Streamliners

Although the 48 State constitutions generally resemble their venerable counterpart, one major difference is that most are considerably shorter-lived. Three-quarters of the State constitutions provide for conventions at the behest of their constituents, making the average age of a State constitution between 20 and 25 years. New Hampshire has had eleven constitutional conventions, Louisiana ten, New York seven. In 1894 New York's Legislature made mandatory a referendum every 20 years after 1916 on whether a convention should be called. In 1916 the voters apathetically said No. In 1936 they apathetically said Yes. So last week 164 elected delegates, six of them women, filed into the Assembly Chamber in the old State Capitol at Albany to begin writing a more streamlined instrument of government for the most populous State in the U. S.

The Republicans, with 91 delegates, elected as President Republican Chief Judge Frederick Evan Crane of the State Court of Appeals. To strike the proper non-partisan keynote, the convention then unanimously elected as Honorary President happy Democrat Alfred Emanuel Smith, a veteran of the 1915 convention. After a learned speech by President Crane on the virtues of democracy, the delegates, who will receive a $2,500 salary for their streamlining and hope to finish it by summer, recessed. Major streamlines suggested: a unicameral Legislature; replacing the present Department of Law under an elected Attorney-General by a department of justice under an Attorney-General appointed by the Governor; reapportionment of Senate & Assembly districts; restricting the State's authority to force expenditures by municipal budgets; legalization of parimutuel betting.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.