City Planning and Public Works
The lack of planning.
City Planning.—A second defect in American city administration has been the lack of careful planning. The mayor and other city officials serve in office for short terms and their main concern is to do whatever happens to be urgent at the time, leaving the more difficult problems for their successors. Much of their work thus becomes makeshift in character,—a street is widened, a temporary schoolhouse is erected, a fire engine is bought, and a few new sewers put in—but no comprehensive plan for street improvement or schoolhouse construction or the motorization of fire apparatus or sewage disposal is usually made and followed. Public buildings are often badly placed because political influences rather than public convenience determines their location. The congestion of traffic on the down-town streets, the lack of parks and open spaces in certain sections of the city, the unsightliness due to the myriad of poles, wires, signs, and billboards in many of the city’s thoroughfares—these things are all due in large measure to the absence of planning.
European cities are better planned.
Many cities take little or no thought for the morrow. They expect to grow bigger and busier, but they give small thought to the impending problems which growth is bound to bring. European cities have been far ahead in this respect. If Paris is outwardly the most attractive city in the world, it is because the authorities, more than seventy years ago, set out to make it so. The best-built city in the United States is Washington, the streets and parks of which were all planned before a single building was erected.[[80]]
The broad scope of city planning.
What City Planning Includes.—City planning is the science of designing cities, or parts of cities, so that they may be better places for people to live in. It includes the arranging of streets, the locating of public buildings, the providing of parks and playgrounds, the devising of a proper transportation system, and the regulating of private property in such way as to promote the best interests of the whole community. It is, therefore, or ought to be, the center or focus of all the city’s activities, each one of which should be carried on in harmony with the general plan. It is only in this way that a great waste of the city’s money and serious inconvenience to all classes of citizens can be prevented.
Although city planning is not a new art it is only within recent years that American cities have given much attention to it. For many decades the cities and their suburbs were allowed to grow haphazard. What was once a country highway became a village road, then the main street of a town, and finally the chief business thoroughfare of a large city. To have widened it in early days would have been cheap and easy; but when a city has grown up on both sides of it the project becomes too expensive. Lack of planning is responsible for much of the traffic congestion with which the cities are wrestling nowadays.
The great importance of streets.
The Streets.—The streets are very important factors in the daily life of every community, far more so than we commonly realize. They are the city’s arteries. On their surface they carry vehicles of every sort. Their surface also affords locations for lamp posts, telephone poles, hydrants, and many other instrumentalities of public service. Underneath the street surface are sewers, water mains, gas pipes, and conduits; overhead are wires and signs and balconies. The streets give access to the shops and houses; they are likewise the principal channels for light and air, both of which are essential to life in the buildings alongside. Nearly every form of public service depends upon the streets; without them private property would have little or no value. About one-third of all the land in the city is occupied by the streets, so that proper street planning becomes a matter of great importance to the community.[[81]]
The layout of streets.
In most American cities the streets are laid out in rectangular form, with long, broad avenues running one way and narrower cross-streets the other. This means that each intersects the other at right angles and the city blocks become squares like those of a checker-board. This plan has been widely used in America because it takes less land for streets than any other plan would require and it makes all building lots of convenient rectangular shape.[[82]] The chief objection to this gridiron plan is that it makes traffic more congested at the junction of important thoroughfares. It also gives a sameness to the appearance of all the streets and hampers the development of architectural variety. European visitors often comment on this. Street after street in the shopping or residential districts all look alike to the stranger; all have been laid out with a pencil and ruler, the same widths (or nearly the same); every lot of land is of the same size; and the long rows of houses seem to be all of the same type. In the cities of Europe, on the other hand, the streets are more often curved or winding; some are very broad and some very narrow, so that each street has its own individuality. To some extent American cities are now laying out diagonal and winding streets in their newer suburbs on the principle that picturesqueness ought to be combined with utility.
The old and the newer methods of determining widths.
How Wide Ought a Street to be?—Until very recent years in all American cities, and even yet in some of them, the practice has been to lay out streets in widths of forty, sixty, or eighty feet,—always using multiples of ten. This is a mere rule-of-thumb method and bears no direct relation to the needs of traffic. The downtown streets of the older cities are, for the most part, too narrow; in the newer suburbs they are often a good deal wider than they need be. “But what harm is done by having more street space than is necessary?” it may be asked. Well, every square foot of street space costs money; it has to be paved, kept in repair, cleaned, and lighted. The proper policy in laying out streets is to adapt their width to the probable needs of future traffic. This cannot always be done with mathematical accuracy, because the density of traffic changes from decade to decade; but with careful study a fairly dependable estimate can usually be made.
The traffic “zones”.
The best practice nowadays is to fix the width of new streets in terms of traffic zones, not merely in multiples of ten feet. A stream of traffic—motor cars, trucks, and other vehicles following one another—requires a certain sluiceway or zone to move in. This zone is ordinarily reckoned as ten feet in width. A zone of parked vehicles alongside the curb uses about eight feet. In order to allow full parking privileges and still have space for two streams of traffic to flow along easily (one in each direction) a street should be thirty-six feet in width from curb to curb. Anything less than this usually means that parking must be restricted or the thoroughfare must be made a one-way street. Anything more than this is useless unless a full zone of ten feet is added, and it is of relatively little value unless two additional zones are put on.[[83]]
The normal roadway width is based on an allowance of 10 feet for each line of moving vehicles and 8 feet for each line of standing vehicles.
Where space is absolutely limited this unit allowance may be reduced to 9 feet for moving and 7 feet for standing vehicles.
The sidewalk width above suggested may be increased or reduced to meet special requirements as to pedestrian traffic or special demands for a tree and lawn strip.
TRAFFIC ZONES
The congestion of traffic in the downtown streets of our large cities is due to four causes: (a) the increased number of vehicles, (b) the different rates of speed at which different types of vehicles desire to move (horse-drawn vehicles, street cars, motor trucks, trucks, motor cars, motorcycles, etc.), (c) the inadequate width and faulty arrangement of streets due to the lack of planning, and (d) the improper driving and parking of vehicles.
The older streets cannot now be widened except at very great expense because the private property which fronts on them is so valuable. But new streets can be planned to take care of future traffic growth. No city street should be laid out with less than fifty-six feet between curb and curb. The sidewalk space varies with the width of the street, as the accompanying diagram shows.
Types of pavement.
Street Pavements.—Apart from good planning and adequate width, the usefulness of a street depends to a considerable extent on its paving. The qualities of an ideal pavement are easy enough to specify, but not so easy to secure. To reach perfection a street pavement should be cheap to construct, durable, easy to repair, easy to keep clean, smooth, safe for traffic, noiseless, and attractive in appearance. Unfortunately there is no type of pavement possessing all these qualities. A pavement of granite blocks will last for many years under heavy traffic, but it is expensive to build, noisy, and hard to keep clean. The asphalt pavement is cheaper, cleaner, and easier to drive upon; but it is slippery in wet weather and breaks down very quickly when heavy traffic is allowed on it. Wood blocks have come into favor in many cities during recent years because they are believed to make a pavement which is sufficiently strong to stand the burden now placed on the streets by truck traffic and yet afford a surface which is easy to drive over, not difficult to keep clean, and relatively noiseless. There is no one best form of pavement for all sections of the city.[[84]] It would be absurd to lay asphalt in the dock and shipping districts where the streets are filled with five-ton trucks, and just as absurd to put a granite-block surface on the streets of fine residential districts. The nature of the pavement should be adapted to neighborhood conditions.
The contract and direct labor systems.
When the pavement has been selected it can be laid in either of two ways—by contract or by city labor. Most pavements have been built by contract. The city officials prepare the plans, and call for bids; paving contractors submit their figures, and the contract is supposed to go to the one whose bid is the lowest. That, however, is not what always happens. Contracts for street paving have often been awarded, on one pretext or another, to contractors who were able to exert political influence.[[85]] In some cities the work is done by regular employees of the street department, the city buying its own materials. This plan is usually more expensive and it is not very practicable when a city wants a great deal of work done in a hurry; on the other hand it results, as a rule, in getting pavement of a better quality. Contract work, too often, is done hastily and proves defective. Direct construction by the city’s own labor force is slower, and more expensive, but usually more durable.
Parks and Recreation Grounds.—Public parks are of two types, first the large open spaces which cover many acres and can be used by the whole city, and second, the small areas which are provided for use by a single neighborhood only. Every large city has parks of both types. The old-style park which served more for ornament than for use, is now out of favor. Cities are placing more stress on grounds which can be used for athletic games or for other forms of recreation. In all communities which have the advantage of being located on the ocean, on a lake, or on a river, the water-front is a highly desirable addition to the available recreation spaces. Suitable bathing beaches in particular ought to be acquired by the cities for free use by the people. The development of street railway and motor transportation has lessened the pressure upon the downtown parks by making it more easy for the people to get out into the country.
The various classes of public buildings:
Public Buildings.—From the standpoint of suitable location the public buildings of a city may be divided into three classes. |1. Those which need central locations.| First, there are those public buildings which ought to be centrally located so that they may be easily reached from every part of the community. This class includes the post-office, the city hall, the court house, and the public library. In a few cities these buildings, or most of them, have been brought together in a civic center; but as a rule they are scattered here and there all over the community, wherever they may chance to have been placed in obedience to the influences or whims of the moment. The desirability of bringing them together, both as a matter of good planning and for the public convenience, is easy to realize.
2. Those which must be scattered.
Second, there are many public buildings which must be located in different parts of the city rather than at a single center. These include the fire engine houses, police stations, elementary schools, and branch libraries. They must necessarily be scattered, but this does not mean that planning is superfluous. Very often in the past these buildings have been located at inconvenient points because political influence rather than the public interest has determined the choice of a location. When a prominent politician has land to sell at a fancy price the city is usually a good customer. There is no good reason why police and fire stations should not, as a rule, be housed under the same roof. There is no good reason why the school, the playground, and the branch library should not be placed upon the same plot of ground, yet rarely are these three places of instruction and recreation within sight of one another. Haphazard location and slipshod construction have resulted in large amounts of needless expense in the case of public buildings.
3. Those which need special locations.
Third, there are certain public buildings which have to be placed in special locations. Public baths, for example, go to the water’s edge, wherever it is. The hospital should be situated outside the zone of heavy traffic and continuous noise. The city prison, the poorhouse, the garbage disposal plant, and the other waifs among public buildings—nobody wants their company. They are not welcome in any neighborhood, yet they must be placed somewhere. Timely planning would help to solve this problem by securing convenient and spacious tracts of land before the city grows so large that all the available sites are occupied, but most of our cities give no thought to such questions until the problem becomes very urgent.
The private citizen and the “City Beautiful”.
Regulating Private Property.—No matter what the city authorities may do in the way of planning streets properly, and expending great care upon public buildings, the outward attractiveness of a community depends to a large extent upon the good taste and civic pride of its individual inhabitants. Within reasonable bounds a man can erect anything he pleases upon his own land. He may build something which is a notable adornment or, on the other hand, something which is an architectural eyesore to the whole neighborhood. He may keep his grounds and dwelling in perfect order, everything spick and span. Or he may let them go into ramshackle, the house unpainted, the lawn grown up in weeds, and signs of neglect apparent everywhere. Each section of the city is as its people make it. It is absurd for men and women to clamor for fine parks, monumental public buildings, and brilliantly-lighted streets if they do not obey the precept that civic pride, like charity, ought to begin at home.
The billboard nuisance.
One of the worst offenders against civic beauty and good taste is the flaming billboard which stares from every vacant lot into the faces of the passers-by. For the most part billboards serve no very useful purpose. The advertising which they carry ought to be given to the newspapers, which reach a far wider circle of people and are actively engaged in promoting the best interests of the community. These billboards often mar what would otherwise be an attractive avenue or landscape.[[86]] The cities of Continental Europe virtually prohibit them altogether. It is not possible to do that in the United States because of constitutional restrictions which protect private property; but billboards can be restricted by law and some American cities have adopted the policy of so restricting them.[[87]] It is also possible to levy taxes upon them and thus to make billboard advertising less profitable.
The Municipal Utilities.—In addition to streets, parks, and public buildings every city maintains various other physical utilities. These include, in some cases, bridges, docks, markets, ferries, and so on. More important, however, are the so-called utilities, the water supply and the sewerage system. Both of these are intimately connected with the public health and can better be dealt with when we come to that general topic. Some cities own and operate their lighting plants, and in a few cases their street railways. But lighting and transportation are still, for the most part, in private hands and they present problems of such importance that they need a chapter to themselves (see pp. [474-481]).
Beginning of the police system.
Police Protection.—The practice of maintaining in cities a body of professional, uniformed policemen who give their full time to the work of preserving law and order is less than a hundred years old. Until well into the nineteenth century the work of protecting life and property was performed by untrained constables and watchmen (in England and America), or by squads of soldiers (in most of the larger cities of Continental Europe).[[88]] London, in 1829, was the first city to install a regular police force, and this action met with great popular opposition. It was regarded as a step in the direction of tyranny.[[89]] But regular policemen proved to be so much better, as guardians of law and order, than the untrained constable in citizen’s clothes, that other cities followed the example of London and eventually the system was established in the United States, the first city to adopt the new plan being New York. Although New York was at that time a city of over 300,000 population the work of policing was largely performed by elective constables and by citizen watchmen until 1844.
