THE WOMAN VOTER'S
MANUAL
Important Legislation in the United States
Affecting Women and Children
WHITE SPACES INDICATE GOOD LEGISLATION,
BLACK SPACES POOR OR NO LEGISLATION,
COLOR SPACES FULL SUFFRAGE STATES
Circle 1 Industrial Welfare Commis-
sion to regulate hours, wages
and working conditions of
women and children
2 Child Labor 14 year limit.
Guarded exemptions during
vacations are allowed and
poverty exemptions when
these are neutralized by
Mothers' Pensions laws
Note : Neither Illinois nor any <
are Included as full suffrage
CircIeS Compulsory education State
wide
4 Eight or nine hour day for
women
5 Minimum wage
6 Mothers' pensions
7 Equal guardianship
8 Age of consent. 18 year*
chaste or unchaste
9 Red light abatement
10 Prohibition
f the Victory States of 1917
states la cbart analysis
THE WOMAN VOTER'S
MANUAL
BY
S. E. FORMAN
AND
MARJOBIE SHULER
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1918
Copyright, 1918, by
THE CENTUEY Co,
This book is sent forth to meet the evident desire
of the American woman to know more about her gov-
ernment. Its purpose is not to satisfy that desire
but to stimulate it. The facts which it contains about
the government have been selected mainly from one
of Dr. Forman's books, "The American Republic."
The introduction for the woman voter has been written
by one whose supreme gifts are helping to bring about
world recognition of the relationship between woman
and government, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, presi-
dent of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
and of the National American Woman Suffrage As-
sociation.
MARJORIE SHULER.
392470 (\
INTRODUCTION
THE VOTE AND THE VOTER
By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT
President of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association and of the International Woman
Suffrage Alliance
OF the 27,011,330 women of voting age in the
United States, more than one-third are now enfran-
chised, either as voters for presidential electors, or
as fully as our present national laws permit women
to be enfranchised. No woman in the United States
is yet enfranchised as is her husband or her father
or her son or her brother, and will not be until
woman suffrage is incorporated in the national con-
stitution. Not even then, unless she can come to hold
her naturalization in her own person instead of as
a cloak to be put on and off as she marries, unmarries
or is widowed.
Whatever the voting strength of these more than
9,000,000 women of voting age may be, the fact of
vii
viii INTRODUCTION
practical value for such a book as the present one is
that a large and ever increasing number of women
citizens are avid for information on the new ques-
tions of local; State and national government which
women and men must now decide together. They
are coming up to these questions with a vivid new
personal interest that bids fair to lift "civil govern-
ment" out of the cold aloofness of academic discus-
sion on the one side, and the "mire of politics" on
the other. To be bromidic, women are going to hu-
manize questions of government. That will not be,
I think, because only to woman is given the human
outlook on life, but because the human is composite
of men and women and the human in the outlook of
both is stirred and developed through cooperative
rather than segregated work.
As emergent voters the women of America are to-
day facing the same fundamental questions as to the
new responsibility as are the young American man
of twenty-one and the immigrant. The enfranchise-
ment of woman, the coming of age of the young man,
and the naturalization of the immigrant there you
have the three agencies through which the electorate
of America is to be kept in a state of inquiry and
action instead of in a condition of acquiescence and
being.
A prime difference in the three cases is that the
INTRODUCTION ix
woman is asking all the questions that the other two
ought to ask but do not. Of course it would be the
woman who would ask the questions. For one thing,
it does not go so hard with women to admit their
ignorance as it does with men. For another, woman
has had to fight for suffrage while the young man was
acquiring it as he acquired his moustache, by the
simple expedient of getting older, and the immigrant
man was acquiring it by the simple expedient of liv-
ing in America long enough to take on some of those
American ideals and commitments into which the
woman, if native, was born; and having fought for
the suffrage, the fight has informed woman with a
special sense of the value in the thing fought for, and
a special desire fully to understand it. Suffragists
alone would start the questions, but it is not suffra-
gists alone among women who want the answers.
The antis mean to vote, the indifferent mean to vote.
In the result, texts on civil government become at
one leap of intimate value. Instead of remote sum-
maries of the function of the " judiciary, the legisla-
tive, the administrative," that of which they treat
is identified as breakfast table talk the mayor's ap-
pointments, home rule for cities, what the legisla-
ture is doing with the child labor bill, what Wash-
ington will do with bills defining the authority of the
government in its war control of this, that, or the
x INTRODUCTION
other. There is an acute recognition of "the govern-
ment " as a matter of close contact and an immediate
intention to understand it better. And conversely,
from now on, thanks to woman's enfranchisement,
achieved or impending, it will be necessary for the
government to understand woman better, so that the
give-and-take, the reflex from woman suffrage into
the body politic, and out again upon the community,
may be the better assimilated.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE A WAR MEASURE
When the world war began shaking the existing
ideas of government about, it had the effect upon
them that is produced by shaking a barrel of apples,
the little ones went to the bottom and the big ones
came to the top. Consider some of the first little ap-
ples to go out of sight. In Italy and in France women
had distinct civil disabilities such as the necessity of
getting their husbands' authorization before they
could act in legal matters. These ideas have not only
sunk to the bottom of the barrel, but have apparently
shrunk to a size which has permitted them to fall
through cracks and disappear. In a cataclysm which
has destroyed class distinctions by demanding leader-
ship from all classes, sex discrimination could no
longer endure in the light of the complete sacrifice
for service shown by both sexes. In Italy and France
INTRODUCTION xi
municipal suffrage is in process of establishment. It
is urged by statesmen as much as by woman suffra-
gists. In France it is indeed a necessity, since in
many communities the only people left to protect
the standards of life are loyal women who have
served their country no less ably than the front line
soldiers who have given their lives for France.
