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Show This is the first ' a proposed changes in Utah's Constitution. This week we are r: :r.ii;z some questions and for Constitutional Revision, proposals to appear on the Question 1. Is the movement far state constitutional revision a rational one? ' : Yes, this is a national move Rent and problem. At the present time, there Is a movement for constitutional reform in at least thirty-two states. The revision process varies from state to state cue to differences in state con ietitutlons. Question 2. Why has the move hent for constitutional revision developed across the nation? ; As long ago as 1908, Henry James Ford, political scientist and noted author on American government and politics, wrote in in article. "The Influence j of State, Politics in Expanding Fed feral Power," of the accelerated passage of governmental re tponsibility from state to nation, lie pointed to the 'manacled Mate the state that puts a strait jacket and handcuffs upon govern hient. He insisted that the states Jwould have little Justification for protest over the growth of na tional power If they lacked the ability and willingness to dea With existing problems.1; " Since that time, many nationa leaders and political scientists have pointed to the weaknesses Df state governments and to state tonstltutions as a major factor contributing to the growth of fed eral power. They point out that as the states do not equip them- selves with the legal authority and the administrative andfinan cial ability to provide for todays needs, either alone or in cooperation cooper-ation with the federal govern- ment, the job will be done by the national government alone, and eventually the states will become mere subdivisions of the nation, The Kestnbaum Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, re porting to President Eisenhower in 1955, said: "The Commission finds very real and pressing need for the States to Improve their constltu tions.... Citizens who fail to understand un-derstand the essential conditions of effective government in their home States may unintentionally promote the centralization they deplore. Question 3. Have any other states recently held constitution al conventions? Yes, there have been a number of conventions: 1938, New York, another In 1967. Director Urgss Good Conduct Afield The fall hunting seasons are upon us. Big game, upland game and waterfowl will be legal tar gets for the hunter's gun during the next several months, and tor this array of game, well over 300,000 hunters will be In the out-of-doors to enjoy these hunting hunt-ing opportunities. . ' ' Department of Fish and Game Director John E. Phelps is urging urg-ing all hunters to observe the highest standards of hunt-ting hunt-ting ethics in their quest for game this fall. Director Phelps said, No one can condone unsportsmanlike conduct If we are to enjoy the hunting privileges long traditional tra-ditional in Utah.' Hunters must watch their outdoor manners as insurance to continued public pub-lic hunting. Game Is the property of all the people, but many of the hunting areas are on private property. . Hunting, on such property is a privilege, not a right, and this privilege can be withdrawn by the . landowner. ; . -A hunting license does not authorize trespass on private property. Good judgment says ask the landowner's permission." In r'egard to vandalism, the Department De-partment of Fish and Game asks i the cooperation of all hunters to report or stop any such acts noted. As a final word on hunter eth-ics, eth-ics, this reminder on the hunter's creed -ijl ,v,To. be law abiding; respect the rights and property of others; and be careful with mi - j . .. m - lire ma weanns. Hunters will be serving their had fntoroetc hv nhcarvliw iMi "pledge. "You've heard of egg heads ? . Well.my Harold is a meat-' head!' . of a series of articles concerning answers concerning the Movement Other articles will deal with all ballot in the coming election. 1945. Missouri and Georgia V 1947, New Jersey (will have limited one again in 1966 ap portionment). , -1950, Hawaii. " 1956, Alaska. 1962, Michigan. 1965, Connecticut. 1 ' 1964, New Hampshire. ' In Progressk-Rhode Island. Tennessee had a limited con vention in 1965. Kentucky win vote on a new constitution in the 1966 election. Maryland has a call on the ballot. Iowa Will vote on the question in 1970. METHODS OF - ' CONSTITUTIONAL REVBON Question I. How can the Utah Constitutionte changed? - The Utah Constitution provides for two methods of change: 1. By amendments proposed by two-thirds vote of the Legislature Legis-lature and approved by a majority major-ity of those voting on the question. V By revisions proposed by a constitutional convention and approved ap-proved by a majority of those voting in an election. ', i Question 2. Why-are there two methods? The amending process is designed de-signed to allow periodic changes in the Constitution when there are changes needed of limited scope. Each amendment can deal with only one subject. : Revision by convention is the traditional. American method of changing constitutions when the whole or a major portion of the document needs to be considered. Question 4. If we adopt a new Constitution, what guarantee will there be that we won't have amendments on the ballot In the next election? - - There is nothing to guarantee this. Nor is there anything wrong with amendments If they are needed to provide for something not covered in the constitution. However, if Utah adopts a concise con-cise document of fundamental law and does not attempt to spell out the details, it is reasonable to believe that such a constitution will serve for many years without the need for amending to any great extent. Such has been the experience with the UnitedStates Constitution. CONSTITUTION PRINCIPLES, " THE UTAH CONSTITUTION, AND NEED FOR REVISION - Question 1. What should a con stitution contain? v - It is generally agreed that the ideal constitution should express only fundamental law as contrasted contrast-ed with statutory law. Generally speaking, fundamental law is that law which is basic, has wide spread . acceptance, and rarely needs change. Statutory law is that law which deals with the mi mam specials PUT YOUR WHITER SUPPLY IN A G-E BOOK SHELF FOOD FREEZER CARE-FREE LIVING BEGINS WITH GENERAL ELECTRIC CONVENIENCE! GENERAL ELECTRIC mm PRICES BEGIN AT U emerging social, economic, and political problems of the state and needs frequent change. Sta tutory law is passed by the legis lature under the principles of fundamental law as established in the constitution. The functions of a constitution are: : 1. To protect the people in the exercise of their liberties. This is the section known as the Bill of Rights. 