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Show I "7Je..7l!c Peoples- " I When' the delegates of twelve ' or the thirteen American states assembled in Philadelphia to strengthen the government of the newly freed colonies, they were I confronted by the obstacle con-! con-! tained in the "Articles of Confederation Con-federation and Perpetual Union, which provided that amendment could be made only upon the approval ap-proval of all the states. The new constitution, bearing dri'e September 17, 1787, provided pro-vided that it should go into effect ef-fect upon the "ratification of the conventions of nine states," wh'rh was, of course, a violation of the terms of the "perpetual union" set up by the Articles of Confederation. Nevertheless, the Constitution was eventually ratified rati-fied by all of the states, although Rhode Island did not do so until it was apparent that the new government would be carried out without her. There was also great dissatisfaction in at least i five other states. In beginning the Constitution j of the United States, the dele- g-'es declared that, "We, the Peoule of the United States," but I the form of government adopted ' was based almost entirely upon the representative theory and I there was no provision whatever ! for popular elections. In fact, the ' framers of our organic law were ! rather particular m their effort ! to avoid giving power to the ' people en masse. We call attention to the framing fram-ing of our Constitution because the delegates to the United Nations Na-tions Conference, which recently concluded its work in San Francisco, Fran-cisco, likewise begin the Charter of the United Nations with the phrase, "We, the Peoples of the United Nations," although, at present, the charter mikes no provisions to implement the assumption as-sumption that it sets up an organization or-ganization based upon popular decisions. The interesting inference is that the charter may, like the Constitution, be progressively interpreted in-terpreted and construed as a basis for the assertion of popular rights throughout the world. If the world organization follows fol-lows the course of development witnessed in the United States, after the adoption of the Constitution, Consti-tution, there is the distinct possibility, pos-sibility, in a century or two, that the charter may develop into a constitution of a world government govern-ment that will gradually become stronger and stronger. This means, inevitably, that j if the world organization works ' successfully, there will come in- to being, very gradually, a strong central govcrnmen: and that the nations, like the American states, will gradually lose much of their sovereignty and governing powers. |