The fiercest opponents of woman suffrage in Eng-
land have demonstrated no little ingenuity in their
lightning changes from adamantine hostility to suf-
frage to fervid acceptance of it.
Democracy has become a password. Every state
paper and suggested basis of peace drives home, as
with bayonet thrusts, the basic fact that for the word
democracy, one may now substitute the phrase " gov-
ernment derives its just powers from the consent of
the governed. "
Outside of Germany it would be hard to find a
statesman with the temerity to gainsay this. Up to
date Germany is the only great country which has
failed to grasp the fact that this is the real issue of
the war. Outside of Germany there are few political
leaders and those few mainly men advanced in years
who do not now know that women are among the
"governed." By its recent Franchise Reform Bill,
Hungary has demonstrated that the two vital issues,
"government by the people" and "women are peo-
xii INTRODUCTION
pie/' are recognized as fundamental to the life of
that nation.
WHAT SHE DOES WITH THE VOTE WHEN SHE GETS IT
In the United States the great suffrage victories
of the year 1917 have urged the question on beyond
interest in its merits or the abstract justice involved
in it, to the practical application of it. Whether
women vote when they can ; what they do with their
votes when they get them; and the effects of their
enfranchisement upon home and community are, for-
tunately, demonstrable propositions. In every full
voting State in which the records are sufficiently
complete to form a basis of judgment, three things
have been established: women register and vote in
about the same proportion as men; they show an in-
telligent interest in elections, and they double the
voting strength of their states with a comparatively
small increase in voting paraphernalia.
Knowledge of the kinds of legislation attempted
or achieved by voting women likewise rests upon
facts. The legislation accomplished follows the psy-
chology of women; it follows the matters in which
they are most vitally interested. If there is truth
in the theory that men and women are different, it
clinches the absolute need for women in political life.
In New Zealand, where women have voted for twenty-
INTRODUCTION xiii
five years, the infant death rate is lower than in any
other part of the world. And the New Zealand meth-
ods of caring for the health of women and children are
cited as models by authorities. A burning grievance
of mothers for countless years was the fact that in
the eyes of the law the children they had borne did
not belong to them; they belonged to the fathers.
When a controversy arose over the disposition of the
child, or its religious education, or the right to in-
herit from it, the advantage has always lain with the
father. As soon as woman began to emerge as a so-
cial entity, even before she had the vote, this deep
suffering of mothers found voice. For seventy years
mothers have struggled for an equal share with fa-
thers in the control of their own children. In almost
every full suffrage State in the Union this matter has
received a first consideration and equal guardianship
obtains in every State where women vote on the same
terms as men. It does not obtain to any such extent
where fathers only vote, as only twenty-five per cent,
of the thirty-six male suffrage States have this law.
The District of Columbia's equal guardianship law is
the result of the hard work of a woman lawyer.
Six of the woman voting States have secured an
eight-hour day for women. Not one male suffrage
State has done so. Sixty-three per cent, of the full
suffrage States (New York not included) have a min-
xiv INTRODUCTION
imum wage law, less than fourteen per cent, of the
man-suffrage States have one. Every full suffrage
State has a mothers' pension law. Ninety per cent,
of the full suffrage States (New York not included)
have the injunction and abatement law.
Recently the Chicago Chief of Police sent out a call
for a woman protective police force as a war meas-
ure. Behind this recognition of the fact that women
can be relied upon as a rear guard, lies an interest-
ing history of a movement to use women as police even
in normal times of peace. This movement, both in
England and the United States, was initiated by
women, urged by women, and steadfastly defeated
in America until women got the vote. The mere
possession of the franchise by the women of Chicago,
before they had a chance to put it in practice, acted
as a lever to set the Chicago women police idea on
its feet. What the women police have meant in
time of war is a momentous chapter not yet writ-
ten.
Women voters in Illinois, California, Colorado,
Washington, and Montana are on record as having
achieved such domestic legislation as state-wide laws
concerning food inspection. Earl Barnes reports
that he has seen " nowhere else such statutes as fear-
lessly and vigorously enforced as in Idaho. ' '
Montana is, next to New York, one of the youngest
INTRODUCTION xv
children in the suffrage group. It gained enfran-
chisement in 1914, yet by 1916, the first political
campaign in which the women voters participated,
old political wheel horses were astonished at the con-
centration of effort and energy exhibited by the
whole woman electorate of Montana. A woman State
Superintendent of Public Instruction, who ran en-
tirely upon her special qualifications, and was sup-
ported by the women because of her fitness, was
elected by an overwhelming majority. Other legis-
lation worked for by women in their first campaign in
Montana included an eight-hour day for women, im-
provements in the mothers' pension law, establish-
ment of a child welfare division of the Department of
Public Health and an expert survey of the feeble-
minded of the State. Colorado 's Juvenile Court Law
has been called by the head of the National Child
Labor Committee ''one of the best, if not the
best."
