
tional government. not only Of the
Magma Charta, adopted in 1915, but for
centuries before, plus all the English
petitions. bills, statutes, accepted court
decisions and established customs there
after plus the development of American
rights in the United States since separa-
ton from the mother country in 1776'
He says that the great mass Of Ameri-
cans do not know their human rights in
cluded in these 10 amendments: Free
dom Of speech, press, religion; right of
assembly and petition; militia-right to
bear arms; quartering Of soldiers; right
against unreasonable search and seizure
indictment, jeopardy, no witness against
self, due process Of law; right of trial by
jury, counsel; common law. civil jury:
excessive bail, unusual punishment;
rights not enumerated retained by peo-
pie: powers not delegated reserved to
States people.
Representative Dewey Short of Mis-
souri, explains his name. Il happen to
have appeared on the scene of action
shortly before Dewey sank the Spanish
fleet in Manila Bay, when they named
all the newborn CATS dogs. horses and
kids-Dewey." That sort of hero nomen-
clature ran in his family for his father
was named Jackson Grant. while my
last name happens to be Short. if you
know my ancestry I am sure you would
agree am almost as Long as am Short,
because the truth of the matter is my
mothers name. was Long before her
marriage" There was nothing very
short about his family. he discloses, be-
cause he was the eighth Of 10 children.