The Wrangell sentinel., 1956-03-09
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE
The Strong Man

In these Ides of March while waiting in anticipation for the ha bor dredging to start, the sea wall construction to get underway and a fill to be placed back of it, we've been reading, among other things, the proposed state consti- tuition as drafted at College in 75 long days.
 They have printed it in booklet form now and there are a few cop nes of the latest draft at The Sen tinel office for those who would like to spend quiet evening with the future state. Vince CarrOzza, consultant for the statehood com mittee, sent them down with the committees compliments. We al ways felt some good would come out of that appropriation for the statehood committee. Vince, incid- entally, is the boss-man of the La throp radio stations when not de- voting his time and energy to the cause of statehood.
 But, to get on with our review of the neatly bound constitution. A strong man prevails throughout this booklet. Surely, the hero of the piece. The strong man is to he known as the Governor and the authors, all 55 of them, have set a brilliant stage for him on which to perform. He is, as we read the booklet, about the only elective of ficial the new state will have with the possible exception of a few city councilmen here and there. Provis- ion is made for the election of a Secretary of State but, says Section s:
 Tn the general election the votes cast for a candidate for governor the candidate for secretary of state running jointly with him. The candidate whose name appears on the ballot jointly with that of the successful candidate for governor shall be elected secretary of state.
 This joint secretary of state also acts as the governor in the lat ters absence or inability to per form, to keep the regime in proper focus, and if anything happens to the secretary provision shall be made by law for successor to the of flee of governor" which probably means the Legislature will do something about it.
 The strong man governor has all the authority, powers and so on of an ordinary governor under the proposed constitution and then
 Says Section 24: The head of each principal department shall be q single executive unless other wise provided by law. He shall be appointed by the governor, subject to confirmation by majority of the members of the legislature in joint session, (there's that joint business asain) and shall serve at the pleasure of the governor, eX- cept as otherwise provided in this article with respect to the secre- tary of state. The heads of all principal departments shall be cit iens of the United States" That last sentence appears to be a good feature.
 Then says Section 26: When board or commission is at the head of a principal department or reg ulatory or quasi-judicial agency, its members shall be appointed by the governor" There is the usual appendage, subject to confirmation by the joint session, etc, which with a strong" governor usually means less than nothing.
 The constitution provides for courts. They are to be set up by judicial council made up of seven members, three to be appointed by the state bar association, three to be appointed by the governor. The seventh member, ah, we wondered, too, until we found this: "The chief justice of the supreme court shall be eX-officio the seventh member and chairman of the judi cial council" And, who appoints the chief justice? Our hero of the booklet, the governor no less. An interesting line in this connection reads: No member of the judicial council, EXCEPT THE CHIEF JUSTICE, may hold any other of flee or position of profit under the United States or the state" It would appear that the authors in tended the chief justice to be No. ? man. He can draw pay from any source.
 That's as far as we've gotten so far. There're 45 days left before it comes up on the ballot at the April 24 primary election. That should be about par for the course in View of the fact that it took the auth DTS 75 days to write it.