As she has become possessed of the vote, the female
of the species has proved herself rather fundamentally
averse to office- seeking. The practice of women in
full suffrage States has been to occupy such public
positions as logically develop out of their special
training. Women, who make up eighty per cent, of
the teaching profession and who as parents are vi-
tally in touch with the needs of childhood, have in all
xvi INTRODUCTION
full suffrage States acceptably filled local and state
positions as superintendents of public instruction or
as members of school boards or as commissioners of
Public Welfare in connection with the labor of women
and children. In some instances marked ability or
experience in these lines has led them into legislative
positions. In full suffrage States the woman lawyer
is naturally less impeded in her advance from post
to post in her own profession than her professional
sister in non-suffrage States. The woman doctor
mounts the rungs of her ladder less weighed down
with artificial burdens. The point in all this is the
reassuring fact that the state undergoes no volcanic
wrench when women participate in its political
career. What women are bound to do anyway,
whether because of natural abilities or personal in-
clinations or because of economic and industrial pres-
sure, they do with fewer handicaps when they have
the franchise than when they haven't it. Experi-
ence also shows that the large social movements by
which all mankind is affected predetermine these
matters for women as well as for men. When vast
numbers of women are needed in industry they go
into it. If such a situation arises, justice and expe-
diency both demand that women should be protected
by their own ballots, not by so-called representative
ballots, as on the face of it no one ballot can be
INTRODUCTION xvii
counted upon to express two persons' "consent" m
government.
An obsession exists among some men lest women
begin at once to untie all the neat packages into which
political parties have tied their inherited traditions.
A few men are still shuddering lest women will want
to revolutionize banking legislation, throw the tariff
overboard and run amuck amongst stocks and bonds.
In the first place, they never have done anything
of the sort in any State where women vote, and in the
second place, women are conservative spenders. A re-
proach against them has been their timidity in think-
ing in the gross. They have so long thought in lit-
tles.
NO SEX SEGREGATION IN POLITICS
Woman, the voter, disproves too, all along the line,
the contention that there will ever be a distinct wom-
an's party in the history of the United States. Hu-
man interests find few such vertical lines of cleavage
between the sexes. It is inconceivable that the thou-
sands of homes in the country could ever be split
apart longitudinally. If the extraordinary injustices
against women permitted by men in past generations
have never yet bred up a group of women combined
for attack, is it likely that, as those grievances are
more and more removed and men's and women's in-
xviii INTRODUCTION
t crests become more and more identical, there will
ever be a collective strife of women against men ? Hu-
man needs are normally group needs, family needs, or
needs of industrial units. Society may split apart
in horizontal sections with whole groups of men and
women on each side of the line. And when it does,
women will be found valiant in supporting the meas-
ures they espouse. But because of the very struc-
ture of human society it will never happen that
masses of women will have a desire to cohere in oppo-
sition to masses of men. Nature and personal affec-
tions would soon prove too strong for such political
differentiations. It is together, as human beings, not
as men and not as women that the voters of the United
States are moving forward into the new democracy
with its larger questions and its finer and surer an-
swers.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION PAGE
EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN THE UNITED STATES . . vii
EQUAL SUFFRAGE A WAR MEASURE x
EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN OTHER COUNTRIES x
EQUAL SUFFRAGE LEGISLATION xii
No SEX SEGREGATION IN POLITICS xvii
I
POPULAR GOVERNMENT
THE UNITED STATES A DEMOCRACY 3
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES .... 5
II
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP
CIVIL RIGHTS AND POLITICAL RIGHTS 8
THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF STATE CITIZENSHIP .... 10
THE CIVIL RIGHTS OF FEDERAL CITIZENSHIP ... 12
THE DUTIES OF CITIZENSHIP 15
III
CONGRESS
REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS 17
THE ASSEMBLING OF CONGRESS AND ITS ADJOURNMENT 17
THE HOUSE AT WORK 19
I The Speakership 19
CONTENTS
PAGE
II The Committees 20
III The Rules 21
THE SENATE AT WORK 23
THE POWERS OF CONGRESS 24
IV
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET
THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT . . 26
THE PRESIDENT'S SHARE IN LAW-MAKING .... 27
SUCCESSION TO THE PRESIDENCY 28
THE CABINET 29
V
FEDERAL EXECUTIVE WORK
THE DEPARTMENTS 31
EXECUTIVE WORK OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENTS ... 35
THE NATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE 35
SALARIES OF PRINCIPAL FEDERAL OFFICIALS .... 36
VI
COURTS, STATE AND FEDERAL
THE SEVERAL GRADES OF STATE COURTS 37
THE SEVERAL GRADES OF FEDERAL COURTS .... 42
VII
THE STATE LEGISLATURE
GENERAL FEATURES OF A STATE LEGISLATURE ... 45
THE PASSAGE OF BILLS 46
DIRECT LEGISLATION (THE INITIATIVE AND REFER-
ENDUM) 47
THE RECALL . 50
CONTENTS
VIII
THE STATE EXECUTIVE PAGE
THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 52
IX
COUNTIES, TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS
OFFICIALS OF A COUNTY 57
THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN MEETING 60
THE TOWNSHIP 61
^
X
MUNICIPALITIES
VILLAGES 63
THE ORGANIZATION OF CITIES 64
I The Council System 64
II The Commission System 67
XI
THE TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES OF THE
UNITED STATES
How TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES ARE GOVERNED . 70
TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES ON THE AMERICAN
CONTINENT 71
I The District of Columbia 71
II Alaska 72
III Indian Reservations and National Parks 73
IV The Panama Canal Strip 74
INSULAR TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES .... 74
I Hawaii 74
II Porto Rico 75
III The Philippine Islands 77
IV Guam and Samoa 78
V The Virgin Islands 78
CONTENTS
XII
PARTY ORGANIZATION PAGE
PERMANENT PARTY ORGANIZATION v9
THE NOMINATION OP CANDIDATES 79
PARTY CONVENTIONS 81
I The Primary or Caucus 81
II The County (or City) Convention . . 82
III The State Convention 82
IV The National Convention 83
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 84
THE ELECTION OP THE PRESIDENT 84
XIII
POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS
POLITICAL PARTIES Now IN EXISTENCE 86
PARTY PRINCIPLES 87
I Democratic Platform 87
II Republican Platform 89
III Socialist Platform 90
IV Prohibition Platform 93
XIV
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS REGULATED BY THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT 94
AMBASSADORS, MINISTERS AND CONSULS 95
TREATIES 96
ARBITRATION 98
XV
TAXATION
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF TAXES 101
NATIONAL EXPENDITURES . 105
CONTENTS
XVI
PUBLIC FINANCE PAGE
FEDERAL TAXATION 106
STATE TAXATION 108
THE COLLECTION OP STATE TAXES Ill
XVII
MONEY
GOLD AND SILVER COINAGE 115
PAPER CURRENCY 117
NATIONAL BANKS 118
FEDERAL RESERVE BANKS 119
XVIII
COMMERCE
FOREIGN COMMERCE 123
I The Tariff, Free Trade and Protection . 123
II The Regulation of Immigration . . . 124
INTERSTATE COMMERCE 126
I Interstate Commerce Defined .... 126
II The Regulation of Interstate Commerce 127
III The Interstate Commerce Commission . 127
XIX
CORPORATIONS
THE EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE INDUSTRY . . . .130
I Individual Enterprise 130
II The Partnership 131
III The Corporation 131
CORPORATIONS CREATED BY STATE AUTHORITY . . . 133
CORPORATE COMBINATIONS (TRUSTS) . . . . . . 133
CONTENTS
PAGE
APPENDIX A. THE CONSTITUTION OP THE UNITED
STATES 137
APPENDIX B. NEW YORK STATE ELECTION LAWS . 171
I General Election 1.71
II Qualifications of Voters 172
III Registration of Voters 172
IV Official Primary Elections 173
V Party Enrollment 173
VI Casting a Vote 174
VII Time Allowed an Employee to Vote . .175
VIII Party Committees 175
IX Designation of Candidates .... 175
THE WOMAN VOTER'S
MANUAL
THE WOMAN VOTER'S
MANUAL
CHAPTER I
POPULAR GOVERNMENT
A GOVERNMENT which receives its powers from the
people is a democratic or popular government, and a
state in which popular government prevails is a de-
mocracy. The United States is a democracy, for here
political power everywhere flows from the people.
The President of the United States, the Congress, and
the national Supreme Court, all receive their powers
from the Constitution of the United States, and this
Constitution is a creation of the people (I) 1 of the
United States ; the government of a State 2 receives its
powers from the people of the State ; a city or a town
or a county is governed by the people who reside
within its borders. Thus in the United States the
will of the people prevails not only in the country
taken as a whole but in all its parts as well. This is
1 The numbers in heavy-faced type refer to passages in the
Constitution of the United States (Appendix A) which are
distinguished by corresponding numbers on the margin.
2 In this book when the word "state" begins with a capital
letter one of the members of the American Union is meant.
3
4. : '. THE .WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
the fundairorital principle of the American govern-
ment.
A popular government may have the form either of
a pure democracy or of a representative government.
In a pure democracy the voters transact the business
of government in person; they not only choose the
officers of government but they enact laws as well. A
representative government is a popular government
in which power is exercised by chosen agents (repre-
sentatives) of the people, instead of being exercised
directly by the people. A country which is governed
by representatives elected by the people is a repre-
sentative democracy or republic. In a representative
democracy the people rule no less than in a pure de-
mocracy, but they rule indirectly.
The United States is a representative democracy.
Our President and our governors and mayors and, in
most instances, our judges, are chosen agents of the
people. The officers of government who are not di-
rectly elected by the people are appointed by direct
representatives, and are thus not far removed from
the voters.
The people of a free state will not confer all the
power of government upon one person, or upon one
body of persons. Experience has taught that it is
better to divide governmental power into three por-
tions, and to establish three departments of govern-
ment, allotting to each department its own peculiar
portion. The three departments of a popular govern-
ment are: (1) The legislative department, upon
which is conferred the power of making laws; (2)
POPULAR GOVERNMENT 5
the judicial department, which is entrusted with the
power of deciding how the law shall apply in par-
ticular cases when disputes arise; (3) the executive
department, which is vested with the power of en-
forcing laws.