Police organization today.
During the past three-quarters of a century the system of municipal police has been steadily improved. The police are organized on what is practically a military model, with a commissioner or chief in command. Under him are deputies at headquarters, captains and lieutenants in charge of stations, sergeants and patrolmen, who do the work of investigating, making arrests, handling traffic, and patrolling the streets. The patrolmen in most American cities are now selected by civil service tests; they have regular hours on and off duty, and are subject to strict discipline. The large cities have established training schools in which newly-appointed policemen receive instruction for a month or more before they are sent to do regular duty. The number of policemen in all large cities has had to be greatly increased during recent years because of the growing need for traffic officers. A considerable proportion of the whole force is now assigned to this duty at certain hours of the day. Policewomen are now being appointed in most of the larger cities because there are various forms of duty which it is believed they can perform more effectively than men.
State constabularies.
Police protection, until recent years, has been largely confined to the cities and towns; the rural districts have had to depend upon civilian constables and the sheriff’s deputies. Some states, however, have now established bodies known as state constabularies, the members of which patrol the country roads and perform the usual functions of police in cities. Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and other states have undertaken to give the rural districts adequate protection in this way. The men are equipped with motorcycles and are thus enabled to cover large areas of territory in the course of a day. The constabulary is under the control of the governor and may be used in any portion of the state. The establishment of these state police forces has been opposed by the labor organizations which fear that they may be used to coerce strikers during labor controversies.
Our enormous annual losses by fire.
Fire Prevention.—The annual loss by fire in the United States is larger than that of all European countries put together. Chicago and Paris are cities of about the same size; but the yearly fire-losses in the former are four or five times that of the latter. Whether New York has a larger population than London is still a disputed question but there is no dispute about which has the larger number of fires. New York City holds the world’s record in fire-losses, seven or eight million dollars per annum.
In every part of the United States the losses are enormous year after year. It has been estimated that they amount to half a million dollars per day, taking the country as a whole. If all the buildings burned in the United States during a single year were placed side by side they would form an unbroken street from Chicago to New York. The loss of life in these fires is also appalling; it amounts to about three thousand per year. What are the reasons for this situation; why is it so much worse than in other countries?
Reasons for this heavy loss.
There are two reasons for it; one of them we cannot control, the other we can. We cannot easily alter the fact that most of the buildings, whether in the cities or the rural districts of the United States, have been built of inflammable materials. Lumber has been cheap and it has been used lavishly. In Europe most buildings are of brick or stone.[[90]] With the depletion of the timber supply in America and the increased price of lumber fewer frame buildings will be constructed in the United States as time goes on. The other reason for our large fire-losses is one which can be controlled. It is summed up in a single word—carelessness. To some extent this carelessness is the fault of the public authorities; to a larger extent it is the fault of private individuals.
Public prevention measures.
The public authorities have not been sufficiently active in framing and enforcing measures for the prevention of fires. They have allowed certain neighborhoods to become veritable fire-traps, liable to be wiped out by a conflagration at any moment. During the past few years the state and city officials have been coming to realize the importance of prevention, however, and the laws relating to fire hazards have been growing more strict. Special rules are now applied to theaters, factories, garages, tenements, and other buildings in which fires are liable to result in the loss of life. Special fire prevention officials have been appointed in some of the larger communities; their duty is to inspect all buildings in which fires are likely to occur and to enforce the fire prevention rules. An endeavor has also been made to educate the people to the need of exercising greater care. This is done by distributing circulars and by instruction in the schools.
The chief causes of fires.
The great majority of fires are the result of some individual’s carelessness. Rubbish is left lying about near the cellar furnace; matches are placed where children can reach them; kerosene or gasoline is used to light the kitchen fire; chimneys are allowed to go unrepaired and uncleaned; ends of cigarettes are thrown on the floor or into the waste basket—individual carelessness may take many forms. But every fire is the same size when it starts and a trivial accident may cause the destruction of a whole city. Fire departments are necessary and they should be kept up to the highest efficiency, with well-trained men and motorized apparatus; but dollar for dollar the money spent in prevention brings far more return than expenditures for putting out fires after they occur.
The work of fighting fires is spectacular and makes an impression on the people; there is nothing spectacular about fire prevention, hence it obtains far less attention from the average individual. Newspapers devote great headlines to the bravery of the fireman who carries somebody down the sheer wall of a high building in the midst of roaring flames and blinding smoke, but the man who quietly builds his tenement so that no such rescue will ever be necessary—he gets no headlines at all. For this the newspapers are of course not to blame; they merely follow the trend of popular interest.
The City’s Share in Health and Welfare Work.—Many functions which formerly devolved wholly upon the city government have now been taken over to some extent by the state authorities. The state makes the general regulations and prescribes how things shall be done, but the city officials still remain largely responsible for putting the regulations into effect. |The broadening field of municipal activity.| This is true of public health protection, public utilities, poor-relief, correction, sanitation, and education, all of which are dealt with in later chapters of this book. No clear separation between state and local activities can be made nowadays, the two overlap and are intermixed. The city still retains, however, almost complete responsibility for the care of its streets, for street lighting, for the maintenance of parks, and for the provision of recreation. But whether it acts merely as the agent of the state or entirely on its own behalf the city’s functions are being broadened year by year. It is expected to do more and more for the social welfare of its people.
A typical example.
Compare the American city of today with its prototype of seventy-five years ago. In 1845, for example, Boston was a city of more than 40,000 people. It had no paved streets, not one. There was no public water supply; the people brought enough for their daily needs from neighborhood wells. A few sewers had been built, wooden drains they were, and only in the more thickly-settled portions of the city. Provision for the care of the public health was altogether lacking; there was no regular police force and only a volunteer bucket-brigade to put out fires. Public playgrounds were unknown; so were public baths, neighborhood centers, band concerts, branch libraries, electric street lights, trolley cars, subways, and the long list of things which come within the range of municipal enterprise today. Those were days of intense individualism when welfare work was left almost wholly to private auspices. Now the city has become a leader in almost every form of social and economic activity. This socializing of urban life has gone on, and still goes on, without attracting much attention, but it is one of the most far-reaching developments of the past century.
The problem of making both ends meet.
Where will the Cities Get the Money?—This expansion in municipal activities has brought with it an incessant need for more money—more money for streets, parks, playgrounds, schools, poor-relief, recreation, pensions, and for a dozen other things. Cities have many hard problems, but the hardest of all is that of making both ends meet. New enterprises mean new expenditures, and even the older activities keep steadily costing more.
The effect of high taxes.
Now it might be surmised that this problem of ways and means would be an easy one to solve. “Just raise the tax rate and get more money” someone may suggest. That betrays the existence of a very common impression, namely, that city tax rates have the sky as their limit. But the fact is quite otherwise. In most cases, to be sure, there is no legal limitation upon the amount of taxes which the city officials can exact from the people; the limit is a purely practical one. Most of the city’s revenue comes from taxes upon real property—on lands and buildings (see pp. 445-446). By raising the tax rate on such property additional revenue can be secured up to a certain point. But when the tax rate keeps on increasing year after year it finally reaches a level where it becomes an obstacle to the erection of new buildings; it deters new industries from coming to the city; it causes rents to rise and acts as a brake upon the expansion of business. Under such conditions the value of property stops rising and may even decline, so that further increases in the tax rate do not yield a proportionate revenue. The people, moreover, grow restive under the soaring tax rate on their homes; they manifest their displeasure by turning the elective city officials out of office and installing others who pledge themselves to cut the expenses down. Such pledges, as a matter of fact, can rarely be kept. Considerable economies are undoubtedly practicable in the government of all American cities without exception; but the big outlays are bound to go on increasing so long as the people keep making demands for more and better services.
Newer sources of revenue.
If more revenue must be had, how can it be best obtained? Taxes on property have now reached a point in many cities where they can hardly go much higher. Taxes on incomes are already levied by the nation and by some of the states; the cities can hardly look forward to laying a heavy tax on top of these. Some cities, notably Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and St. Louis are imposing business taxes—so much per year on every lawyer, doctor, merchant, dealer, broker, and so on, the rate varying in each case. Chicago obtains a considerable income from a wheel tax imposed on all automobiles which use the city streets. Everywhere the quest for new sources of revenue is being carried on earnestly but not with any great measure of success. One serious difficulty lies in the fact that some of the more lucrative sources have already been tapped by the national and state governments. Congress and the state legislatures are keenly on the scent for new revenues; wherever the opportunity appears, they seize it. In this way the range from which the cities may draw their income is gradually being narrowed. It can fairly be said, therefore, that the problem of paying its way is the most difficult of all the problems which confront the American city at the present time.
General References
C. A. Beard, American Government and Politics, pp. 603-637; Ibid., Readings, pp. 535-555;
W. B. Munro, Principles and Methods of Municipal Administration, pp. 30-73 (City Planning); 74-121 (Streets); 260-313 (Police Administration);
H. G. James, Municipal Functions, pp. 1-24;
F. J. Goodnow and F. C. Bates, Municipal Government, pp. 316-396;
F. C. Howe, The Modern City and its Problems, pp. 34-75;
Everett Kimball, State and Municipal Government, pp. 454-550.
Group Problems
1. Make a plan of administrative organization which will include the undermentioned municipal functions. Provide as few departments as possible without putting unrelated functions into the same department. Each department should include all functions which are actually related and none which are not related to its main work. Consider, for example, such questions as these: Should playgrounds be included in the school department or combined with parks in some other department? Where does poor-relief belong, in a department by itself or along with health or with prisons and correction? Where should we place the public library? If you desire to include all these functions within seven or eight departments, the public library cannot have a department all to itself. Where should it go? Think over carefully the proper placing of such things as the inspection of weights and measures, auditing, pensions, printing, assessments and collection of taxes, billboards, care of hydrants, censorship of amusements, charities and poor-relief, child welfare, collection and disposal of ashes, excess condemnation, food and milk inspection, free employment bureaus, free legal aid, grade-crossing elimination, hospital administration, housing laws and their enforcement, licensing, limitation of building heights, management of bridges and ferries, municipal accounts, municipal budget making, municipal concerts, municipal courts, municipal purchasing, parks and playgrounds, paving, playground administration, prevention of incendiarism, prisons, protection of life and property, public lighting, public recreation, public water supply, registration of voters, garbage collection and disposal, regulation of explosives, regulation of the location of buildings, sewerage and sewage disposal, sinking funds, smoke prevention, snow removal, street construction, street widening, supervision of lodging houses, tree planting, vocational and industrial education, zoning.
2. Select three or four cities of approximately the same size as your own and compare the cost of public safety (police and fire department expenditures) on each of the following bases: (a) per capita; (b) per square mile of territory; (c) per $1000 assessed valuation. (The data for all cities having over 30,000 population can be found in the U. S. Bureau of the Census: Financial Statistics of Cities [latest edition].)
3. What we get for our city taxes. Make up from your own community’s latest annual report a table showing the per capita cost for each form of public service (streets, parks, schools, poor-relief, etc.). The figures in the auditor’s report divided by the population will give you the items. When your table is completed illustrate it by drawing a circle with sectors to represent the division of expenditure.
Short Studies
1. City planning: its scope and importance. W. B. Munro, Principles and Methods of Municipal Administration, pp. 30-37.
2. The city’s streets. C. A. Beard, American City Government, pp. 212-260.
3. The organization of a city police force. Raymond Fosdick, European Police Systems, pp. 99-148; E. D. Graper, American Police Administration, passim; Raymond Fosdick, American Police Systems, pp. 188-216.
4. How the public can help the police. Arthur Woods, Policeman and Public, pp. 162-178.
5. What fire prevention means. E. F. Croker, Fire Prevention, pp. 1-37.
6. The city’s work for the social welfare. H. G. James, Municipal Functions, pp. 150-185.
7. City parks and boulevards. Charles Zueblin, American Municipal Progress, pp. 241-275.
8. The city’s part in health protection. Henry Bruère, The New City Government, pp. 314-334.
9. Municipal recreation. C. A. Beard, American City Government, pp. 334-355; John Nolen, City Planning, pp. 139-158.
10. Raising and spending the city’s money. W. B. Munro, Principles and Methods of Municipal Administration, pp. 403-478.
Questions
1. Make in parallel columns a list of municipal functions which you would classify as (a) political; (b) social; (c) economic or business functions.
2. Can you give, from your own observation, any examples of the needless expense or public inconvenience due to the failure of city departments to co-operate properly?
3. Take any atlas which contains the street plans of the larger cities and point out examples of the following: (a) gridiron or checkerboard planning; (b) diagonal avenues; (c) radial streets; (d) informal layout of streets.
4. Select some portion of your own city which seems to you to be well planned and some section which seems to be poorly planned. Give reasons for your selections.
5. Make a sketch plan for a residential suburb about one mile square on level ground with a small river, two hundred feet wide, running from east to west through it. Each building lot is to contain, on the average, about 20,000 square feet with access to both a street and an alley. Make provision for one double track street railway, conveniently located. Indicate appropriate locations for a one-acre park, an elementary school, a playground, a branch of the public library, a police station, a fire engine station, a bridge, a bath house, and an athletic field.
