Evening star., 1951-02-11
Two-T erm Amendment
Move to Limit Length of Presidents
Service Backed by 29 Stotes-Lock7
By Gould Lincoln

-1SHN
Lincoln
times to elect any man they de-
sired for President.
The 1S States which have still
to act upon the amendment
are Alabama. Arizona. Florida,
Georgia. Kentucky. Maryland,
Massachusetts. Minnesota, Nevada,
North Carolina, Oklahoma. Rhode
Island. South Carolina, Tennes-
see. Texas, Uath, Washington
and West Virginia.
The latest action came In wy
oming, where the lower house
approved the ratification Of the
amendment and the Senate fol-
lowed with a vote of Is to 8 also
approving it.
South Carolina's lower house
also has voted It's approval Of the
amendment. 9S to 10. and the
Senate there is expected to follow
suit. However, q bloc Of State
Senators, about one-third Of the
Senate membership. is threaten
ing to f1libuster the resolution of
ratification to death at the pres
ent session of the Legislature. Some
of them have dug UP arguments
against the two presidential terms
amendment and are pointing to
Gov. James F. Byrnes Of
South Carolina. recently inaugu-
rated. as a beneficiary of many
appointments to- high Federal
Office at, the hands Of q third
term President" Franklin D.
Roosevelt. The resistance to the
constitutional amendment reflects
an intraparty row among the
Democrats Of South Carolina. =
Theodore Roosevelt's Case
Georgia. Florida and Texas are
counted upon to ratify. Supporters
of the amendment believe, too,
that Minnesota. Utah. Maryland
and Nevada. among the rest of
the States will supply the requi-
site number for final ratification.
Seemingly the toughest States
against ratification are Massa-
chusetts, Rhode Island, Alabama,
Kentucky. Tennessee, North Caro-
lima, Washington and West Vir-
ginia. However, the picture may
cl1ange-as it sometimes does
when a constitutional amendment
is within favorable action by
merely a State or two Of total
ratification. The impulse to be
the State which gives an amend
ment the final successful push is
considerable.
Mr.. Roosevelt won his third
term in the White House in
1910, by defeating the
Republican candidate, the late
Wendell L. Willkie. A potent
argument made by the Democrats
was that President Roosevelt was
needed at the helm of state be-
cause of the war the Axis powers
had launched.
Gen. U. S. Grant. Republican,
served as President for two terms,
from 1869 to 1877. Some of his
friends undertook to have him re-
nominated for a third term-but
they were unsuccessful. When
the late President Theodore
Roosevelt. Republican. was elected
President in 1904. he announced
that he would not seek another
term; that he considered the
three years and six months he had
served as President after the as
sasination of President William
Mckinley first term" for him
self and he intended to stick to
the anti-third term tradition. He
did not seek denomination. there
fore, in 1908, but succeeded in
having his Secretary of War. the
late William Howard Taft, father
of Senator Taft of Ohio, nomi-
mated for President.
Limit on Ratification
In 1912. however, Col. Roose-
velt, feeling that Taft had not
lived up to the Roosevelt square
deal" policies. cast his hat in the
ring again. He lost the Repubn-
can nomination to Taft and
started the Bull Moose Party,
which gave him its presidential
nomination. He and Taft split
the Republican Party wide open
and Woodrow Wilson. Democrat.
was elected President that year.
Another Republican President,
the late Calvin Coolidge, was
pressed by his friends to run for
denomination in 1928. He had
served two years and five months
of the presidential term of the
late Warren G. Harding and then
a four-year term to which he
Coolidge, was elected in 1924.
Coolidge finally issued his famous
II do not choose to run" state
ment, which seemed in keeping
with the -third-term tradi-
ton.
The resolution submitting the
limiting amendment to the States
provides that it must be ratified
by the necessary number of States
within seven years, or by March
"a, 1854. Unless 1t is ratified
within that period, the proposed
amendment dies.