A government may be democratic in form and
spirit, it may be thoroughly representative, it may
have the three branches clearly separated, and still
there may be no guarantee that civil liberty will be
permanently enjoyed. For officers of government are
liable to abuse power, or to choose a wrong or unjust
course of action. Americans have been taught by ex-
perience that rights may be safeguarded and civil
liberty preserved by imposing upon themselves a
fundamental law in the form of a written constitu-
tion.
The fundamental law of our country, taken as a
whole, is the Constitution of the United States. Each
State also has a constitution which it has framed for
itself. Government in America, therefore, is every-
where conducted according to the written word; it is
everywhere constitutional.
The first American constitutions were promulgated
in the name of the people, yet they were not as a
rule the direct creations of the people. The statesmen
who framed them did not have a very strong faith
in the wisdom of the people, and were not quite will-
ing to submit a fundamental law to a popular vote.
As democracy grew more fashionable, and as the peo-
ple came to be more fully recognized as the real mas-
ters of government, the custom of submitting consti-
6 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
tutions to voters for their approval became general.
At the present time a constitution is usually ratified
by the people at the polls before it is put into opera-
tion. This popular ratification clothes the constitu-
tion with all the authority that a law can possibly
have, for it is a law passed by the people themselves
acting as legislators. A constitution, therefore, is a
solemn and deliberate expression of the popular will,
and as such it is a fixed, permanent law which all
citizens and all officers of government must obey.
Although a constitution is a fixed law, it may not
remain unchanged forever. A provision in a consti-
tution which was wise and just fifty years ago may
be harmful now. Every constitution recognizes this
fact, and provides for making changes, when these
may seem necessary. These changes or amendments
are effected in various ways, the usual procedure be-
ing as follows: the amendment that is thought to be
desirable first passes the legislature of the State and
is then submitted to the people for their approval.
If it receives the required number of votes fre-
quently a majority of all the votes cast it becomes
a part of the constitution and cannot be repealed by
the legislature.
Constitutions provide not only for their own amend-
ment, but also for their own complete revision. They
provide for the calling of a constitutional convention,
which shall have power to revise the old constitution
and frame a new one. A general revision of a State
constitution is usually accomplished in the following
way : The legislature submits to the people the ques-
POPULAR GOVERNMENT 7
tion whether or not a convention shall be called to
frame a new constitution. In several States this ques-
tion must be submitted to the voters every twenty
years ; in Michigan it must be submitted every sixteen
years ; in Iowa every ten years. If the vote is in fa-
vor of a convention, delegates are elected, and the
work of revision begins. It is the custom to submit
the revised constitution to the people for their ap-
proval, although this is not always done.
There are four processes by which the Constitution
of the United States may be amended. These are:
(1) and (2) Congress, by a two-thirds vote of both
houses, may submit an amendment to the States for
ratification (122) and if the amendment thus sub-
mitted is ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths
of the States, or by Conventions in three-fourths of
the States, it becomes a part of the Constitution; (3)
and (4) a national Constitutional Convention, called
by Congress upon the application of the legislatures
of two-thirds of the States, may submit an amend-
ment to the States for ratification and if the amend-
ment thus submitted is ratified by the legislatures
of three-fourths of the States, or by Conventions in
three-fourths of the States, it becomes a part of the
Constitution (123).
CHAPTER II
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP
THE rights flowing from American civil liberty
may be divided into two classes, civil rights and
political rights. Civil rights are those which a person
enjoys as a private citizen, as an individual. They
are enjoyed under the authority and sanction of gov-
ernment, but they are not related to the subject of
government. Political rights are those which belong
to a citizen regarded as a participator in the affairs
of government: they may be called the public rights
of citizenship.
The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution de-
clares that "all persons born or naturalized in the
United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof
are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside." Under this definition the fol-
lowing have been adjudged to be citizens of the United
States :
(1) All persons born in the United States except-
ing the children of diplomatic agents and of hostile
aliens.
(2) Children born in foreign countries whose par-
ents at the time of their birth were citizens of the
United States.
8
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP 9
(3) Women of foreign birth married to citizens of
the United States.
(4) Indians who pay taxes and no longer live in
tribal relations.
(5) Naturalized persons. The process of natural-
ization is as follows : At least two years before he
can be admitted as a citizen the alien must appear
before a State or a federal court and take an oath that
it is his intention to become a citizen of the United
States and "to renounce forever all allegiance and
fidelity to any foreign prince or state and particularly
to the one of which he may at the time be a citizen or
subject." He must also swear to support the Con-
stitution of the United States. Not less than two
years nor more than seven years after this declaration
of his intentions the alien may apply to a federal or
State court for full admission as a citizen. If the
judge of the court is satisfied that the alien is able to
speak the English language and write his own name,
that he has resided in the United States for five years,
and that he is a person of good moral character, full
citizenship will be conferred. A person thus natural-
ized has the same rights as native born citizens of the
United States except that he cannot become the Presi-
dent or Vice-President of the United States (86).
The children of naturalized persons are considered
as citizens if they were under twenty-one years of age
and were dwelling in the United States at the time of
the naturalization of their parents. Alien Chinese
and Japanese are not entitled to be naturalized. Per-
sons professing the doctrines of anarchy and openly
10 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
opposing all form of organized government are also
refused the gift of naturalization.