6. What is the geographical center of your community? The center of population? The center of access, that is, the point which, by reason of traffic facilities can be most quickly and easily reached by the largest number of people? If a civic center were being established, where ought it to be placed and why?
7. In the largest cities there are about 20 policemen for every 10,000 people, in smaller cities only 10 or 12. Why is this? Is the number of arrests made by a policeman an indication of his efficiency? Scandals are frequent in the police departments of large cities and this is sometimes explained by saying that the police are exposed to more temptations than any other city officials. Discuss this explanation.
8. What in your opinion are the most common causes of fires? Many schools set apart one day in the year as Fire Prevention Day. Make some suggestions concerning a suitable program for this occasion.
9. Can you think of any sources of revenue not now utilized by cities which might be drawn upon to meet an urgent need without arousing a great deal of opposition from the people?
10. What civic organizations in your community are helping the public officials to solve their problems? Give an account of the purposes and work of each.
Topics for Debate
1. A maximum limit should be imposed by the state law upon the tax rates of cities.
2. City employees, including policemen and firemen, should (or should not) have the right to join a labor organization.
3. All public work should be done by contract (or by the city’s own employees).
CHAPTER XII
STATE GOVERNMENT IN OUTLINE
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the relation of the states to the nation, to show how the state governments are organized, and what services they render the people.
Place of the states in the nation.
The Sovereign States.—It is customary to speak of the American Republic as made up of “sovereign states”, but unless this expression is clearly explained it is apt to be misleading. On July 4th, 1776, the thirteen colonies became free and independent states, each entitled to frame its own plan of government. These new states were subject to no restrictions except the very mild ones which, by adopting the Articles of Confederation, they had agreed to place upon themselves. They were very jealous of their independence and disinclined to surrender any of their powers, even to create a unified nation. For this reason, when the national constitution was framed in 1787, the states reserved to themselves all powers not conveyed to the new federal government by the provisions of that document. It was intended that the preponderance of power should rest with the states, that most of the work of government should be performed by them, and that the first interest of the citizen should be in the affairs of his own state.
Relative strength of the national and the state governments.
But scarcely had the new federal government become established when it began to gather strength. By a series of decisions the Supreme Court gave a liberal interpretation to the powers of Congress as set forth in the constitution, each decision widening the authority of the central government. The state governments did not look with favor upon this development; but on the whole the people of the country approved it. Little by little the nation forged ahead of the states in its hold upon the interest and loyalty of the people. The Civil War was an important factor in all this, for the real issue in that conflict concerned the respective rights of the federal and the state governments. The union came out of the war much stronger than before and for the last sixty years it has kept gaining. Today people think of themselves as citizens of the United States, rather than as citizens of a particular state; their first interest is in matters of national government; they look to the nation for the solution of all the great problems and are disposed to give the national government even broader powers, as recent amendments to the constitution have shown.[[91]] In theory the place of the states in the nation is almost exactly what it was a hundred and thirty years ago; they still remain sovereign in name; but in actual fact their relative authority has been greatly diminished.
Present importance of state government.
Nevertheless the forty-eight states are even yet very from being mere administrative divisions as are the counties of England or the departments in France. In these two countries the government is highly centralized; all power emanates from London or from Paris. In America the forty-eight state capitals are still the location of important governmental powers and in all probability will continue to be. This decentralization in government sometimes leads to friction and controversy; but it has the advantage of keeping the people in more direct control of their local affairs.
Territories made into states.
How States are Admitted.—In addition to the thirteen original states there was territory enough in 1787 for the creation of many more. All the land east of the Mississippi had been surrendered by Great Britain and although much of this was claimed by the states along the Atlantic seaboard they finally agreed to turn it all over to Congress. The national government thereupon made provision for governing this territory and expressly stipulated that it should be given rights of statehood whenever the growth of population might warrant that step. A little later the Louisiana territory was purchased; then Florida, and from time to time during the next fifty years additional areas were obtained in the Southwest, Northwest, and West. In every case these areas were administered by territorial governments under the authority of Congress, but always with the stipulation that the territories would become states as soon as they had obtained a sufficient population.
We do not commonly think of the United States as a colonizing power, in the sense that Great Britain has been such, nevertheless the whole history of the American people has been a chronicle of colonization. From the Alleghenies to the Pacific ocean the march of settlement went steadily on for nearly a hundred years; lands were thrown open to settlers; territories were formed; and in the end each territory became a state.
Steps in admission to statehood.
The makers of the federal constitution had no idea, of course, that the union would ever become so large, but they did foresee that some day there would be more than thirteen states. Hence, they made provision in the constitution that new states might be admitted from time to time at the discretion of Congress. In keeping with this provision the usual first step is the sending of a petition to Congress from the people of the territory which seeks to be admitted. If Congress regards this petition with favor it passes an Enabling Act, which authorizes the people of the territory to draw up a tentative state constitution. This document, having been framed and ratified at the polls by the people of the territory, is then submitted to Congress. If Congress finds the constitution satisfactory, it may then, by resolution, declare the territory to be a state. Congress has been generous in granting full statehood to the home territories, in some cases even before they had acquired large populations, and this attitude has been wise. It has welded the country together as no other policy could have unified it.
The Newer Territories.—Down to 1867, therefore, the problem of territorial government was not difficult and it was always handled satisfactorily. |How the territories were governed.| Each territory was administered by a governor, who was appointed by the President, and by a territorial legislature which was elected by the people. Laws passed by the territorial legislature were subject to disapproval by Congress, but this right was seldom exercised. The people of the territories quickly showed their capacity to govern themselves and Congress let them alone. But after the Civil War and particularly after the Spanish War, territorial problems of a new sort arose. |The new insular territories.| In 1867 the United States purchased Alaska from Russia; in 1898 Porto Rico and the Philippines were acquired from Spain; in the same year Hawaii was annexed, and during the past quarter of a century other distant possessions (Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the Virgin Islands) have been added.
Can they be admitted as states?
These acquisitions differ from the old territories in two respects; they are outside the regular national boundaries (in some cases far outside), and they contain for the most part populations which have not had much experience in self-government.[[92]] All have been given some form of territorial government; but the question is: Can they be ultimately admitted as states of the union? If they should be so admitted, they must be given exactly the same rights as all the other states. There is no such thing as partial or qualified admission. If Porto Rico or Hawaii should be admitted to statehood they will have exactly the same status as New York or Pennsylvania.
Future of these islands.
Three courses are open. First, these territories may be admitted in due course to full rights of statehood. In the case of Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico this policy may be the one adopted if their populations are deemed to be large enough. Second, the existing form of territorial government may be continued indefinitely. This means that they would have a large measure of control over their own local affairs but not full control in the sense that the states have it. Third, they might be given their independence with a guarantee of American protection from outside enemies. In the case of the Philippines this is virtually what has been promised; but independence is not to be given until the islands prove entirely capable of governing themselves.[[93]] Apart from the Philippines none of these territories is asking for independence.[[94]]
The State Constitutions.—It has been pointed out that before any territory is admitted as a state it must frame a constitution. |State constitutional conventions.| This constitution is drawn, as a rule, by a constitutional convention composed of delegates elected by the people. Such a convention is called when a state enters the union and again whenever a general revision of the original document seems to be desirable. As a rule there is an interval of ten years or more between such conventions and sometimes an interval of thirty or forty years.[[95]] Due to differences in the growth and progress of the state a constitution may become out-of-date in one more rapidly than in another. If only slight alterations in the constitution are needed, it is not necessary or usual to call a convention. Individual amendments, as will be shown presently, can be made more easily.
What these Constitutions Contain.—These state constitutions are rather long documents, much longer than the constitution of the United States. In early days they were much shorter, but the state governments perform far more numerous functions today than they did fifty years ago. It has become the tendency, moreover, in recent years to cover many things in constitutions which formerly were left to be dealt with by acts of the legislature. This has meant a great lengthening of constitutional provisions.
In general a state constitution sets forth the form of government, prescribes the powers and duties of state officers, prohibits the legislature from doing certain things (such as changing the state capitol, for example), and guarantees certain fundamental rights to the citizens. But this is not all. Some of them contain long provisions relating to the powers of local governments, the pay of officials, the borrowing of money, and the regulation of banks. Putting such details into the state constitution is an unwise policy because constitutional provisions are difficult to change, whereas these various matters need to be dealt with somewhat differently from time to time.
The two methods of amendment.
How State Constitutions are Amended.—There are two common ways of amending a state constitution. The first, which exists in nearly all the states, is by concurrent action of the legislature and the people. The legislature takes the first step by proposing the amendment; then the people at the polls accept or reject the proposal.[[96]] The other way is by action of the people alone. By means of the initiative, as already described, the people may propose an amendment, have it put on the ballot, and accept or reject it as they desire. This method of amending the constitution is used in less than half the states and even there it is not employed with great frequency. The great majority of the amendments to state constitutions (scores of them are made every year in the country as a whole) are made by the first-named plan.
The states have the residuum of powers.
The Powers of the States.—Some years ago a foreign student of government, desiring to find out what powers belonged to the legislature of Massachusetts, took a copy of the state constitution and began reading it carefully. Much to his surprise he found that it contained no list of the powers which the legislature might exercise but merely stated some things which the legislature must not do. The reason for this, of course, is simple enough. The states retain all the powers which they have not given to the national government. The way to find out whether a state possesses a certain power is to look in the constitution of the United States. If the power is there given exclusively to Congress or prohibited to the states, then the state legislature cannot exercise it. But if the power is not mentioned in the national constitution, either expressly or by implication, then the state legislatures have it.
On this basis a certain division of powers is made between the nation and the states. The general principles on which the division is made are easy enough to understand, but the exact distribution of powers is something that can only be mastered by studying it. Even lawyers do not always get hold of it accurately and newspapers are constantly making mistakes because they fail to realize just where the boundaries of the various governmental powers begin and end. So let us try to condense the matter into a nutshell, or, to be more accurate, into four nutshells as follows:
1. Some powers belong exclusively to the nation. These include the power to declare war, to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, to coin money, to establish post offices, and so on. No share in the management of these things belongs to the state governments.
2. Some powers belong concurrently both to the nation and the states. Both the nation and the states, each within its own sphere, have the power to tax, to borrow money, to charter banks, to promote education, and to do many other things. These are called concurrent powers because the national and state authorities may both exercise them at the same time.
3. Some powers are prohibited to the nation and some are prohibited to the states. The national and state governments, for example, are forbidden to pass any bill of attainder, to grant titles of nobility, or to take private property for public use without compensation. The states, in addition, are forbidden to make treaties, coin money, or levy tariff duties. There are various other prohibitions upon both the nation or the states, as will be seen by reading carefully the provisions of the national constitution.[[97]]
4. All other governmental powers are reserved to the states. Every power which does not fall within the foregoing three classes belongs to the several states exclusively. This is not only in accordance with the theory of the national constitution as a grant of powers but it is expressly stated in the Tenth Amendment.[[98]]
Features which are similar in all the states.
The General Similarity of State Governments.—No two states, among the forty-eight, are governed alike. A description of state government in Massachusetts would not fit Illinois, much less Idaho or Nevada. On the other hand no two states are governed very differently; in all the essential features they conform to a single type. They all have constitutions; every state has an elective legislature of two chambers; each has an elective governor; and they all have state courts. In all the states there is universal suffrage (save for the exclusion of negroes in the South); the secret ballot is used throughout the country; the same political parties are in existence everywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific; and the principal laws are essentially the same. The citizen who moves from one state to another finds the difference so slight that it is hardly noticeable. It is not worth while, therefore, to spend any time in studying the points of difference between the government of one state and that of another. State government everywhere has now been reduced to a type which is uniform for all practical purposes.
Organization of the state legislature.
The State Legislature.—Every state has a legislature which is the paramount branch of the state government. It makes the laws, levies the state taxes, appropriates money for the management of state administration, and decides all questions of public policy. This legislature is composed of two chambers, which have substantially concurrent lawmaking powers. The upper chamber, commonly called the Senate, is the smaller of the two; its members are elected by counties or senatorial districts, usually for a term of two or four years. The lower chamber, which is variously known as the Assembly, or House of Representatives, or House of Delegates, is much the larger body; its members are also elected from counties or parts of counties. Nominations are made either by conventions or by a primary; the latter is now the more common method except in the Southern states. Sessions of the legislature are held every alternate year except in a few states where they are held annually.
The legislature’s powers.
The powers of the state legislature are in actual operation very broad. They comprise the whole field of lawmaking except in so far as it has been restricted by the national constitution or by the constitution of the state itself. The state laws come closer to the life of the individual than do those of the nation.[[99]] They make provision for the registration of a child’s birth; they determine the age at which he must go to school; they establish the schools and fix the qualifications of the teachers. When the boy becomes a man he will find that the state laws regulate his profession or business. The state laws enable him to marry, to accumulate property, to vote, and to hold office. When he dies the state laws regulate the transmission of his property to his heirs. Thus from birth to death the citizen comes almost daily into contact with the lawmaking authority of the state. These laws determine most of the taxes that he pays; they safeguard his life, health, and property; they punish him when he does wrong; and they provide for his maintenance if he becomes poor or crippled or insane. Where the federal government touches the citizen once, the state government touches him a dozen times. The average citizen does not always appreciate this fact.
