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Show CONSTITUTIONS A LOST ART When Pitt declf.red the constitution adopted by the confederation confedera-tion of the American states, to make "a more perfect union," and to "promote the public welfare," the greatest human document yet given to the world , he did not know what he was saying, according to the opinion of our modern constitution makers. Nothing at all like it is now even attempted by any of the American states. Instead of a declaration of principles and rights and delegation or denial of specific powers to the various departments of the government, whose framework it defined, as did that immortal document, the modern state constitution, goes into minute details of legislation for the exercise exer-cise of those powers. This tendency to get away from the simplicity and fundamentally, fundamen-tally, so to speak, of the federal constitution has been progressive through tke years, but began very soon ai:ter state constitutions began be-gan to be framed. The first example of going to excess in placing codes of laws in the constitution was giv;n when the new state of Oklahoma undertook to make an ideal and perfect document. However, How-ever, the constitution of California is baci enough in that respect. And it is, getting worse. Had the various amendments voted upon in this state at. the last general election all been adopted, there would have been Exded to the state constitution mere amendments in total some ten times as long as the whole federal document. One of these alone was several times the size of the federal constitution, the water and powsr amendment, and nearly every weird of it was pure legislation, legis-lation, rriuc h of which would be outgrown in a few years. |