The rights of American citizenship flow from two
sources, from the State and from the nation. Since
each State in a large measure determines for itself
the character of the civil liberty that is to be enjoyed
within its borders, the rights of an American citizen
are not everywhere the same. As we travel through
the States our rights change every time we pass from
one State into another. When the citizen of one
State enters another State he has the rights of the
citizens of that State (116), and those rights only.
There are, however, certain civil rights which are en-
joyed in every State in the Union and which may be
called the civil rights of State citizenship. These are
the rights guaranteed in the State constitutions. In
the constitution of almost every State it is declared :
(1) That all men have the right of enjoying and
defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing
and protecting property and reputation, and of pur-
suing their own happiness;
(2) That men have a right to worship God accord-
ing to the dictates of their own conscience, and that
no preference by law should be given to any religion,
and that no person should be disqualified for office
on account of his religious belief ;
(3) That trial by jury is a right inviolate;
(4) That the printing-press shall be free, and that
every citizen may freely print, write and speak on
any subject, being responsible for the abuse of this
privilege :
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP 11
(5) That people shall be secure in their persons,
houses, papers and possessions against unreasonable
searches and seizures, and that no warrant to search
any place or seize any person shall issue without prob-
able cause:
(6) That in all criminal prosecutions the accused
has a right to be heard by himself and his counsel, to
meet witnesses face to face, to compel witnesses who
are in favor to come to court and testify, and to a
speedy trial by an impartial jury:
(7) That no person can be compelled to give evi-
dence against himself, nor be deprived of his life,
liberty or property unless by the law of the land :
(8) That no person for the same offense shall be
twice put in jeopardy of life and limb:
(9) That all courts shall be open and that every
man shall have justice without sale, denial or delay:
(10) That excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines be imposed, nor cruel punishment in-
flicted :
(11) That all prisoners shall be bailable by suffi-
cient sureties, unless for capital offenses:
(12) That the writ of habeas corpus shall not be
suspended unless in time of rebellion or invasion.
Whenever a man is placed in confinement against his
will and the fact is made known to a judge of a court,
the judge, unless he knows the confinement is legal,
is bound, upon application, to issue immediately a
writ, called habeas corpus, commanding the prisoner
to be brought before him for examination. If there
seems to be cause for the detention of the prisoner
12 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
he is sent back to prison to await a full trial ; if there
seems to be no cause he is set free :
(13) That there shall be no imprisonment for debt,
unless in cases of fraud:
(14) That citizens have a right to assemble in a
peaceable manner and to apply to the rulers for a
redress of grievances :
(15) That the military shall at all times be kept in
strict subordination to the civil power :
(16) That no soldier in time of peace shall be quar-
tered in any house without the consent of the owner.
The first section of the fourteenth amendment to the
Constitution (150) creates a distinct federal citizen-
ship, and provides that no State shall abridge the
privileges of that citizenship. What are the priv-
ileges which a citizen of the United States enjoys and
which no State can abridge?
At present it is possible to enumerate the following
as the rights of federal citizenship, rights which flow
from the Constitution, which belong to every citizen
of the United States, and which cannot be denied by
State authority :
I. Due Process of Law. No person in the United
States shall be deprived of life, liberty or property
without due process of law. Here is a right which
no State can abridge (151) and which the federal
government itself cannot deny (152). A person
seeking justice, whether in civil or criminal cases, un-
der his right of due process may demand (1) that
there be a court of law for the trial of his case; (2)
that the proceedings of the trial be regular; (3) that
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP 13
the trial be fair. What the regular course of pro-
cedure in a State court shall be is a matter for the
State itself to determine ; but after the State has once
decided upon the course that justice shall take, after
it has once established the processes of law, it cannot
deprive any person of the benefits that arise from
those processes.
II. Equal Protection of the Laws. " Every per-
son within the jurisdiction of any State, whether he
be rich or poor, humble or haughty, citizen or alien,
is assured of the protection of equal laws (152) ap-
plicable to all alike and impartially administered with-
out favor or discrimination." (Guthrie.)
III. Protection on the High Seas and in Foreign
Countries. A citizen of the United States, in what-
ever part of the world he may be, is entitled to pro-
tection against injustice or injury, and this protection
is a right of federal citizenship, and is extended by
the federal government.
IV. State Citizenship. Every citizen of the
United States has a right to become a citizen of a
State by a bona fide residence therein, and as a citi-
zen of the State he has all that large body of rights
which always belongs to State citizenship.
We now come to the subject of political rights as
distinguished from civil rights.
Political rights invest the citizen with the privilege
of participating in government, and consist of the
right of voting at elections and of holding public of-
fice. These rights are an outgrowth of the struggle
for civil rights.
4-'
14 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
Authority for granting the suffrage and defining
the qualifications of voters resides chiefly in the State.
The only restriction upon the power of the State to
regulate the elective franchise is found in the fifteenth
amendment to the Constitution, where it is declared
that the right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be abridged by any State on account of race,
color or previous condition of servitude (159). As
long as the State does not violate this amendment it
is free to regulate the suffrage in its own way.