The process of state legislation.
The consent of both chambers of the state legislature is necessary to the making of laws. The process of lawmaking is very much like that used in Congress (see pp. 275-278). Bills are introduced, referred to committees, reported back to the legislature, and voted on by each chamber.[[100]] Disagreements between the two chambers are adjusted by a conference committee. The rules of procedure are very complicated and new members of a state legislature often have some difficulty in understanding them. The purpose of the rules is threefold: To expedite business, to ensure the careful consideration of each measure, and to protect the rights of the minority party in the legislature. Despite the rules, however, legislative business is often unduly delayed; at other times measures are hustled through without proper consideration, and the rights of the minority are frequently over-ridden.[[101]] This is done by suspending the rules or by merely disregarding them.
The governor.
The State Executive.—The executive branch of the state government is made up of the governor and the heads of the various state departments. The governor is elected by the people for a term of two or four years. His powers are extensive. He is charged with the general supervision over the enforcement of the laws and the conduct of administrative affairs. He makes most of the important appointments to state administrative offices, the chief exceptions being the heads of state departments and the judges of the state courts, both of whom are in most cases elected by the people. The governor’s appointments, before they become effective, usually require confirmation by the upper branch of the state legislature or by an elective executive council. Where the civil service system is in force, moreover, it places a limit on the governor’s discretion in appointments. The governor also possesses the veto power over acts of the state legislature, but this may be over-ridden, as a rule, by a two-thirds vote of both chambers. In all essential features the veto power of the governor is much like that of the President. The power to pardon offenders convicted in the state courts likewise belongs to the governor in most states; in some states, however, he must obtain the concurrence of a pardoning-board or some other authority, and in a few states the entire power of pardon is given to a special board. The governor is commander-in-chief of the state militia and may call it out for service in emergencies. Like the President the governor is removable from office by impeachment.
Officials and boards.
For carrying on its administrative work the state has, in addition to the governor, a considerable number of administrative officials and boards. These include the secretary of state, who keeps the official records; the treasurer; the auditor; the attorney-general, who conducts the legal affairs of the state; the state superintendent or commissioner of education; together with state boards of health, charity, public works, public utilities, and so on. The titles and functions of these various boards differ greatly from state to state. In Massachusetts there are only twenty-one state departments; in New York there are more than one hundred. Everywhere the number displays a tendency to increase, for the functions of the state are everywhere broadening. The officials and members of boards who perform all this administrative work are sometimes elected but more often they are appointed by the governor.
The State Courts: Their Organization.—In each state there are three gradations in the judiciary, and sometimes four. First, there are local courts, presided over by justices of the peace, or police justices. These courts try cases of minor importance. When persons charged with serious offences are brought before them, the offenders are held for trial by the next higher court. These next higher courts are known as county or district or superior courts. They are empowered to conduct jury trials; they have prosecuting attorneys at their service; they have a wider range of jurisdiction to try important cases, and their decisions are usually final so far as the facts of the case are concerned. Finally, there is in each state a supreme court (sometimes called the Court of Errors) which hears appeals, chiefly on disputed points of law, from the courts below. This court is composed of from five to fifteen judges (the number is fixed by law in each state), and it has the last word in all cases save where an appeal may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States.[[102]]
The election vs. the appointment of judges.
The Selection and Removal of Judges.—In more than three-fourths of the states the judges of these various courts are elected by the people. In the rest they are either appointed by the governor or chosen by the state legislature. One plan cannot be said, in general terms, to be better than the other. Good judges have been secured by all three methods of selection, and poor ones too. It is worth noting, however, that the judges of all the federal courts are appointed for life and that they are men of fine quality.[[103]] It is everywhere conceded that the courts ought to be kept out of party politics and this is much easier if the judges are appointed for life or for long terms than if they are chosen by the people for short terms. But whether appointed or elected it is desirable that judges, so long as their work is satisfactory, should be kept in office. If judges are denied reappointment or re-election because their decisions do not prove popular with those who are influential in politics, it will be very hard to get men of ability and integrity to accept judicial positions.
SIMPLIFIED STATE ADMINISTRATION
Several states have simplified their administrative machinery during recent years by reducing the number of state departments. Illinois is one of these. Its plan of administrative organization, as shown on the reverse of this page, is simple enough for any voter to understand. This contrasts with the situation in New York State, where there are more than a hundred administrative departments.
ORGANIZATION OF STATE ADMINISTRATION
The present weakness.
The Need of Reform in State Administration.—There are two distinct weaknesses in state administration at the present day. One results from the fact that the functions of the state have been enormously expanded during the past fifty years while the administrative machinery has not kept pace. The state has taken over new duties in the field of public health, the regulation of industry, the administration of prisons, the control of public utilities, and many other matters. In each case it has merely set up one more department or bureau or board until the whole organization has become top-heavy. State administration, in other words, is now divided into too many compartments. The other weakness arises from the fact that these various departments are not all responsible to the governor or to any central head. Some officials and boards are appointed; some are elected. Some hold office for long terms, some for short. The governor bears the responsibility for the proper conduct of state administration, yet the work is done by officials who are not required to obey his instructions.[[104]] He is like a general who is expected to win battles without having officers who will obey his commands. The result is not only a good deal of friction but a waste of time, money, and patience. Several states have felt the need of reforming this condition and have proceeded to make changes in their administrative organization. These changes involve a reduction in the number of departments and the placing of them all under the general control of the governor.[[105]] In the national administration all departments are responsible to the President. The same principle ought to be applied in state administration.
Can the system of commission government be applied to the states?
The Proposed Reconstruction of State Government.—The system of state government, as it now stands, is not obtaining satisfactory results. The state legislatures have declined in popular confidence during the past generation; men of inferior quality are frequently elected to them; the work of lawmaking is influenced too much by party considerations; the administrative departments are too numerous in most of the states and often fail to do their work efficiently. State taxes are everywhere going up rapidly and state debts are increasing. Various plans for a radical reconstruction in state government have been proposed in order to remedy these defects. One proposal is that the two-chambered legislature should be abolished and a single small body of representatives put in its place. It is argued that if fewer legislators were elected better men would be chosen and that the process of lawmaking would thereby be improved. Some have even gone so far as to urge that we should establish commission government for states as well as for cities. State government, they argue, has become so complicated that it now needs a smaller number of capable men giving their undivided attention to it. A two-chambered legislature, which meets for a few months every second year, cannot handle the business effectively. Nevertheless the people have become thoroughly accustomed to double-chambered legislatures, and where the proposal to establish a single chamber has been submitted to them (as in Oregon) they have rejected it.
Should the governor’s powers be increased?
Another plan proposes the vesting of larger powers in the hands of the governor, giving him the initiative in financial matters and making all the state administrative departments responsible to him. Today the drift is very strongly in this direction. Already, in some states, the governor is a more important factor than the legislature, and this is strangely in contrast with the situation as it was a hundred years or more ago. James Madison, in his time, spoke of the governors as “little more than ciphers” and declared that the legislatures were omnipotent. In our day this has entirely changed, or is changing. The balance of power is steadily swinging from the legislative to the executive branch.
General References
C. A. Beard, American Government and Politics, pp. 428-577; Ibid., Readings in American Government and Politics, pp. 391-508;
Everett Kimball, State and Municipal Government, pp. 131-308;
W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 389-459;
A. N. Holcombe, State Government in the United States, pp. 240-393;
J. T. Young, The New American Government and Its Work, pp. 298-341;
Woodrow Wilson, The State, pp. 315-336;
P. S. Reinsch, Readings in American Federal Government, pp. 222-239;
J. M. Mathews, Principles of American State Administration, pp. 25-214;
W. W. Willoughby and Lindsay Rogers, Introduction to the Problem of Government, pp. 407-429.
Group Problems
1. A revision of your state constitution. Make a tabulation of the more important provisions in your state constitution, under the following heads: 1. Organization of the legislature. 2. Powers of the governor. 3. Relations between the governor and the legislature. 4. Organization of the state departments. 5. Control of state finances. Compare these in parallel columns with the corresponding provisions in the model state constitution of the National Municipal League. Discuss the relative merits of each provision. References: National Municipal Review, Vol. IX, No. 11, pp. 711-715, November, 1920. Copies of the state constitution may usually be had on application to the Secretary of State at the State Capitol. The state constitution is also published in the handbook or manual which is supplied to members of the legislature. For general discussions of the subject, see C. G. Haines and Bertha H. Haines, Principles and Problems of American Government, pp. 321-338; 423-440; W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 522-534; J. M. Mathews, Principles of American State Administration, pp. 499-516; A. N. Holcombe, State Government in the United States, pp. 106-142; Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, 1917-1918, Bulletins, Nos. 2, 4, 10, 15, 29 and 35; New York State Constitutional Convention, 1915, Index Digest of State Constitutions, passim.
2. What we get for our state expenditures. References: United States Bureau of the Census, Financial Statistics of States (issued annually since 1918); W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 445-472; R. T. Ely, Taxation in American States and Cities, pp. 13-24; J. M. Mathews, Principles of American State Administration, pp. 296-400.
3. Can the procedure in state legislatures be simplified? References: P. S. Reinsch, American Legislatures and Legislative Methods, pp. 126-158; H. W. Dodds, The Procedure of State Legislatures, pp. 36-62; A. N. Holcombe, State Government in the United States, pp. 253-279; H. M. Robert, Rules of Order, passim.
Short Studies
1. The place of the states in the nation. W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 389-403.
2. The organization and procedure of constitutional conventions. Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, 1917-1918, Bulletins, No. 1 (The Procedure of Constitutional Conventions).
3. Committees and committee work in state legislatures. P. S. Reinsch, American Legislatures and Legislative Methods, pp. 159-182.
4. The growth of executive power in state government. J. M. Mathews, Principles of American State Administration, pp. 25-133.
5. The drift of legislation in recent years. F. J. Stimson, Popular Lawmaking, pp. 117-123.
6. Reasons for the popular distrust of state legislatures. James T. Young, The New American Government and Its Work, pp. 643-651.
7. How state administration has been simplified. C. G. Haines and Bertha M. Haines, Principles and Problems of Government, pp. 323-338.
8. The government of the Philippines. Dean C. Worcester, The Philippines, Past and Present, Vol. I, pp. 325-407; Vol. II, pp. 768-791.
9. The appointment and removal of judges. S. E. Baldwin, The American Judiciary, pp. 311-343; A. M. Kales, Unpopular Government in the United States, pp. 225-251.
10. Plans for the reconstruction of state government. W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 522-534; A. M. Kales, Unpopular Government in the United States, pp. 166-180.
Questions
1. The national constitution provides that the United States shall guarantee to each state a republican form of government. What does that mean? Would a state government be un-republican if it (a) raised the voting age to thirty years; (b) abolished the legislature and gave all lawmaking powers to an appointive board of five; (c) gave up the system of trial by jury in the state courts; (d) abolished private property?
2. If you were redistributing the respective powers of the national and state governments today where would you place (a) marriage and divorce; (b) education; (c) the regulation of child labor; (d) the chartering of banks; (e) the punishment of counterfeiting; (f) the protection of foreigners in the United States; (g) the punishment of persons for lynching; (h) the control of the national guard?
3. Go through your state constitution and check off four or five provisions which you think might better be left to be dealt with by the laws.
4. How may your state constitution be amended? What amendments have been made within the last ten years and by which method? Are amendments, in your opinion, too easy or too difficult to make?
5. If every state is entirely free to determine its own form of government why are they all so much alike?
6. Make a list of all the steps in the passage of a law from its introduction in the legislature to its final enactment. Does the governor give any reason when he vetoes a bill? Should he be required to do so?
7. Put each of the following offices at the head of a column and insert under each a list of matters with which the officials have to do: Board of Public Works; Commissioner of Corrections; Public Utilities Commission; Fish and Game Bureau; Board of Labor and Industries; Industrial Accident Board; Department of Social Welfare; Board of Agriculture; Attorney-General; Civil Service Commission.
8. Make a list of all the activities in which your state government is engaged where it acts in the capacity of (a) a business man or corporation; (b) an arbiter between parties; (c) a benevolent agency. In which of these does it meet competition from private individuals?
9. Make a chart showing the organization of the courts in your state, the number of judges in each, and the general jurisdiction of each court.
Topics for Debate
1. The commission plan of government, as it now exists in many cities, should be applied to the states.
2. The United States should not acquire any territory which cannot ultimately be admitted as a state.
3. Which is the better plan of choosing Supreme Court judges: (a) appointment for life by the governor (Massachusetts), or, (b) election every six years by the people (Illinois)?
CHAPTER XIII
THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION
The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the constitution was framed, how it has developed, and how it can be changed.
E pluribus unum.
