22nd Amendment?

For the first time in 14 years, Congress last week proposed an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.* It concerned presidential tenure. Under its terms, no person can be elected to the presidency for more than two terms, or more than one term if he has served more than two years of another President's unexpired term.

Thus the maximum term of any President would be ten years to the day. Gibed the Democrats: the Republicans had finally, and posthumously, been able to defeat Franklin D. Roosevelt for a third term. (The amendment would also have prevented the Republicans' Teddy Roosevelt from seeking re-election in 1912, since he had served more than three years of President McKinley's unexpired term.)

The proposed amendment now goes to the state legislatures for ratification. The President's signature is not required. (President Truman was also specifically exempted from the limitation.) Approval by three-fourths of the states (i.e., 36) is needed for ratification.

Congress stipulated that the amendment must be acted on within seven years. Since approval of the Bill of Rights, ratification of amendments has usually taken about a year. The 16th (income tax) took three and a half years. But it took parched Americans only nine months to approve the 21st, repealing Prohibition.

* Of more than 2,000 amendments proposed in Congress since 1789, only 26 have received the two-thirds majority in both Houses required for submission to the states. Of these, 21 have been approved. Four have been rejected. One (Child Labor) is still pending. Since only 28 states have ratified it since submission in 1924, it is for all practical purposes dead.

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