| OCR Text |
Show CONSTITUTION 0 UNITED STATES. Last Wednesday was observed as "Constitution Day"' and as a result re-sult many opimonf on the great American document were published, but none of the comments were more frankly stated than the following follow-ing in the New; York World: The constitution of the United States is a great and venerable document, but we know of no particular reason why it should be erected into a theology, or why anybody who finds fault with it should be branded as a political heretic, according to the gospel of some of its vehement champions. Wc know much more abou. the constitution of the United States than the men did who adopted it in convention I 32 years ago today, because we have had the experience of those 1 32 years and accordingly have earned the right to criticise it. Since they framed it there have been eighteen amendments, and a nineteenth is now pending before the legislatures of the several slates. Of those amendments two have been null l fied in their entirety and another has been nullified in part. Although the fifteenth amendment was ratified nearly fifty years ago, the right of citizens of the United States to vote is still d(?niecj on account of race and color. Congress has never lilted a finger to enforce the reduction in representation provided pro-vided for by the fourteenth amendment when the right to vote is denied. The constitutional method of electing the president of the United States has been ignored for a hundred years. The method that is now in force is wholly extra'constitutional. and the electoral college in practice merely registers the popular vote in the several states on nominations made by national conventions conven-tions which have neither constitutional nor legal standing. The most extraordinary fact in this connection is that no presidential elector has ever asscited his icgal authority and been false to his 1 1J1UI dl 11 UM. On the gravest domestic issue that has arisen in the history of the country no solution could be found in the constitution, and a distracted people finally resorted to civil war. The failure to provide any means of settling a contested presidential election elec-tion all but led to another civil war in 1876. The original purpose pur-pose of the constitution to establish a government of three independent, inde-pendent, co-ordinate branches long ago broke down. From the very outset, the president was forced by circumstances to become be-come the leader of his party, and this position of leadership made him the initiator of legislation. In times of crisis, practically all legislation originates not in congress but in the executive, and the president has come to be a prime minister as well as a president, without the direct responsibility of a prime minister to parliament and people. While the federal courts are still nominally independent, they exercise powers that were not expressly delegated to them by the constitution but w hich are held by their own assertion of inherent powers, and because of this power of life and death over legis-1 legis-1 lation, every president appoints judges who for the most part are in sympathy with the general policies of his party and his ad-mniisiralion. ad-mniisiralion. Nobody could be more astonished than the fathers if they could see how their constitution had worked out in practice. It is doubtful if they would recognize it as their child. Yet the fact remains that under this charter of government, in spite of all its numerous defects, the American people have achieved a most extraordinary political, economic, industrial and financial development. The troubles that they have had under it have been due chiefly lo their own impulsiveness, their own impatience impa-tience and their own folly, and against stupidity the gods will continue to battle in vain regardless of constitutions. There is no substitute for that "organized self-control" which Mr. Root once said was the essence of popular government. If the American people keep then heads, if they cling steadfastly to their great traditions, their constitution will always be found workable. If they do not keep their heads, no constitution can save them, and that is the lesson of today's celebrat'on. |