The Achievement of Union.—The greatest achievement of the American people has been the welding of separate states into a single nation. To have brought into a permanent federation thirteen relatively small communities, containing less than four million people in all, may not seem to us to have been a remarkable feat. These thirteen communities had won their independence together in a common war; they were inhabited for the most part by people of the same race, speaking the same language, and accustomed to the same laws. Why should there have been any difficulty in getting them to form a union in order to provide for the common defence and promote the general welfare? Is not unification a natural process?
Well, if the gathering of different states into a single permanent union is an easy matter, why did not the warring cities of Ancient Greece unite? Why did they persist in their disunion, and through disunion ultimately fall a prey to their common enemy? The whole of Attica was smaller than the single state of South Carolina. Why did not the various states of Central America, or of South America, form a union after they had won their independence from Spain? How different the history of these Latin-American countries would have been during the past hundred years if they had established a federal union like that of the United States!
The forming of the American union was not an easy task. It was brought about by dint of hard work, patience, a rare display of public spirit on the part of the leaders in the several states, and the common sense of the masses of the people. If the men and women of 1787 had regarded themselves alone and given no thought to posterity; if they had placed the immediate interests of the individual states above the ultimate well-being of the whole; if they had allowed themselves to be moved by prejudice rather than by patriotism, the American union would not have been formed.
Obstacles in the way of union.
Why the Task was Difficult.—The thirteen colonies were founded independently. Some of them grew out of trading-company operations. Others were founded by men and women who left their homes in the old country to escape religious persecution. Others, again, owed their beginnings to wealthy men who obtained large grants of land from the English crown in order to establish settlements. Founded in different ways, these various colonies had from the outset very little community of interest. Each had its own government and these governments differed somewhat from one another. The people did not travel about from one colony to another, for transportation was crude and traveling was difficult. From Massachusetts to Georgia seemed a much longer distance in 1787 than a journey across the entire continent seems today. Each colony, moreover, was primarily interested in its own problems and gave little thought to outside affairs except when dangers threatened. It is true that the colonies also had some things in common, but the forces which tended to keep them apart were far stronger than those which tended to bring them together.
Early attempts at federation.
For this reason the first attempts at union resulted in no permanent federation. As early as 1643 the four principal New England settlements united themselves into a league of friendship known as the New England Federation, but this union went out of existence after the danger of Indian attacks had passed away. William Penn, in 1696, proposed a general union of all the colonies but nothing came of his suggestion. At various times during the next sixty years conferences were called and the matter discussed, the most important being the Albany Congress of 1754, at which a plan of union was framed in detail. Local jealousies, however, always proved too strong until the impending quarrel with the mother country showed the necessity of united action.
The Revolution as a unifying force.
How the War paved the Way for Union.—The attempt of the English government to tax the colonies without their consent brought home to them, for the first time, the fact that they were all in the same boat. If they should attempt to resist these taxes individually, they would be coerced one by one. For this reason they hastened to consult with one another and in due course sent delegates to a Continental Congress which handled the common interests of the colonies during the war. The stress and strain of the war made unity essential for the time being, but it did not produce an organic union. The colonies were united in declaring their independence, but this declaration did not create a union of new states.
The Declaration of Independence.—The Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous documents in all history. Drawn by Thomas Jefferson it is at once a statement of political principles and a recital of the colonial grievances. Four outstanding political principles are set forth in the following words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”
“That governments long established should not be changed for light or transient causes.”
Importance of the Declaration.
The Declaration of Independence is not the law of the land and never has been; its text is not legally binding upon Congress, the legislatures, or the courts. It is an assertion of fundamental principles. It did not create a united nation, save in sentiment. By the declaration thirteen new sovereign states were established, each with the right to determine its own form of government. From a governmental standpoint these thirteen communities were less united after the declaration than they had been before it. Prior to 1776 there had been a single sovereign; after that date there were thirteen. But although the Declaration of Independence did not make any provision for the union of the several states it is none the less an immortal document because it boldly asserted principles that were new to the world. In 1776 there was very little democracy anywhere. The four truths above mentioned are commonplace today; but one hundred and fifty years ago they were a challenge to revolution in all despotic countries. In our time the greater part of the civilized world has come to accept them as the only sound basis of democratic government. The declaration, therefore, is not merely a landmark in the history of American democracy; it marks the beginning of a great epoch in the history of human freedom.
The Articles of Confederation.—Having given their pledge to common principles and having stood shoulder to shoulder through the dark hours of a hard-fought war, it might be thought that these thirteen states would have seen clearly the wisdom of welding themselves into a single, united nation. But they were not yet ready to drop their jealousies or abate their zeal for individual independence. The best they were willing to do, for the time being, was to give their assent to a plan for a loose confederation, something that was little better than an offensive and defensive alliance. |Provisions of the articles.| This plan, drawn up by the Continental Congress in 1777, was embodied in the Articles of Confederation and sent to the several states to be ratified. It met with very little enthusiasm, and not until 1781 was it accepted by all the states. In truth, these Articles did not deserve much enthusiasm, for they provided an unworkable form of federal government. A Congress composed of a single chamber made up of delegates from the states was the sole organ of the Confederation. No provision was made for an executive or for a system of courts. In the Congress of the Confederation all the states, large and small, were given equal voting powers; the delegates were appointed by the states, paid by the states, and subject to recall at any time by the states. The people, as such, were given no direct share in the government; on the other hand the central government could not deal directly with the people, it[it] could act only through the states.
Weakness of the Confederation.
The states were so jealous of their own sovereignty and independence that they withheld from the government of the Confederation most of the essential powers which a government must have in order to do its work. They gave it no power to tax and hence no certain means of procuring a revenue. They gave it no power to borrow money save with the assent of nine states. They gave it no power to regulate trade. The Articles of Confederation, although drawn and adopted in the midst of a war, gave the Congress no power to summon men into the army. When it needed troops it could only call upon the states to supply them. Sometimes the states responded to these calls, but more often they did not, and in the latter case the Congress had no way of enforcing its demands for men. Under the circumstances it is amazing that the government of the Confederation managed to carry on the war and bring it to a successful conclusion.
The critical period.
The Drift to Anarchy after the War.—Despite the utter weakness of the Confederation the war continued to be a unifying force so long as it lasted. In the face of a common danger and with a common goal ahead of them the states kept their jealousies in the background. But as soon as the war was over the bickerings began in earnest. Each state began to look upon its own interests as the thing of greatest importance; each sought to gain advantages at the expense of its neighbors. Each was at liberty to impose its own tariff and to regulate trade at its own ports. So they began to quarrel among themselves over trading privileges and over disputed boundaries until a civil war seemed to be quite within the bounds of possibility.
Impotence of the Congress.
Why did not the Congress of the Confederation intervene to prevent this drift to anarchy? The Congress would gladly have done so but it had no power. It had no authority to intervene in disputes between the states, or even to prevent war among them. It had no army of its own, no money to raise an army. Some of the states, now that the war was over, took so little interest in the Confederation that they stopped sending delegates to the Congress altogether. Time and again it was found impossible to get a quorum in order to do business. The utter weakness of the Congress was tragically displayed in 1783 when it was driven out of its quarters at Philadelphia by a mob of soldiers clamoring for their pay.
The economic disorder.
The whole country was in a bad way. During the war a huge debt had been created, and Congress now found itself with no money to pay interest on it. Millions in paper money had been issued, but nowhere was there any gold to redeem them. Prices had been high during the war, as prices always are during war time. When the war ended there was a general fall in prices with the result that the farmers got less for their products and became discontented. Farmers, in those days, formed ninety per cent of the population and they completely controlled the legislatures of the various states. They clamored for relief from the effects of the decline in prices, called for the issue of more paper money, for high tariffs, and for measures that would lessen the burden of mortgages on their lands. In some of the states there was open rioting and disorder. These years have been well called the “critical period” of American history. It looked for a time as though independence was to be merely a prelude to anarchy.
The leaders in despair.
No wonder the leaders of the people were discouraged and alarmed. Washington was in despair. “I am mortified beyond expression”, he wrote, “when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned upon any country.... I am lost in amazement when I behold what intrigue, ignorance, and jealousy are capable of effecting.... It is but the other day that we were shedding our blood to obtain the constitutions under which we now live—constitutions of our own choice and making—and now we are unsheathing the sword to overturn them.... What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves!” These are bitter words, but the condition of the country quite justified them. Sensible men in all the states shared this alarm and felt that what had been won during the war might easily be lost, for if the states should fall to fighting among themselves, it would be very easy for Europe to take a hand in the fray and divide the spoils. The fate of Poland was fresh in the minds of those who had read history.
A Constitutional Convention called.
The Triumph of Public Spirit over Selfishness.—But presently there came a rift in the clouds. The four million people who formed the population of the thirteen states, despite their sectional prejudices, were possessed of common sense and patriotism. They were blessed, moreover, with as fine a group of leaders as ever carried a young nation through troublous years. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, and the others of this notable galaxy held different views as to the best means of bringing order out of chaos; but they were ready, when the time came, to sink these personal differences in order that some effective form of central government might be established. They lent the weight of their great influence, therefore, to a movement for revising the Articles of Confederation in such a way that a better union of the thirteen states might be achieved. In truth it was a difficult task to induce the states to move towards unity, for they were all headed in exactly the opposite direction. But by the exercise of tact and patience, and after discouraging delays, twelve of the states finally sent delegates to a convention that was called to meet at Philadelphia in 1787 to see what could be done. If the states had been asked to join in the making of an entirely new constitution and the establishing of a real federal union, there is no doubt that some of them would have declined. The convention was called to consider changes in the Articles of Confederation. But when the delegates set to work they soon found that no patchwork performance would ever solve the problem of welding the American people into a unified nation. So they proceeded to make an entirely new covenant containing provision for a real central government endowed with adequate powers.
The Constitutional Convention: Its Members.—In the convention there were fifty-five delegates representing twelve states. Some states sent six or seven delegates; others only two or three. The number did not matter much, for each state had one vote on all questions. The delegates were never all present at any one time; some of them came and soon went away; others kept coming and going; but the majority stayed right through the summer and attended the meetings regularly. The convention met in the old brick state house in Philadelphia, the building in which the Declaration of Independence had been signed eleven years before. It met behind closed doors and the delegates agreed that they would not tell what was going on. Day after day, from May to September, they wrestled with the problem of framing a new constitution and although their differences of opinion often seemed impossible to adjust, the convention finally managed to draft a document which a majority of the delegates were willing to sign.
WASHINGTON AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION OF 1787
By Violet Oakley
This picture is in the Pennsylvania State Capitol at Harrisburg.
It portrays the Fathers of the Republic at their great work of framing the national constitution. Washington, the presiding officer of the convention, is appealing to his colleagues with the notable words which encircle the top of the picture. Around and below him are Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, William Paterson, James Dickinson, Edmund Randolph, Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris, all of them in quaint costumes of the later eighteenth century.
The picture is symbolic of America’s great aspiration—Let us raise a standard to which the honest can repair!
WASHINGTON AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
By Violet Oakley
Copyright by Violet Oakley. From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission.
The Fathers of the Republic.
The men who took a prominent part in this convention performed a service of such value and permanence that their names can never be forgotten. Washington, who headed the delegation from Virginia, was chosen by the convention to be its presiding officer. This debarred him from taking an active part in the discussions on the floor, but his great personal influence was on many occasions exerted in the interests of harmony. Benjamin Franklin, the wisest man of his time, was the senior member of the Pennsylvania delegation. His broad knowledge of men and affairs, gained through a long life of more than eighty years, made him one of the most valuable members. Then there was James Madison, still a young man but already a thorough scholar in matters of government. Among all the delegates Madison ranked first in point of active helpfulness and fully earned the distinction which posterity has given him as the Father of the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton, of New York, young and brilliant, with plenty of imagination and strong political opinions, was the orator of the convention; but oratory did not carry far with the delegates. They listened with rapt attention to Hamilton’s impassioned speeches and applauded him generously at the end; but when the question was put to a vote he sometimes got nobody’s vote but his own. Arguments counted for more than eloquence in this gathering. Among the delegates of ability and prominence were Robert Morris and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, the former a wizard in financial matters, the latter a hard-headed Scotchman of great political sense; Roger Sherman, the shoemaker-statesman, of Connecticut; the two Pinckneys, of South Carolina, John Dickinson, of Delaware, and a dozen others whose names were known throughout the nation in their day. They were not all of the same mind on political questions, not by any means; some were conservative and some were radical; some looked far into the future and others only to the needs of the hour; some were always willing to compromise and others were not ready to compromise at all; but taken as a whole they formed an able, well-balanced group of men, fairly reflecting the intelligence and patriotism of their time.[[106]]
The obstacles and the compromises.
How the Convention Solved its Difficulties.—In a body made up of men who held such widely-differing opinions it was inevitable that bitter controversies should arise. And that is what happened. Delegates from the smaller states disagreed with the delegates from the larger states on the question whether, under the new constitution, the voting power of the states should be equal, as it had been under the Articles of Confederation. Delegates from the North clashed with delegates from the South on the question of giving the new government power to regulate trade; for the South did not want export taxes placed upon tobacco, cotton, and the other plantation staples. The divergence of opinion was often very wide, and on one occasion the convention almost broke off its proceedings because there seemed to be no hope that any agreement could be reached. But patience and public spirit finally prevailed on all points and by means of one compromise after another the convention managed to finish its work without splitting its ranks wide open.[[107]]
The constitution drafted.
