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Show It College boys and thF - ' CONSTITUTION! Sir -1 , I . - IH Special to The Tribune. HR PROVIDENCE, April 11. An amend- Kf cd national constitution suited to theso JH days is what a convention of Brown mi university undergraduates in a class in ft! American government rocently pro- I fi fluced, after settling in conclave n num- I ' ber of mootod questions. Their delib- li orations wore quite unprejudiced by I ; expert advice, out fortunately their I , , vouthfuJ conclusions do not: have to no I J "Scceptod as final. Tho decisions, how- I Ivor, which thoy reached indicato pret- I jv plainly just what things in the an- I' Mont constitution a croup of character- lit (atio voung men of educated lntclli- I ft goncoMuet entering upon citizenship r ii and intensely interested in political Ifjl problems would want ro chance Hpro V W are a few of the alterations winch I' 'i voting men at Brown would liko to hit make in the constitution, lnyiug down j the principle that in order to cot somc- Ij thine moro. definito than ''those un- I. written principles of the common low" "we, the people of the United M States," must formulate a constitution ombotb'inc definito nnd specific, provi- ! sions. Rich Mail's Club. ; -M The United States Senate gets abused ' now and. then qn the cround that it is I k rich man's club, representee special I 1 priviloccs rather than tho interests of I, I nil tho people. The reasons for such a j an impression, if any exist, tho stu- 1 dents at th'o university would remove J bv popular election of Senators. They I - liTivo decreed that the Sonate of the I Vnited States shall bo composed of two I ' Senators from each State chosen by di- i rent voto of the people in each State for 5 six years. To the Senate they would ' give" a broad blanket veto powor upon ! ft legislation for taxation purposes, all 1 bills for raisinc revenue originating in the House of Representatives to be ' ' either approved or disapproved, as a ? whole, by the. Senators. Whatover Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island and other statesmen raa3' think nbout railroad rate regulation, Brown j seniors and .-juniors beTiove in ir. and shoy get their belief into the constitution'. consti-tution'. Incidental!' the' use the prcp- J osition "amonp" in speaking of tho commerce of tho sevoraJ States and thus continue tho possibility of such ' an interpretation as ex-President Stu3'- i vesant Pish of tho Illinois Central has , v lately suggested whereby since "amonEr" is loss restrictive than "between'" "be-tween'" eommoroo wholly within one State, should, it is maintained,, also come under governmental' restriction. One of t.Iio powers of CongTess in the college boys' compact is "To prescribe the conditions under which transportation transporta-tion both of persons n.nd things shall be conducted with foreijrn nations and among the several States and with lit: dian tribes. Presidential Years. Presidential election 3'onra are likely to be 3'ears of disturbance of business. The student convention - prescribes, thorefore, that they shall come less frequently. fre-quently. Accordingly the President shall henceforth hold Ins offico during a term of six years. It Is nlso provided that President nud Vico-Prosidcnt shall bo elected by direct popular vote instead in-stead of by" the present farce of an electoral college. Tho total votes in each municipality in each State are to be sent to the Legislature and-by them, aftor due formalities, reported' to tho scat of government of the United States directed to the president of the Senate. The porson having the grear-cst grear-cst number of votes. shall bo dcclarod President. Amendments to tho constitution have always been hard to secure. Brown university students would make them n little easier to gor. through, by an .irrangement for periodically considering consider-ing revisions. Evil of Child Labor. The evil of child labor is one against which si 1 1 sorts of good people and philanthropic associations inveigh hope-lcssh'. hope-lcssh'. in the present conditions of fed-oral fed-oral ' independence. The sympathy of tho collegiate reformers goes out to the fiifnntilo victims of exploitation, for they allege, "Tt being for the future, welfaro and prosperity of tho nation, Congress shall have power to rogulatc tho labor of children. Age limits shall be established in the several States according ac-cording to tho discretion of Congress, but no limit in any States shall bo less than thirtocn years." These and a number of other amendments amend-ments proposed for the federal constitution consti-tution represent one of the characteristic characteris-tic enterprises which college students engaged in the studv of social science "are urged to undertake, not as a matter of special research, but simply as a means of becoming familiar with tho broad political principles and 'their application ap-plication to American life. . Another group of undergraduates not long ago I propared a complete constitution for I the State of Rhode Island. On still an-I an-I other occasion a new charter for the ' ity of Providence was drawn up in due I form. j Interest in Politics, i The effort is in every feasible way to I make the boys take a wholesome inter-I inter-I est in politics and thus to prepare them for tho duties of citizenship. Students from tho classes of Professors Wilson and Dsaley have made observations at the recent caucuses. Presidential elections elec-tions next fall will give an admirable chance for stud' of both tho Phode Island and the national political game. Where possible employment at the polls is secured fop some of the boys on olection day aud at other times. Not only the strictly political questions ques-tions are made the subject of reports by members of the classes, but investigations investiga-tions are conducted into various aspects of civic life. A collection of manu-! manu-! facturing communities such as, constitute consti-tute the State of Hhode Island offers all sorts of sociological problems of the typp familiar to most American eities. Providence, for example, and others of the towns of tho neighborhood neighbor-hood are more or less defective in point of municipal design and civic improvements. im-provements. Classes of j'oung men are sent out, notebook in hand, to get the data for making detailed statements as to what they think might be done to improve the" appearance of the town. This assignment is undertaken with enthusiasm. en-thusiasm. One owner of a good camera returns with a scries of n,eatly-mount.ed views showing bare, unattractive spots in the city and suburbs which, as he thinks, for small expenditure of money and with great attendant benefit to the adjoining real estate, could be made into attractive parks. Still another young fellow collects pictures Jooking along congested streets whose vistas of the State Capitol should have lie on left: open. Theso boys, later on, will bo wound taking part in the hig movement for improvement of American cities. Other Sides of Life. ' Uudcr competent guidance other sides of modern city life 'are observed, i Sometimes corporation boarding houses f are investigated, or t he condtious. in j which tno floating population that sleeps in lodging houses passes its days and nights. All the civic institutions which offer material for the study for such social problems as charity, crime, intemperance, marriage and divorce arc not only discussed in class room, but j are studied on the spot. Oftentimes the boys from attendance at meetings of laboring men and agitators come back with revolutionary ideas. Thcpe, howovci', they likely outgrow as they get deeper into their studies. The ideal is to make them think about social matters. As soon as a ftudent begins to think hard ho sees that while there are some very pretty socialistic theories abroad, tho world moves only very slowly in their direction, and not along the mechanical lines hi id down by agitators agi-tators and academic philosophers. Along with the first hand study of special phases of political and civic life goes insistence on the big principles of political science and sociology. It is part of the Brown plan not to be afraid of general ideas, which can be rightly apprehended provided 011I3' that ihc bovs, while becoming familiar with the theories. rc kept in contact with the actual facts of life. |