2. To establish the structure of government. ' 3, To define the powers of government and the principles under which the government shall operaw.'ii.;::;;:,'-:;i;;v:;;:---: 4. To provide for a method of changing the fundamental law. r Question 2. What is wrong with the Utah Constitution? - 1. The Utah Constitution is rig-Id. rig-Id. It is .filled with details that should be left to statutory law: (a) The metric system shall be taught In the public schools. (b) The Utah State Fair must be located in Salt Lake City. (c) Six pages of details on state finance, taxation, debt limitations. limi-tations. These pages have already been amended twenty-two times In an effort to adjust to chang ing conditions. The end result Is that we spend much of our time trying to devise ways and means to circumvent the Constitution. For example, to finance a water project, we must set up special districts for taxing and bending as a way of bypassing the limitations In the Constitution. The end result re-sult is nlgher taxes ; and increased in-creased administrative costs. 2. There Is need for study of the government structure. Many structural details of local government are confusing and conflicting. Those of the state government need study and re vision to promote greater effl iency. This is true of all three branches. , 3. When the Utah Constitution was written, utan was a rural state. Utah has largely changed to an urban society. As a result, i new problems have arisen which i could not be foreseen by the i framers of the Constitution-school Constitution-school problems, financial prob lems, economic problems, etc. The Constitution should be ad justed to fit modern day needs. 4. The Utah Constitution con tains two provisions which are federally unconstitutional: (1) Article DC which deals with legislative apportionment, and (2) Article HI which was dic tated by the United States Congress. Con-gress. - , , Utah's Constitution was a patchwork document ' in its beginning. be-ginning. It was largely dictated by a hostile Congress and was a combination of the constitutions of Nevada and Washingtonand sections of theFederalTerritor- ' It ' I lal Act of Utah. Article HI, an ordinance dictated verbatim by Congress, has for its open sentence: sen-tence: "The following ordinance shall be irrevocable without the consent of the UnitedStates and the people of this state." This sentence is clearly unconstitutional unconstitu-tional under the federal constitution. consti-tution. Whether one feels that the rovlsions of Article III should kept or not, certainly no one wishes to keept the one sentence, clearly unconstitutional, which reflects the thinking that the . people of Utah cannot be trusted to run their town internal affairs and makes Utah something less than a sovereign state. ' ? Question 3. Can Article HI be changed ' and the objectionable wording dropped? , i YesArticle HI can be amended. amend-ed. In fact, It has already been amended. A Supreme Court decision de-cision (Coyle V. Smith, 1910) said: While Congress may attach a provision as a condition of admission ad-mission as a state-once that state becor;..-, - full-fledged state, it I V titled to sovereign power over its internal affairs. There cannot be different classes clas-ses of States with different amounts of sovereign power. Hence, after a state Is admitted, it possesses ' complete control over local affairs regardless of the price of admission. . ' Question 4. If the present Utah ! Constitution was largely dictated by Congress, why was It adopted? Utah spent many years trying to gain statehood. To put it quite bluntly, the people of Utah wanted to join the Union, but the Union did not want the people of Utah. To put it even more accurately and bluntly, the Union did not want a sister state , populated by a group of people whose religious convictions the Union believed tcrte incompatible with organized society. It took Utah almost 50 years; and seven constitutional conventions before the U n t o n agreed to accept Utah. The first convention wrote what is known as the Constitution of the State of Deseret in 1849. It was a good constitution short, broad and flexible more closely resembling re-sembling the Constitution of the United States. It contained an excellent Bill of Rights Including acsonue guarantees of freedom of religion and equality of op portunity. But Utah was not permitted per-mitted to use the Deseret Constitution, Con-stitution, and finally, after seven attempts, gained statehood by accepting the present Constitu tion. Question 5. Is there anyting good about our Utah Constitution? Yes, there are many good things about it. For one thing, it has an excellent bill of rights.' It recognizes the sovereignty of the people, the supremacy of the federal government, has a four- year governor's term, the item veto on appropriations and anum-ber anum-ber of other commendable features. fea-tures. There is no reason to sup pose these things would be dis . Model CA-18DB 174 Cm. Ft Nt Volume No Defrosting Ever - Frost Never Forma Big Capacity - Stores up to 623 lbs. of Frozen Foods Upright Convenience. Select ' packages with ease. Bookshelf Door. Easy as , taking books off a shelf. Stores odd-shaped packages! . Weal for keeping track of left-overs, small items. Juice Can Storage at bottom v of door. Fast freezing. Place food packages, large or small, in the top compartment . -Freezing system operates until food is frozen, then returns to normal cycle. No need to advance Tempera-tun Tempera-tun Control Positive Safety Door Latch ' opens easily, closes silently, securely. Temperature Control, 9 Positions. Select from "zero" to 10 below Also has "off" position. carded. Question 6. The UnitedStates Constitution is older than the Utah Constitution. Whey, then, does the Utah document need updating if the United States Constitution does not? , The federal constitution is brief, simple, and flexible. Its flexibility has madajt a living, breathing document able to adjust ad-just to changing times, since details de-tails are left to Congress to establish es-tablish through statutory law. Utah's Constitution Is very specific spe-cific and limiting In its language. lang-uage. The' national constitution contains about 7,500 words. The Utah constitution contains 17,600. The United States Constitution was written In 1787 and became the law of the land in 1791. By 1964 it had been amended twenty-four twenty-four times with a 25th amendment in the process of ratification at the present time. The first ten of these were the addition of the Bill of Rights. By contrast, Utah's Constitution was written In 1895 and became law on January 4, 1896. To date It has been amend ed forty-eight times, and there ! are seven amendments on the ! ballot in the November election. Question 7. How does Utah s Constitution compare with other states? t Louisiana has the longest state constitutionwith 236,000 words. California's constitution contains about 70,000 words. Both states now have commissions studying their constitutional problems. Vermont has the shortest constitution con-stitution with 4,840 words. The new constitutions in states which have recently revised theirs are, for the most part, short documents. docu-ments. The Utah document is about average in length. Since the majority of the states have constitutional con-stitutional problems, total word count is not always a good basis for judgment. Since 1938, there have been eight states which have adopted new constitutions. Thir W BEST -tf 0jitfiAl(r SlMS (vU or WW3 Choose yours from o Big Stock - Many Styles to Seloctl from SAVEI Tuff WW COAiS safe 5 w OAaJFffZ'2n ty-two are in the process of revision. re-vision. To say that Utah's constitution con-stitution is average is really an admission that it needs revision, since it is generally accepted today to-day that the average state constitution con-stitution badly needs revision. Question 8. Isn't It drastic and radical to change our Constitution? Consti-tution? , ; The men who framed our Constitution Con-stitution did not view the document docu-ment they had written as something some-thing sacred and unchangeable. Hence provision was made for changing It both by massive revision re-vision and the amending process. The right of the people to change their fundamental law is part of the American heritage. There have been approximately 180 constitutional con-stitutional conventions - in this country. Question 9. II there Is a need for the convention, whey are there amendments on the ballot? Isn't this just doing the Job twice? The questions on the ballot were considered urgent matters that could not wait. Also, it they pass, it will be direction from the people to the convention delegates. dele-gates. There is no reason to be lieve that they will later be changed. : Question 10. If all the amendments amend-ments on the ballot in November Novem-ber pass, won't that solve the problems? The amendments on the ballot are only a first step. The convention con-vention process is long, time-consuming, time-consuming, and It changes some fundamental law. It, therefore, requires careful study. A convention con-vention can study all the constitutional con-stitutional articles thoroughly. There are no changes on the ballot bal-lot pertaining to finance, elections, elec-tions, the judiciary, etc. These articles also warrant careful review. re-view. This is not an "either-or" proposition. , K Question 11. How can we be sure that a new Constitution will be any better than our present SUtPTS scanty) TXXOfJ and up lO'x- TO 1. f aru I5TEMSE THE AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN, Thursday, October 20, 1968 one? : No one can look Into the future and foretell exactly what the new Constitution will be. No one, however, how-ever, should expect an ideal document, docu-ment, since it will be a compromise com-promise between the various interests in-terests of the state. However, there would be an Improvement over the present one. Such has been the record of conventions through the years and particularly particul-arly of those held in recent years. Question 12. Would a new Constitution Con-stitution be likely to mean an Increase in taxes? TRANSPORTATION CLOSE-OUTS 1960 Volvo 2 door :. I $295.00 1946 Chevrolet 1 Vi Ton 99.00 12-ft bed 4 speed 1954 International V2 Ton j 295.00 4 speed 1949 Ford Vi Ton Pickup ....... 155.00 1959 Ford 4 door Sedan ; . ... 169.00 automatic transmission 1956 Dodge 4 door V-8 139.00 automatic transmission 1960 Chevrolet Sta. Wagon ..... 333.00 6 cylinder y ftBONE 756-356 Bi t i ajool Boot MS In a constitutional convention, the entire section which deals with finance and taxation would be thoroughly revlewedjSo find the best solution to Utah's financial fi-nancial problems. The tax structure struc-ture could be revised to provide adequately for the state's needs without resorting to Jhe present procedure of adding one tax on top of another, or setting up of special tax districts. Provisions for more efficient frameworks for all three branches might well save large sums of money. ' (continued next week) , AMERICAN FOBS 1 UHV JERSEY 45 |