When all the main features had been agreed upon they were put together into a constitution which thirty-nine of the delegates were willing to sign. Of the others, some were absent; some refused to put their names to it. Even among those who signed it there were many who did so without the least enthusiasm. The provisions of the new constitution were not what any individual delegate wanted, but merely what a majority could be induced to agree upon. What influenced the delegates most of all was the fact that everyone knew the existing situation to be bad; the new constitution, whatever its defects, was sure to be an improvement. The immediate thing was to get the states headed towards the center and not towards the circumference of a circle. This being accomplished, the leaders of the convention believed the future might be trusted to take care of itself. It was in this broad and patriotic spirit that thirty-nine men appended their names to what the English statesman, Gladstone, once called “the greatest achievement ever struck off in a given time by the hand and brain of man”,—the constitution of the United States.
Ratification by the states.
The Final Step.—But by signing their names to this document the members of the convention did not make it the law of the land. Before the constitution could go into force it must be submitted to the states and adopted by them. And there was grave danger that several of the states would reject it. Public sentiment seemed to be about evenly divided; the small farmers were largely opposed to accepting the new government, while the people of the towns and the large property-owners were in favor of it. |The Federalist.| Some of those who had been leaders in the convention, notably Hamilton and Madison, organized a campaign to influence public opinion in favor of the new constitution, in the course of which they wrote numerous letters to the newspapers explaining and defending the various provisions. These letters were subsequently compiled into book form and published under the title of The Federalist. Even today they form an admirable exposition of what the various provisions of the constitution express and imply. In the end the campaign for ratification was successful and notwithstanding strong opposition in some of the states all were finally induced to accept the constitution. This being accomplished the Congress of the Confederation dissolved and in 1789 the new federal government came into office with New York City as the temporary capital.[[108]]
A notable document.
The Constitution as a Whole.—The constitution of the United States as framed by the convention is a relatively short document. It is printed in the back of this book and can be read in about twenty minutes. It is the oldest and the shortest among republican constitutions in the great countries of the world. Napoleon Bonaparte once said that a good constitution should be “short and obscure”, short, so that people would not have to waste time in reading it, and obscure so that rulers could interpret it in any way they chose. The constitution of the United States fulfils the first of Napoleon’s requirements but not the second. It is a remarkably clear document, well-arranged, saying in a few words exactly what it means, and couched in admirable English. Let anyone read the first six lines of it, for example, and see if he can put the purposes of a free government into fewer and more telling words. It is the supreme law of the land, the last word on all questions of American government. No one can claim to know how the affairs of the United States are administered without mastering, at least in a general way, the contents of the constitution.
Factors in the development of the constitution:
How the Constitution has Developed.—But the constitution today is not what it was a hundred and twenty-odd years ago. Were that the case, it would be sadly out of touch with the needs of the nation. To be satisfactory a constitution must be capable of steady expansion and development; it must be able to keep step with political, social, and economic progress. This the constitution of the United States has been able to do through various agencies of development, usage, judicial interpretation, and amendment. Established for thirteen states containing four million people it has been expanded to cover the needs of nearly four times as many states and more than twenty-five times as many people. Framed in days of stage coaches and sailing ships, hand-industry and primitive methods of agriculture, it has carried through into the days of airships and tractors, giant factories and miracles of industry. It is endowed with dynamic qualities.
1. Usage.
Let us look a little more closely at these agencies of development. Usage is one of them. Alongside the written document there have grown up many practices which have practically the strength of written provisions. Take the method of electing the President, for example. Indirect election is provided in the constitution; by usage the election has become direct. The constitution provides that the President shall make appointments with the “advice and consent” of the Senate; but as a matter of usage its advice is never asked and its consent, in some cases, is never refused (see p. [298]). The constitution says not a word about the Cabinet, but by usage a Cabinet system has grown up in the United States as in England. Nor does it say a word about political parties, nevertheless usage has given them a large part in government. These illustrations could be multiplied. Why does no President seek a third term? Why does a President usually consult individual representatives before making local appointments? Why are non-residents in a congressional district practically never elected to represent it? Usage answers these and many other questions.
2. Interpretation.
The constitution has also been modified by decisions of the courts. The courts cannot change a single word in the constitution; they merely interpret its meaning. Their function is jus dicere, non dare (to interpret the law, not to make it), as the saying goes. But the fact remains that changes in the meaning of words are equivalent for all practical purposes to changes in the words themselves. The Supreme Court, in a long series of decisions, has greatly expanded the powers of the national government by the interpretation of words and clauses in the written constitution. It has decided that the power to borrow money includes the power to establish banks, that the power to regulate commerce includes the power to fix railroad rates, that the power to establish post-offices includes the power to punish those who use the mails for a fraudulent purpose, and so on. It has been the function of the court to make the words spell out new meanings to fit new situations. One cannot today obtain an adequate knowledge of what these words and phrases mean by merely reading the document; it is necessary to go through the decisions of the Supreme Court and find out just how this great tribunal has interpreted them.
3. Statutes.
The constitution has been developed by law. Many things were left in general terms in order that the details might be settled by Congress or by the state legislature. Nothing is said in the constitution about the organization or procedure of the federal courts. All this has been built up by laws. Nor is anything said about the method of nominating congressmen, or the form of the ballot, or the duties of election officials. That, too, is arranged by law. Much of what we call the machinery of American government today rests upon ordinary laws which can be changed by Congress or the state legislatures at any time.
4. Amendments.
Finally, the constitution can be changed, and on nineteen matters has been changed by amending it. The constitution provides four possible methods of making and ratifying amendments,—two of initiating and two of ratifying. These various ways are stated in the document (Article V) more briefly and more clearly than they can be recapitulated here. But every one of the amendments thus far made has been proposed and adopted in one and the same way, namely, proposal by Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures. |Method of making amendments.| The other plan of proposing amendments, that is by calling a constitutional convention, would open the gates for a general revision or for the submission of an entirely new constitution, which is something that public opinion has not yet seemed to favor. If, however, Congress should at any time endeavor to thwart the will of the people by declining to propose an amendment strongly demanded by public opinion its hand could be forced by resort to the convention method.
Nature of the nineteen amendments.
The Nineteen Amendments.—Of the nineteen amendments which have been made since the constitution went into force, the first ten were added in 1791. When the convention of 1787 finished its work and sent the document to the states for their approval there was a chorus of protest because no Bill of Rights had been included. “Where are there in this document”, the objectors cried out, “any provisions guaranteeing us free speech, trial by jury, freedom of the press, and the other securities against oppression?” The reply was that the people needed no guarantees against their own government but only against governments imposed upon them from outside. But this explanation did not satisfy, and assurance was given that if the constitution were adopted in its original form a Bill of Rights would be added. The first ten amendments represent the keeping of that pledge. The last of these amendments is of particular importance in explicitly proclaiming that all powers not given to the national government by the constitution, or prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states, respectively, and to the people.
The latest nine amendments require little comment although some are of great importance. Three of them, the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, were needed to make permanent the results of the Civil War. One of these, the fourteenth, contains provisions, relating to the rights of citizens, which have been given a wide application and have been the cause of a great deal of litigation before the Supreme Court. Intended to protect the negro they have been used, in large measure, to secure for business corporations the equal protection of the laws. As for the negro he has gained very little from amendments which were primarily made for his benefit. The fifteenth amendment was intended to secure him the right to vote; but in many of the states it has not succeeded in doing so. The two latest amendments, namely, the eighteenth, which established national prohibition, and the nineteenth, which provides for woman suffrage, have both been ratified since the World War.
Twenty years ago it was commonly urged that the process of amending the constitution ought to be made easier. It was pointed out in those days that no amendment had been made for more than a generation. But the adoption of four amendments during the past ten years seems to indicate that when the people demand an amendment the process of getting it is not too difficult. In each of these instances there was a strong popular demand.
Why Men Honor the Constitution.—Americans have a great respect for the constitution of their country even though many of them would like to see some changes made in it. And why should they not honor it? Its reign has been long in the land. No king ever ruled his people so long or kept faith with them so well. Under it the country has waxed great and prosperous; the government which it established has become increasingly democratic in form and in spirit; it has grown strong enough to protect its citizens at home and abroad, and it has become the model upon which several other governments of the world have been patterned.
It is easy enough to pick flaws in the constitution of the United States—or in the constitution of any country for that matter—but where are the Washingtons, Madisons, and Hamiltons of today whom we would trust with the task of making a better one? During the past few years a dozen countries of the world have framed new republican constitutions,—Germany, Austria, Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, and so on. They have had the experience of an additional century to draw upon and the combined political wisdom of the world at their disposal. Is there any constitution in this list which the rank and file of the American people would prefer to their own? You can pick a line out of Shakespeare, here and there, and improve upon it. But when it comes to improving upon the whole of Shakespeare’s work,—ah, that is quite a different proposition.
General References
James Bryce, The American Commonwealth, Vol. I, pp. 15-31; 360-410 (Abridged Edition, pp. 224-284);
Charles A. Beard, American Government and Politics, 3d edition, pp. 1-77; Ibid., Readings in American Government and Politics, pp. 1-69; Ibid., History of the United States, pp. 139-161;
Everett Kimball, National Government of the United States, pp. 1-46;
W. B. Munro, The Government of the United States, pp. 1-70; Ibid., Selections from the Federalist, pp. 1-17; 56-86;
Max Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution of the United States, especially pp. 42-67.
Group Problems
1. The means of securing co-operation among states and men as illustrated by the American government before, during, and after the Revolution. The obstacles to union. The cohesive forces. The influence and nature of leadership. Historical analogies in other parts of the world. The problem of forming a league of states compared with that of forming a league of nations. References: Woodrow Wilson, The State, pp. 267-298; John Fiske, The Critical Period, pp. 50-89; Max Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution, pp. 65-112; A. C. McLaughlin, Confederation and the Constitution, pp. 35-52.
2. The Declaration of Independence: its origin, its importance, and an analysis of its political principles. References: C. H. Van Tyne, The American Revolution, pp. 50-87; John Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 147-197; The Madison Papers, Vol. I, pp. 19-27; H. Friedenwald, The Declaration of Independence, an Interpretation and Analysis, pp. 121-151.
3. From what sources did the framers of the constitution borrow their ideas? References: C. E. Stevens, The Sources of the Constitution, pp. 35-116; J. H. Robinson, The Original and Derived Features of the Constitution, pp. 203-210; S. G. Fisher, The Evolution of the Constitution, pp. 11-25.
4. How the constitution has developed. References: James Bryce, The American Commonwealth, Vol. I, pp. 360-410; W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 57-70; C. G. Tiedeman, The Unwritten Constitution of the United States, pp. 16-53.
Short Studies
1. The spirit of America. Woodrow Wilson, History of the American People, Vol. II, pp. 98-126.
2. How England controlled the Colonies. G. C. Lewis, The Government of Dependencies, pp. 189-240.
3. The New England Confederation. Edward Channing, History of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 414-436.
4. The Stamp Act. Edward Channing, History of the United States, Vol. III, pp. 46-79.
5. The Articles of Confederation. C. H. Van Tyne, The American Revolution, pp. 175-202.
6. The weakness of the Confederation. John Fiske, The Critical Period of American History, pp. 90-133.
7. The personnel of the constitutional convention. Max Farrand, The Framing of the Constitution of the United States, pp. 14-41.
8. The difficulties which confronted the convention. The Federalist, No. XXXVI; (in W. B. Munro, Selections from the Federalist, pp. 109-116; also in C. A. Beard, Readings on American Government and Politics, pp. 44-47).
9. Contemporary objections to the constitution. A. C. McLaughlin, Confederation and the Constitution, pp. 277-281; 287-288; P. L. Ford, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, especially pp. 3-23.
10. The political ideas of the Fathers. H. J. Ford, Rise and Growth of American Politics, pp. 17-34.
11. Outstanding features of the constitution as a document. W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 44-56.
12 How amendments are made. C. A. Beard, Readings in American Government and Politics, pp. 56-61.
Questions
1. Show how the form of government established by England in the American colonies compares with the form of government maintained by the United States in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico today.
2. In what respects did the colonies differ from one another and in what respects were they pretty much alike?
3. Make a critical examination of the four great political principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. How would you apply them today in the case of (a) Ireland; (b) the Philippines; (c) India?
4. Name the chief weaknesses of the Confederation.
5. Who is commonly called the “Father of the Constitution”? Does he deserve this title, and if so, why?
6. Read the constitution carefully and then answer the following questions, “yes” or “no,” pointing out the provision on which you base your answer: (a) Must the Vice President be a natural-born citizen? (b) May an American citizen accept a foreign order of nobility? (c) May any one who is not a citizen vote at presidential elections? (d) May Congress pass a law impairing the obligations of contracts? (e) May the President and Vice President both be residents of the same state? (f) May the President pardon a person convicted of treason? May he pardon a federal official convicted of bribery?
7. What did you find in the constitution that you did not expect to find there? What did you expect and fail to find? What seems to you to be the most important section of the whole document?