When we observe how widely the political condi-
tions in one State differ from those in another, and
consider how great is the opportunity for a variety
of regulations in reference to voting, the laws gov-
erning the suffrage throughout the Union seem to be
remarkably uniform. This uniformity is due in part
to democratic spirit of equality, and in part to the pro-
visions of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments.
In all the States the age qualification for voting is
twenty-one years; in all the States a previous resi-
dence within the State varying from six months to
two years is required; in thirty-eight States a voter
must be a citizen of the United States; in ten States
aliens may vote ; in all the States but nine there is an
absence of anything like an educational qualification.
In all the States certain classes of persons are ex-
cluded from the privilege of voting. Chief among
these are lunatics, idiots, paupers and convict crim-
inals.
The right of holding office is more indefinite than
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP 15
the right of suffrage. It may be stated as a general
rule that any one who may vote is qualified to hold
office. Qualifications for the occupants of most of-
fices are prescribed by law, and these of course must
be met. When there are no special legal qualifica-
tions attached to an office it may usually be held by
any one who can get himself elected or appointed to
it. A person who, as a State official, has taken an
oath to support the Constitution of the United States
and who has afterwards joined in rebellion against the
United States is debarred from holding office (155).
The American voter should regard himself as an
officer of government. He is one of the members of
the electorate, that vast governing body which con-
sists of all the voters, and which possesses supreme
political power, controlling all the governments, fed-
eral and State and local. This electorate has in its
.keeping the welfare and the happiness of the Amer-
ican people. When, therefore, the voter takes his
place in this governing body, that is, when he enters
the polling-booth and presumes to participate in the
business of government, he assumes serious responsi-
bilities. In the polling-booth he is a public officer
charged with certain duties, and if he fails to dis-
charge these duties properly he may work great in-
jury. What are the duties of a voter in a self-govern-
ing country? If an intelligent man will ask himself
this question and refer it to his conscience, as well
as deliberate upon it in his mind, he will conclude
that he ought at least to do the following things :
16 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
(1) To vote whenever it is his privilege.
(2) To try to understand the questions upon which
he votes.
(3) To learn something about the character and
fitness of the men for whom he votes.
(4) To vote only for honest men for office.
(5) To support only honest measures.
(6) To give no bribe direct or indirect, and to re-
ceive no bribe direct or indirect.
(7) To place country above party.
(8) To recognize the result of the election as the
will of the people and therefore as the law.
(9) To continue to vote for a righteous although
defeated cause as long as there is a reasonable hope
of victory.
CHAPTER III
CONGRESS
THE most important department of the United
States government when considered as a representa-
tive democracy is Congress, with its two houses the
Senate and the House of Representatives chosen di-
rectly by the people and answerable to them alone for
its acts. Each State is represented in the Senate by
two senators, making 96 in all. A candidate for sen-
ator must be at least 30 years old, have been nine years
a resident of the United States and must be a resi-
dent of the State he represents. The senators for
each State are elected by all the voters of the State.
The members of the House of Representatives are
elected one from each of the congressional districts
into which a State is divided for purposes of repre-
sentation. The basis for representation is one mem-
ber for each 211,877 of the population, making 435
members of the House of Representatives. A candi-
date for representative must be at least 25 years old,
must have been for seven years a resident of the
United States, and must be a resident of the State in
which he is elected.
Every year on the first Monday in December (25)
Congress assembles in the Capitol at Washington, the
Senate occupying the north wing of the building and
17
18 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
the House the south wing. It convenes and adjourns
by virtue of constitutional authority, and not by vir-
ture of a summons or an order from the executive
(25).
The President, however, may on extraordinary oc-
casions convene Congress in an extra session (100),
and he may also adjourn Congress if the two Houses
cannot themselves agree upon a day for adjournment
(101).
A majority of the members of each house consti-
tutes the quorum necessary for the transaction of
business. When making laws the two Houses must
carry on work during the same period of time, al-
though either House may sit alone for a period not
exceeding three days (31).
The first Congress began its legal existence March
4, 1789, and expired at the hour of noon March 4,
1791, when the term of the first elected representa-
tives ended; the second Congress came into power
March 4, 1791, and ended its career March 4, 1793;
the third Congress began March 4, 1793, and ended
March 4, 1795; and thus on to the present time.
From this we learn (1) that Congresses are numbered
according to the biennial periods for which repre-
sentatives are elected, and (2) that the legal exist-
ence of Congress begins on March 4 following the
election of representatives and ends March 4, two
years later. Representatives are elected in November
except that in Maine and Vermont, they are elected
in September but, unless an extra session is called,
they do not actually enter upon their duties until the
CONGRESS 19
December of the first year of their legal term more
than a year after their election. If a Congress should
choose to do so, it could sit in continuous session from
the time it first meets to the expiration of its term.
In practice the work of a Congress is done in two
regular sessions. The first session begins when a
Congress assembles in December for the first time
and ends late in the spring or early in the summer of
the following year. This is the long session. The
second or short session begins when the Congress as-
sembles in December for the second time and ends
at twelve o'clock meridian the following March 4.
Extra sessions begin on a date fixed by the Presi-
dent and end at the pleasure of Congress.
