THE ROLL CALL

...how it proposes to change the existing method of amending the constitution and why it should receive the sup-port of all progressive citizens.—Editor's Note...

...This growing pressure of public demand for a more democratic method finally reduced the opposing minority in the Senate, the body directly affected, to such a point that further resistance was ineffectual...

...Open the "Gateway" THINK what decades it has taken to get the constitution amended so as to permit of an Income Tax...

...Senator La Folletlc introduced in the Senate on August 8, 1912...

...Open a gateway through which the sovereign people may enter in obedience to their own well-considered desires and remodel "the citadel" with square and compass of the Present...

...Judicial interpretation" is not what is needed...

...The twelfth amendment, providing for a change in the political machinery for the election of President, arising out of the contest between Jefferson and Burr, and being urgent because a new election was approaching, was ratified in ten months...

...It is essentially judge rule...

...And during this period of "judicial interpretation" the constitution has stood as the chief barrier to progress...

...one relating to titles of nobility was submitted to the state legislatures and lacked, only the vote of one state of being adopted...

...Thompson made a study of the various stales and of other countries...

...There, has .been too much of that already...

...Each of the two amendments recently proposed to the state legislatures has peculiar features and has been attended by special circumstances, making its submission to the states finally possible...

...It has been pretty thoroughly tried out in this country—so thoroughly, in fact, that the courts have steadily encroached upon the domain of law-making and have boldly usurped functions belonging solely to Congress...

...The RollCall ON MEN AND MEASURES A "Ponderous Piece of Constitutional Machinery" THE AMENDING CLAUSE OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION WHAT must we do to make our federal constitution fit the ever-changing needs of the people ? There are those who say...

...And in Australia and Switzerland, he found (remember both, these countries profited from the experience of the United States in this respect) that the people have a much easier method of changing their fundamental law than exists in the United States...

...It was not, however, until the sixties, when fundamental economic difficulties had to be met, that the real test came and the vital weakness of the constitution in its procedure for amendment was demonstrated...

...Next week will be discussed the provisions of this resolution...

...From that time no sug gesied amendment was able to secure the necessary two-thirds majority in both houses", of Can-gress until the year 1900, a period of forty years...

...j. David Thompson...

...He found that "in the course of time the various state constitutions...

...The proposed amendment for choice of United States Senators by popular vote in each state, submitted this year (1912), had been the subject of numerous resolutions introduced in Congress since 1826 and in some form had secured the requisite two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives in each Congress from the fifty-second...

...It was practically a case of proposing a const...

...Leave it to the courts," But thoughtful citizens have come to see the danger of permitting judges to legislate...

...Six of these were passed by the requisite two-thirds vote in only one house' of Cottgress...

...Science, Mr...

...If "judicial .interpretation" has failed to adapt the fundamental laws to changing public needs...

...The eleventh amendment, which arose from a. difficulty created by a judicial decision (Chis-holm v. Georgia) was of minor interest, and Was not ratified by the necessary number of slates until three years and eight mouths after it was submitted...

...What we are striving for is people's rule...

...As the result of a particular parliamentary situation, a Republican President and majority in both houses of Congress found themselves in agreement with the Democratic minority...

...These were finally taking the form of applications for a convert-tion to propose amendments, and were rapidly approaching the number of two-thirds of the states which would have required Congress to call such a convention...

...Iet us no longer depend upon "judicial interpretation" If the practical impossibility of changing constitutional, provisions stands as a formidable barrier to progress, let us remove the "barrier...

...Law Librarian of Columbia University, said, "it was the expectation of the framers that the procedure provided would be found easily workable when the need arose...

...have become mora easily adjustable to changing conditions and closer approximations to the will of the people through alterations in their amending clauses...

...The Income Tax amendment was rendered necessary by a flagrant abuse of the judicial power to review acts of Congress which had been rankling in the public mind for fifteen years and which forbade the establishment of a national system of taxation on a just and equitable basis...

...Then followed a period of over half a century, during which were introduced upward of tour hundred amendments covering a wide field of subjects...

...tutioual amendment by unanimous consent...

...Thompson puts it tersely as follows: "The first ten amendments, known as the bill of rights, were rather additions to the constitution than alterations of it...

...The operation of the machinery, therefore, presented no difficulty in this case...

...On "the, contrary if has proved, as is well known, to be an almost insurmountable obstacle in the way of securing either the proposal or the adoption of amendments very widely approved by the people.'' And he describes the amending clause of the constitution as '''this ponderous piece of constitutional machinery difficult, to set in motion and slow and uncertain in its operation, fully justifying its vigorous condemnation by eminent publicists at home and abroad...

...Make it easier to change the provisions of the constitution...

...If the clause which provides the manner of amending the constitution is inadequate, cumbersome and ,out of accord with the principle of self-government, let us have a new amending clause...

...And that means that the people themselves, not the courts, must be given a way to change their constitution, easily, certainly, and safely...

...They were really initiated by the state conventions, being practically the conditions precedent to ratification...

...Adapting the cohr stitution to changing economic and social conditions by means of judicial interpretation will not do...

...The way is plain...

...Furthermore, the present constitutional method, which has led to prolonged deadlocks, to the corruption of legislatures, and to the election of men subservient to special interests, had been largely- set aside in-many states through direct-primary laws, particularly where the Oregon system has been adopted...

...Count the years that have passed since first the people began demanding a change in the Constitution that would allow them' to elect their United States Senators directly...

...Everybody has in mind at the present moment the Income Tax decision of 1894 when a single judge, changing his mind over night, caused the Supreme Court of the United States to "interpret" the constitution in such a way as to kill a law demanded by the people to distribute the tax burden more equitably among the rich and poor...

...A large majority of the state legislatures had, repeatedly adopted resolutions recommending this amendment...

...The history of popular efforts to amend the constitution proves how difficult it is...

...It is not republican...

...a resolution providing for such a ''gateway'' amendment to make ail future amendments easier...

...The time required to make them part of the constitution was one year and eight months from the time of proposal by Congress...

...It is not democratic...

...The difficulty to titling it to existing public needs has made it known widely as "The Citadel of Privilege...

...A Barrier to Progress IN AN excellent brief review of this subject of amending the constitution, read before the Academy of Political...

...The Civil War followed, and after its conclusion the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, to define the rights of a new body injected into the citi zenship of the republic, were added to the constitution by force of the superior power of" the victors in the struggle...

...If our constitution is too difficult of amendment, let us remove the difficulty...

...Looking for suggestions for a better method of amendment and one more in accord with modern democratic ieas," Mr...