8. Explain the procedure by which the constitution may be amended. Classify the nineteen amendments into four groups and give a general title to each group.
9. Give some examples of constitutional development (a) by law; (b) by usage; (c) by judicial interpretation.
10. If we were to revise the entire constitution today what changes would probably be made?
Topics for Debate
1. A national convention should be called to revise the constitution.
2. The process of amending the constitution should be made easier.
CHAPTER XIV
CONGRESS AT WORK
The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the nation’s laws are made.
The reason for two chambers:
Congress.—The lawmaking branch of the national government is made up of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress of the Confederation consisted of one chamber only; but the members of the constitutional convention were strongly impressed with the desirability of establishing a bicameral legislative body. There is a story that Thomas Jefferson, who believed a single chamber to be sufficient, was engaged in a friendly argument with Washington on this matter shortly after the constitution had been completed. The two were taking tea together and Jefferson, following a common practice of the time, poured some of his tea from his cup into the saucer. “Why do you do that?” asked the Father of his Country. “To cool it”, replied Jefferson. “Quite so”, added Washington, “and the Senate is to be the saucer into which the laws which come hot from the House of Representatives will be poured to cool.” That story may or may not be true; but it gives a clue to the principal reason why there are two branches of Congress instead of one. There is some significance, moreover, in the fact that every state of the Union, and every foreign country, has a legislature or parliament of two chambers.
1. To provide a safeguard.
The bicameral system is commonly justified on two grounds. In the first place, it is believed to afford a safeguard against hasty and unwise legislation. A single chamber might be moved by a passing wave of prejudice or enthusiasm to take action without sufficient reflection. When all measures have to be considered by two legislative bodies, this danger is not nearly so great. One chamber serves as a check on the other. |2. To permit two types of representation.| A second reason is found in the desirability of having the lawmakers chosen in different ways, some by small districts and some by large districts, some for long terms and some for short terms. A good lawmaking body should be thoroughly representative; it should represent the whole country and all parts of the country; it should be kept in close touch with public opinion by frequent elections, but the entire body of lawmakers ought not to be changed at short intervals, for there would then be no steadiness of policy. The framers of the constitution tried to meet all these requirements by providing for a Senate, whose members should be chosen by the states for six-year terms, and a House of Representatives, made up of members elected by the people every two years.[[109]] The former represents the states on a basis of equality; the other affords them representation according to their respective populations.
Method of choosing senators.
The Senate: Its Organization.—In the constitution, as originally adopted, it was provided that each state should have two senators, elected “by the legislature thereof”. For more than a hundred years that method of election was followed. The two houses of the state legislature chose the senators. But this plan became unpopular and in 1913 the constitution was amended to provide that the senators should be chosen in each state by popular vote. The term remains fixed at six years, but one-third of the senators retire every second year.[[110]] Every state, large or small, has two senators. Nevada, with only 80,000 population has equal representation in the Senate with New York, which has above ten million people. Proportionally, New York ought to have about two hundred and fifty senators. This may seem to be unfair to the larger states, but it was a necessary concession to the smaller states at the time the union was formed. |The principle of equality.| Population, moreover, is not the only thing that should be taken into consideration. A state may be large in area, with great natural resources and a splendid future before it, and yet be very thinly settled. The Senate was created to represent the states as such, and all the states are equal in rights, if they are not equal in area or population. At any rate the provision for equal representation is in the constitution and if you read the provision, you will see that it cannot be easily changed (Article V, last clause).
The Senate’s procedure.
The Senate holds regular sessions each year at Washington. It may be called in special session, even when the House of Representatives is not sitting. This is because the Senate has some special powers apart from those which it shares equally with the lower house. It makes its own rules of procedure, decides any disputes as to the qualifications of its own members, and has power, by a two-thirds vote, to expel any senator from its membership. Most of the Senate’s routine work is done by committees, the members of which are assigned every second year by an unofficial “Committee on Committees” subject to the approval of the whole chamber. There are about thirty of these committees, but many of them are of small importance. The more important are those which deal with revenue measures, appropriations, foreign relations, and interstate commerce. Each committee has its own chairman.
The Senate: Its Exclusive Powers.—The Senate has three special powers in which the House of Representatives possesses no share. These powers relate to impeachments, the confirming of appointments, and the ratification of treaties.
1. Trial of impeachments.
The Senate, as the constitution declares, has “the sole power to try all impeachments”. The procedure known as impeachment is of English origin and goes back to mediaeval times when the only way of holding a king to account was to impeach and punish his advisors. The framers of the American constitution regarded impeachment as a useful means of checking any arbitrary use of executive power and they, therefore, made provision that “the President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States” should be subject to impeachment before the Senate in case of wrong-doing. The term “civil officers” includes members of the cabinet, judges, ambassadors, even postmasters; but it does not include the members of either branch of Congress nor, of course, does it include either state or local officeholders. Civil officers of the United States can be impeached only for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”; and if convicted can be punished only to the extent of being removed from office as well as disqualified from ever holding any federal position again. They cannot be put to death, or imprisoned, or fined.
When it is desired to impeach any civil officer, the charges against him are laid before the Senate by the House of Representatives. The Senate sets a date for hearing the case; the evidence is presented; and the Senate then frames its verdict behind closed doors.[[111]] A two-thirds majority is necessary for a conviction.[[112]]
2. Confirmation of appointments.
All the more important appointments made by the President require the confirmation of the Senate. The President sends to the presiding officer of the Senate the names of his proposed appointees and the Senate thereupon refers them to the appropriate committees for consideration. When the committees make their report the Senate then votes to confirm or reject. A bare majority, not a two-thirds vote, suffices. Rejections take place at times, but the great majority of the President’s nominations are confirmed without delay. The Senate understands that the chief responsibility for selecting federal officers rests with the executive branch of the government and that confirmation should not be refused without good reason. There is, however, a practice known as “senatorial courtesy”, which has frequently led to the rejection of names proposed by the President. According to this custom the Senate will not confirm the appointment of any local officer, such as postmaster or internal revenue officer, unless the person named for the appointment is satisfactory to the senator or senators from the state concerned, provided, of course, that these senators are of the same political party as the President himself. Or, to put it more concretely, if a Republican President nominates as internal revenue officer at Philadelphia someone who is not approved by the Republican Senators from Pennsylvania, the Republican majority in the Senate will not permit the appointment to be confirmed. This unwritten rule of senatorial courtesy has been enforced at some times and not at others. Some presidents have been able to persuade the Senate to disregard it; but in general it is a custom which ties the hands of all presidents to a considerable extent. When the Senate is not in session, the President is free to make appointments at his own discretion. These are known as “recess appointments” and are temporary only. If the Senate, at its next session, fails to confirm them, these recess appointments lapse and the appointees get no pay for the time they may have served.
3. Ratification of treaties.
All treaties between the United States and other countries must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the Senate before they can go into effect. This gives the Senate an important influence in the control and direction of foreign affairs because the relations between the United States and other countries are fixed, to a considerable extent, by treaties. The whole subject of treaties and foreign relations is so complicated, however, that it may best be reserved for study in a later chapter.
Powers which are jointly exercised with the House.
The Senate: Its Concurrent Powers.—In all other matters, apart from impeachments, appointments, and treaties, the Senate has concurrent power with the House of Representatives. There is a provision in the constitution to the effect that all bills for raising revenue must “originate” in the House of Representatives, but that the Senate may amend such bills as it pleases. This is a partial reproduction of an ancient rule in the unwritten constitution of Great Britain which gives the House of Commons the initiative in all financial matters. By usage, also, all bills for spending money originate in the lower house. But the Senate, as a practical matter, uses its amending power so freely that it can virtually originate measures of either sort whenever it desires to do so. When a bill comes up from the lower chamber it can strike out virtually the whole measure, put a new bill in its place, and send this back to the House of Representatives. In matters which do not relate to revenue or expenditure the powers of the two chambers are precisely the same both in theory and in practice.
How the size of the House is determined.
The House of Representatives: Its Organization.—The House of Representatives is nearly five times as large as the Senate, having 435 members at the present time. It is much too large for the effective debating of measures.[[113]] Every ten years, after the population of each state has been determined by the census bureau, Congress by law fixes the total membership of the House for the ensuing decade. Dividing this figure into the total population of the country gives a “ratio of representation”, that is the uniform quota of population which is entitled to one representative. For example, if the population of the country is one hundred millions and the membership of the House is fixed at 400, the ratio would be one representative for every 250,000 people. Having found this ratio, it is a simple matter to determine how many representatives each state shall have. New York, with ten million people, would be allotted forty congressmen; Maine, with seven hundred and fifty thousand people, would get only three. Nevada, Wyoming and Delaware would not get any, if the ratio were strictly applied, but the constitution requires that every state, no matter what its population, shall be given at least one representative in the House. When the quota to which each state is entitled has been figured the several states proceed, through their legislatures, to lay out congressional districts and from each such district one congressman is chosen at the next election.
Congressional districts.
This work of “redistricting” the state gave rise at an early date to a practice commonly known as “gerrymandering”.[[114]] The national laws require that all congressional districts within a state shall be approximately equal in population and that they shall be composed of contiguous territory. Apart from these restrictions, the state legislatures are free to map out the districts as they see fit and they do this, very frequently, with an eye to gaining advantage for the political party which happens to control the legislature. By adding one county or town and taking off another, always with party motives in mind, it is possible to “gerrymander” a district into such form that the candidate of the favored party will have an advantage over his opponent. True enough, these gerrymandered congressional districts, when drawn on the map, often look like a lizard or a starfish, but there is nothing in the constitution or the laws of the United States which requires congressional districts to be uniform in shape.
The method of choosing congressmen.
How Representatives are Chosen.—Every second year elections are held in all the congressional districts of the country and one congressman is chosen from each. Each state determines how the nominations are made and is responsible for conducting the election. The qualifications for voting are the same as those established at state elections. There is no legal requirement that a representative must be a resident of the district which elects him; it is enough that he be a resident of the state in which the district is located. But as a matter of practice congressmen are nearly always residents of their districts. American usage in this respect differs from that of some other countries, particularly Great Britain, where members of the House of Commons are frequently chosen from districts in which they do not reside. |The residence requirement.| The advantage of this plan is that a capable statesman can secure a seat in the lawmaking body even though his own home district may be one which the opposite party controls. In the United States, on the other hand, if a capable man belonging to the Democratic party happens to live in a strongly Republican district, there is practically no chance of his ever being a member of the national House of Representatives no matter how strong his personal qualifications may be. One congressional district, moreover, especially in the residential portion of a large city, may have many capable men living in it. But only one of them, under American usage, can sit in the House. The argument that, in order to know the needs of his district, a congressman must actually live in it, is on everyone’s tongue, but it deserves no considerable weight. The first duty of a congressman is to promote the interests of the whole people and not merely those of his own district.
The Speaker and the Committees.—The House of Representatives elects its own presiding officer, who is known as the Speaker. He has general charge of the proceedings and until a few years ago appointed all the committees. All questions of procedure are decided by him and he determines which member of the House shall be “recognized”, that is, permitted to speak, when several members desire to have the floor. The Speaker is always a prominent member of the majority party and usually one of its leaders. He has a considerable influence on the work of the House.
In a body of more than four hundred members, it stands to reason that a great deal of the business must be done by committees. There are now nearly sixty of these committees, the most important being those on rules, appropriations, ways and means, interstate and foreign commerce, post-offices, military affairs, naval affairs, and agriculture. |The committees: how selected.| Since 1910 these committees have been appointed by a complicated plan which places the selection in the hands of the whole House.[[115]] The majority party in the House obtains a majority on each important committee.
Stages in the making of a law:
The Process of Lawmaking.—The work of the committees may best be explained by describing the various stages through which a bill passes before it becomes a law. |1. Introduction of bill.| In the first place, any member of the House may introduce a bill (which is a draft of a proposed law) either for himself or for someone else. He does this by writing his name on the back of the bill and dropping it into a large basket at the Speaker’s table. During the course of each session many thousand bills are placed in this “hopper” as it is called. One of the Speaker’s assistants takes each bill from the basket and refers it to the proper committee. If the bill relates to taxation it goes to the Ways and Means Committee; if it relates to railroads it goes to the Committee on Foreign and Interstate Commerce. Every bill goes to some committee before the House looks at it.
2. Consideration by a committee.
When the various committees receive their bills they place them on a list for consideration and each is taken up in order unless the committee decides to give some bills the right of way. Hearings on the important measures are then held. The members of the committee meet in their committee room and listen to the arguments of those who desire to support or oppose the bill. Any citizen has the right to appear and be heard. Sometimes, in the case of some important bills, such as a tariff measure, the hearings may continue for several days or even for weeks. The committee hearings, however, are usually held in the mornings only, for the House is in session during the afternoons. When the hearings are concluded the committee decides what action it will take. It may recommend to the House that the bill ought to be passed, either with or without changes. Sometimes a committee completely redrafts a bill and reports it to the House in the entirely new form. But in the great majority of cases the committees feel unfavorably towards the bills and make no report or recommendation on these bills at all. |How bills are killed in committee.| Such measures are merely “killed in committee” and never get before the House. The House can, of course, require any committee to send up a bill; but this it hardly ever does. Most of the bills introduced by congressmen are put to death in this way; in fact more than eighty per cent of them never survive the committee stage.[[116]] One committee acquired such a reputation for slaughtering bills that its committee room was nicknamed the “legislative morgue”.
