PROPOSED NEW CONSTITUTION
Synopsis and Comments on Improvements Made Over the
Constitution of 1874.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
Art. VI, Sec. 1, provides for the creation of the office of Lieutenant Got
ernor, to be elected quadrennially as are other slate officers, to possess qual
ifications similar to those required for the Governor, to be ex-officio President
of the Senate, and to serve as Governor when that official is disqualified for
any reason. When acting as Governor he shall receive equal compensation.
The wisdom of this provision is evident to all. During recent
years the greatest confusion has frequently resulted because of
the unsatisfactory method of succession to the Governor’s office.
There have been numerous “accidental” Governors in whose selec
tion the people had no choice. This will be prevented by the elec
tion of a Lieutenant Governor by the people, corresponding in
duties and position to the Viee President of the United States. It
is a simple expedient which obviates confusion and insures the
orderly administration of government by an officer elected by
the people as an alternate for the office. He is to be paid as a
member of the Senate when acting as President of the body, and
in case of a vacancy in the office of Governor its duties and emol
uments shall automatically devolve upon him until the disability
he removed. As President of the Senate, he shall have no vote
except in case of a tie.
EQUALITY OF SUFFRAGE.
Art. Ill, Sec. 1, provides that “the right to vote or hold office Bhall not be
denied or abridged on account of sex,” and that “male and female citizens
shall enjoy equally all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.”
The Aiiies are expending ^billions of treasure, hundreds of
thousands of lives, and drenching the world in blood to establish
firmly the very principle here briefly enunciated. It means noth
ing more nor less than the extension of the doctrine of equality
of rights and privileges to one-half of our tax-paying, home-making
citizens who have been unenfranchised from the foundation of our
nation. It is one of the principles of enlightened government that
no people are truly free when half are denied an exercise of the
rights of citizenship. The women of Arkansas, as of the whole
nation, demand this concession, not on account of sentiment, or
political ambition, or as a passing fad, but because it is a right that
should never have been alienated, an act of simple justice that
should never have been denied. It does not rob woman of her
womanhood, but recognizes her as an equal partner in the man
agement of the government under which she must live and rear
coming generations of citizens. It is advocated by President Wil
son as. a necessary wTar measure.
BOARD OF PARDONS.
Art.. VI, Sec. IS, provides for a Board of Pardons, to consist of the Attorney
General, Secretary of State, and Auditor, to meet on the call of the Governor,
and to consider all petitions for pardons, reprieves, paroles, or commutations
in felony cases; the Governor may act upon the recommendation of the Board,
or after 60 days following reference if the Board makes no recommendation,
but he shall have no power to grant clemency in felony cases except after
conviction and reference to the Board.
The State has long demanded a Board of Pardons. It is a
reform of recognized importance. It places a salutary restraint
upon the exercise of the pardoning power, which all admit has at
times been grossly abused. It is a curb upon the political trading
of an unscrupulous chief executive, should such a one ever be
elected, and a protection to the honest, big-hearted Governor whose
sympathies sometimes outweigh his calmer judgment as an im
partial conservator of the law. The power of pardon, inherent in
the chief executive, is probably the most unwelcome of his duties,
since upon his individual decision often rest questions of life and
death and the upholding or setting aside of the judgments of the
courts. The Board will sit as a court of review to advise the Gov
ernor and relieve him of the responsibility of making an unaided
decision. The Board serves without extra compensation.
LOCAL LEGISLATION.
Art. V, Secs. 23-24-25, prohibits local or special legislation except under
certain well-defined* restrictions. Twenty-one specific items of local legisla
tion are prohibited. It is further provided that “in all cases where a general
law is or can be made applicable, no local or special lawr shall be enacted.”
No general law shall be suspended for the benefit of any individual or corpo
ration, nor shall any general law be changed by exemption into a special law.
Publication of notice is required of all special acts permitted, and the courts
shall pronounce void all special, local or private acts which the journals do
not affirmatively show were published as provided.
No other single reform has been so generally demanded as
this. The growing abuse of local legislation has caused more ad
verse criticism of the General Assembly than anything else, and
has wasted more time, and been the source of more “trading.”
During recent years thousands of pages of Acts have bee$ of this
character, exceeding in volume the general Acts five or six times.
The framers of the Constitution of 1874 attempted to remedy the
evil, but the provision adopted by them has proven ineffectual.
So glaring has this evil become in recent years that it has passed
into a joke that the “General Assembly spends most of its time in
legislating Johnson grass out of Greene county, and gre^n grass
! out of Johnson county/’' It has been a recognized fact that" fre
quently members are elected to the Legislature for the sole pur
pose of securing some local laws they were unable to secure through
other channels. Practically the whole volume of local legislation
can be handled through other established agencies—as the county
courts, the Corporation Commission, the school authorities, or
boards and commissions charged with jurisdiction over such mat
ters. There is no more fertile field for the defeat of the people’s
wishes than the local legislation calendar of the General Assembly.
| There is seldom any opposition to bills of this character, as other
legislators know nothing of their merits or local conditions, and
blindly vote for the other fellow’s bill so that the other fellow will
vote for his.
ELECTIONS AND FRANCHISE.
Art. Ill follows in the main the text of the Constitution of 1874. its
changes include equal suffrage; quadrennial elections; the creation of a non
partisan State Board of Election Commissioners; and provision for non
resident voting by electors in military or naval service.
The time-honored principles of equality and freedom of elec
tions are restated and emphasized and completely safeguarded in
addition to the positive and expressed changes, the new proposal
is notable for omissions that strengthen it. For instance, the new
Constitution provides hat “no election officer shall be eligible to
any civil office to be filled at the election at which he shall serve.”
The old Constitution exempted “such subordinate municipal or
local offices, below the grade of city or county officers, as shall
be designated by general law.” This exemption is omitted, plac
ing an absolute restriction upon all grades of officers, thereby
! removing a possible source of corruption. Many have advocated
| registration of voters, but this is prohibited under the present
Constitution. In the new draft the provision is omitted, “Nor
shall any law be enacted whereby the right to vote at any election
shall be made to depend upon any previous registration of the
elector’s name.” The old Constitution provides that the franchise
may be exercised by every “male person who has declared his
intention of becoming a citizen” of the United States. This lets
down the bars to aliens, but the new Constitution restricts the
suffrage to citizens of the United States by omitting the quoted
clause.
Advertisement.
James S. Covey, who has
been stationed at Camp Pike,
received an honorable dis-'
charge on account- of physi
cal disabilities, and was here
Monday and Tuesday on a
visit to his sister, Mrs. F. J.
Henderson.
• Coupons, bonds of the
Fourth Liberty Loan have
been received by us and are
NOW ready for delivery. All
; who subscribed to this issue
are urged to call at ONCE and
receive their bonds.
BANK OF McCRORY.
I
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