3. The committee’s report.
But let us suppose that a bill is favorably regarded by a committee and duly reported to the House. What happens next? It is placed on one of the calendars or lists; printed copies are made; and when its turn comes, it is laid before the House. A debate on the bill may take place, amendments may be proposed, and votes taken.
4. Consideration in the House.
In considering measures, the House often sits as a Committee of the Whole. This merely means that the entire membership forms a great committee, but there are some important differences between the House in Committee of the Whole and the regular session. In Committee of the Whole the Speaker does not preside (but calls some member to the chair); the strict rules of procedure do not apply; one hundred members form a quorum (in regular session a majority of the members are needed to furnish a quorum) and there are no roll calls. In a word, the system enables the House to do business with less formality. |5. Bills are then sent to the other chamber.| At any rate if the measure safely passes the House, it is engrossed on parchment, signed by the speaker, and sent up to the Senate where it goes through the whole procedure of committee hearings and discussion on the floor.[[117]]
6. The executive approval.
Having passed the Senate it is signed by the presiding officer of that body and is then sent to the President for his signature. The President, as will be shown a little later, may sign it, veto it, or allow it to become a law without his signature.
Conference committees.
If one chamber amends a measure, and the other chamber agrees to the amendment, the bill also goes directly to the President. But what happens in case either the Senate or the House make amendments to which the other chamber does not agree? That is just what very frequently occurs. In such cases a conference committee is appointed, made up as a rule of three members from each chamber. These conferees meet and try to reach a common ground by compromise. Then, when they have agreed, they report to their respective chambers and the latter must accept or reject the conference report without further amendment.
The value of experience in Congress.
Some Tricks of the Lawmaker’s Trade.—Lawmaking is a skilled profession; it takes the average congressman most of his first term to learn just how it is done. He must acquire a knowledge of the rules, written and unwritten, the traditions, and what may rightly be called the “tricks of the trade”. Ability as an orator does not count for much, particularly in the House. The house chamber is a big, noisy place where only a leather-lunged speaker can make himself clearly heard. Congressmen, moreover, do not take kindly to long speeches; they expect members of the House to say what they have to say in five or ten minutes. If a congressman desires to make an impression upon the voters of his home district by sending them accounts of his able speeches in their behalf, he can usually obtain from the House, by unanimous consent, permission to have his speech printed at the public expense and distributed without its ever having been delivered on the floor of the chamber at all. When long speeches are made it is usually to waste the time of Congress and prevent the passage of some measure to which the speakers are opposed.[[118]]
Filibusters.
Attempts to talk a measure to death are known as “filibusters”. Both chambers are now able to put an end to filibusters by applying rules which shut off further debate when a specified majority of the members so desire; but in the old days, before these rules were adopted, senators sometimes kept the floor hour after hour all day and all night long, talking on every irrelevant matter, reading long extracts from books, and employing all their ingenuity to lengthen the debate. The proceedings in the Senate are often interesting; but the visitor to the House gallery is likely to be disappointed if he goes with the expectation of hearing some good speech-making. The real work of the House is done in committee.
Classification of congressional powers.
The Powers of Congress.—The powers of Congress, as the lawmaking branch of the national government, are set forth in eighteen clauses of the federal constitution. Hence it is customary to speak of the “eighteen powers of Congress”, although there are in fact more than eighteen separate powers, as anyone will find if he takes the trouble to count them. These powers may be conveniently grouped together under eight heads: (1) financial, the power to levy taxes and to borrow money; (2) commercial, the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states; (3) military, the power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to maintain a navy, and to provide for organizing, arming, and calling forth the state militia; (4) monetary, the power to coin money, to regulate the value thereof, and to protect the currency against counterfeiting; (5) postal, the power to establish post-offices and post roads; (6) judicial, the power to constitute tribunals subordinate to the Supreme Court; (7) miscellaneous, including powers in relation to bankruptcy, naturalization, patents, copyrights, and the government of the national capital; (8) supplementary, the power to make all laws which may be found “necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers”. This is a rather tedious classification of congressional powers, but the section which enumerates these powers is, by all odds, the most important part of the whole constitution and no one can claim to know much about the government of the United States unless he understands, at least in a general way, what these eighteen clauses express and imply.
Express and implied powers.
It will be noted that all the powers except the last are express powers, that is, they are conveyed to Congress in so many words. The last is a grant of implied authority, in other words it is a provision for supplementing the express powers. Where Congress has the express right to tax, to borrow, to regulate interstate commerce, to raise and support armies, or to coin money, it has the implied right to make whatever laws may be “necessary and proper” to carry its express powers into full operation. Having the express power to borrow money, Congress may therefore establish a system of banks if this is needed to render more easy the operations of borrowing. Having the express power to support armies, it may place almost any sort of restriction upon industry in war time. By the implied powers clause of the constitution the authority of Congress is given great elasticity.
Are the Powers of Congress Broad Enough?—If the words of the constitution had been strictly interpreted, the powers of Congress would now be too narrow for the work which a strong national government must perform. It is easy to understand why the framers of the constitution were cautious about conferring broad powers upon the new government. They were anxious that no legislative despotism should be built up in America. But as time passed the express powers of Congress have been steadily widened by the process of interpreting them broadly so that today the real authority of Congress is much greater than one would suspect from a mere reading of the constitution. For all practical purposes they are broad enough although it is probably true that if the constitution were to be redrawn tomorrow, the authority of the national government would be increased. Nearly all the amendments proposed in recent years have been in the direction of expanding the powers of Congress.
The handicaps to good work.
The Efficiency of Congress.—In comparison with the other great parliaments and legislatures of the world, the Congress of the United States does its work fairly well. It is rather too large in membership, and the House of Representatives would probably gain in efficiency if it were reduced in size. Another handicap to good work arises from the enormous grist of measures which comes forward at every session. Congress is always under constant pressure for time. Many millions are often voted in a single hour and it is impossible for the congressmen to go carefully through the long list of financial items. Until very recently, the absence of a budget system afforded an incentive to extravagance; but this defect has now been remedied.[[119]]
The lack of leadership.
Congress also lacks leadership. In European countries every parliament and legislature has a recognized leader, usually called the prime minister. He or his colleagues present the business and carry it through.[[120]] There is nothing of this sort in either the Senate or the House of Representatives. It is true that each political party has a floor leader, but he has not effective control over his followers. The chairmen of the various committees also supply a certain measure of leadership, but their work is not unified. |The lobby.| Mention should also be made of the pressure which is applied to individual members of Congress by the lobbyists. These lobbyists are hired workers, usually lawyers, who are paid to help get measures through, or in some cases to prevent the passage of certain laws. They are employed by corporations, or by labor organizations, or by anyone who is deeply concerned in measures pending before Congress. They use every form of persuasion in their efforts to have congressmen see their side of the case. The “lobby” has been placed under various restrictions in recent years, but it is still an influential factor.
The influence of small groups in Congress.
The Congressional Oligarchies.—We are in the habit of assuming that the power in national lawmaking rests with the 531 men who constitute the Senate and the House of Representatives; but the dominating influence is in reality exercised by a relatively small group of men in both chambers. The chairmen of important committees and certain others of long congressional experience are the men whose influence counts. The rest follow their lead for the most part. Important measures, moreover, are often discussed in a caucus of the majority party, and the action of the caucus is considered binding on all who attend it. A member in either chamber, especially a new member, who displays a disposition to be wholly independent, and to disregard the advice of his party leaders or the decisions of his party caucus is not likely to get many favors for himself or for his district. The senator or representative who desires to be effective finds it necessary, therefore, to help others with their plans whether he approves them heartily or not, in order that he may be, in turn, helped with his own. It is almost always true that a group of thirty or forty members, on the majority side, can secure the passage of measures which they desire and can prevent the passage of measures to which they are opposed.[[121]] In this respect the Congress of the United States does not differ much from legislative bodies the world over. Large deliberative bodies are invariably prone to follow the lead of some relatively small group in their own membership; otherwise they would never make headway, and the larger the chamber the more likely is this to be true.
General References
James Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. I, pp. 97-208;
Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government, pp. 58-129;
C. A. Beard, American Government and Politics, pp. 231-293; Ibid., Readings on American Government and Politics, pp. 214-271;
Everett Kimball, National Government of the United States, pp. 308-378;
W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 146-218;
S. W. McCall, The Business of Congress, pp. 43-84;
Lynn Haines, Your Congress, pp. 67-109.
Group Problems
1. Is it desirable to restrict the present powers of the Senate in relation to treaties? Reasons for giving the Senate special powers in relation to treaties. The meaning of “advice and consent”. Washington’s attitude and experience. The action of the Senate on important treaties during the past hundred years. The practical difficulty of obtaining a two-thirds majority. Confirmation as a barrier to secret diplomacy. References: Ralston Hayden, The Senate and Treaties, pp. 169-195; H. C. Lodge, The Senate of the United States, pp. 1-31; Everett Kimball, National Government of the United States, pp. 549-551; 573; S. B. Crandall, Treaties: Their Making and Enforcement, pp. 67-92; Congressional Record, 1919-1922.
2. The personnel of Congress. References: Types of men elected. Their occupations at home. Their legislative experience. Are there too many lawyers? Length of service. How the personnel might be improved. (Material for this study may be had in the Congressional Directory, and in the various autobiographical works such as James G. Blaine’s Twenty Years in Congress; Champ Clark’s Autobiography, etc.)
3. The merits and faults of the committee system. References: James Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. I, pp. 156-166; S. W. McCall, The Business of Congress, pp. 43-60; L. G. McConachie, Congressional Committees, pp. 58-86; Everett Kimball, National Government of the United States, pp. 344-356; P. S. Reinsch, Readings on American Federal Government, pp. 257-264.
Short Studies
1. The old and the new method of choosing Senators. George H. Haynes, The Election of Senators, pp. 36-129.
2. The procedure in impeachments. W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 168-173.
3. The Speaker of the House. C. A. Beard, American Government and Politics, pp. 280-289; M. P. Follett, The Speaker of the House of Representatives, pp. 296-330.
4. The rights of minorities. F. A. Cleveland and Joseph Schafer, Democracy in Reconstruction, pp. 446-467.
5. The general powers of Congress. W. B. Munro, Government of the United States, pp. 208-218.
6. How Congress legislates. Everett Kimball, National Government of the United States, pp. 350-356; P. S. Reinsch, Readings on American Federal Government, pp. 290-296.
7. An Englishman’s observation on the work of Congress. James Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. I, pp. 191-208.
8. The rules of the House and Senate. Everett Kimball, National Government of the United States, pp. 333-344.
9. Obstruction in Congress. S. W. McCall, The Business of Congress, pp. 85-92.
10. Party organizations in Congress. W. W. Willoughby and Lindsay Rogers, Introduction to the Problem of Government, pp. 334-351.
11. The lobby. P. S. Reinsch, American Legislatures and Legislative Methods, pp. 228-298.
12. The Library of Congress. F. J. Haskin, American Government, pp. 287-288.
Questions
1. Do the merits of the double-chamber system outweigh the objections? Why should the members of the two chambers be chosen by different methods? Name at least three different methods of selecting representatives.
2. What is the present value of equal representation of the states in the Senate? What legal and practical obstacles are there to changing this system?
3. Look up and explain the following terms which are commonly used in Congress: executive session; morning hour; union calendar; ranking member; filibuster; leave to print; pigeon-holing a bill; pork barrel; rider.
4. What are the practical difficulties which arise when the Senate declines to confirm appointments proposed by the President?
5. Explain the difference between an impeachment and a bill of attainder.
6. The Senate usually exercises more influence than the House in matters of lawmaking. Can you give reasons why this should be so?
7. Tell how congressional districts are mapped out. Mark on an outline map the districts in your state. Have any of them been gerrymandered?
8. The chairmanships of committees usually go to senior members. Do you think this a wise or unwise practice?
9. What would be gained, and what would be lost by lengthening to four years the term for which representatives are chosen?
10. Two women, Miss Rankin of Montana and Miss Robertson of Oklahoma, have sat in Congress. What are the arguments for and against electing women in future?
11. Members of the House of Representatives receive salaries of $7500 per year. Is this too much or too little? Give your reasons.
12. Congressmen are entitled to the free use of the mails. (This is called the franking privilege.) Some years ago one senator sent nearly 750,000 copies of his speeches through the mails free. Do you believe this privilege should be withdrawn or retained?
13. Should the rules of the House provide for unlimited debate?
14. Can you suggest any practical way in which the work of Congress might be improved?
Topics for Debate
1. The English practice of choosing non-resident representatives is advantageous and should be adopted in the United States.
2. The states should be represented in the Senate according to their respective populations.
3. The provision relating to a reduction in representation, whenever citizens are excluded from voting (see Amendment XIV) should be enforced.
CHAPTER XV
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET
The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the President of the United States is chosen, what his powers are, and what functions his cabinet performs.