In the first few days after the assembling of the
House several thousand bills are introduced. The
introduction of a bill in the House is a very easy mat-
ter; the bill is not presented in the open House but
is quietly placed in a receptacle in the "hopper"
from which it is taken by a clerk and filed. But every
bill before it can become a law must be taken up in
the open House and be duly discussed and disposed
of in an orderly decent way. How is this done?
How amid the stormy conflicts of interest which are
bound to arise in the House, and in the confusion and
strife which are attendant upon the proceedings of
such a large body, can business be conducted in due
form and order? The answer to this question in-
volves the consideration of (1) the speakership, (2)
the committee system, and (3) the rules of the House.
I. The Speakership. When the members of a new
20 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
House assemble for the first time the clerk of the
previous House calls them to order, causes a roll to
be called, and, if a quorum (27) is present, invites
the House to proceed with the election of a Speaker
(13) who is. always chosen from among the repre-
sentatives. After the election of the Speaker the
other officers of the House (14), the sergeant-at-arms,
the clerk and the doorkeeper are elected, and the work
of the session begins.
The character of the proceedings of the House de-
pends largely upon the firmness and fairness of the
Speaker. The duties of the Speaker are defined by
the rules of the House. He preserves order, he puts
questions to the House to be voted upon, he decides
questions of parliamentary law, and above all, he de-
cides which member is entitled to be heard upon the
floor. No member may speak or make a motion un-
less he has first been recognized by the Speaker.
IT. The Committees. A large legislative body in
full and open session cannot look into the merits and
discuss all the items of every proposed bill. There
must be a method of sifting proposed measures and
rejecting worthless and absurd propositions so that
the attention of the legislature may be given to seri-
ous and important matters. From time immemorial
this preparation of measures has been accomplished
through the agency of committees, small groups of
members, to each of which is assigned the duty of
attending to a particular branch of legislation. The
more important committees of the House consist of
from fifteen to twenty-one members. The principal
CONGRESS 23
standing committees committees which are provided
for by the rules, and which continue in existence
through the entire session are those on ways and
means, rules, appropriations, the judiciary, foreign
relations, currency, commerce, pensions, military af-
fairs, naval affairs, elections, manufactures, agricul-
ture, public lands, and rivers and harbors. The com-
mittees are elected by the House but the membership
of each committee is determined by party action be-
fore the vote in the House is taken.
The work of the House is effected through the com-
mittees. When a bill is introduced it finds its way
to the appropriate committee. Friends of the bill
may appear before the committee and speak in its
behalf. The committee may amend the bill, or reject
it outright, or pay no attention to it whatever. If a
bill is rejected in committee, it has little chance of
becoming a law. If it is reported favorably to the
House, it has a chance at least of receiving serious
consideration. A committee, besides reporting upon
measures that have been referred to it, may report
bills originating with itself. In practice, before a bill
can become a law it must first receive the favorable
judgment of a committee.
III. The Rules. When a bill is reported favor-
ably by a committee it is usually placed upon the cal-
endar along with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
other bills. By a majority vote of the entire mem-
bership of the House a bill may be taken from a com-
mittee, and placed upon the calendar without waiting
for the action of the committee. This can be done,
22 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
however, only after the committee has for fifteen days
failed to take action upon the bill. The calendar is
a kind of catalogue or register of bills, and has been
called "the cemetery of legislative hopes/' because
so many bills are never heard of again after they reach
it. When a bill has found its way to the calendar
its fate henceforth rests with the rules of the House.
The rules of procedure are determined by the House
itself (28), and are framed with a view of conduct-
ing business in a fair and orderly manner. The gen-
eral rule in reference to a bill on the calendar is that
it must wait its turn for consideration, a rule which
if strongly enforced might postpone action indef-
initely. The real agency which can determine what
bill shall be taken from the calendar and which in
fact largely guides the entire proceedings of the
House is the committee on rules. This committee,
like the other committees, is elected by the House and
consists of eleven members. The Speaker is not per-
mitted to be a member of the committee. The com-
mittee on rules has the high privilege of bringing in
a "special rule" or order, by which a certain time
may be appointed for the consideration of a bill. It
can thus at any time, without discussion or delay,
order any bill to be taken from the calendar for im-
mediate consideration. This committee on rules can
also determine the conditions of debate, how long
members may speak, whether amendments to the bill
may be offered or not, when a vote shall be taken.
The first of the committees, therefore, is the commit-
CONGRESS 23
tee on rales, and the first of the rules is the "special
rule."
When a Congress expires two-thirds of the mem-
bers of the Senate retain their seats in the next Con-
gress (16). The Senate is thus in part a continuous
body; "always changing it is forever the same." It
is not reorganized at the opening of every Congress.
The vice-President is the permanent presiding offi-
cer. A temporary President (21), chosen by the
Senate from among its members, holds office for an
undefinite period and takes the place of the permanent
presiding officer during his absence. The committees
of the Senate are elected by the Senate itself, although
before the vote is taken the membership of each com-
mittee is previously determined by party action.
In both Senate and House each of the leading
political parties elects a floor leader, whose special
duty is to direct and manage for his party the debates
on important measures. The floor leader when ad-
vocating the passage of a measure sees that the bill
is written in the most acceptable form, safeguards it
from the dangers of parliamentary procedure, ar-
ranges the list of members who are to speak in its be-
half, and allots to each speaker the time to be con-
sumed. Frequently before a bill is brought upon the
floor to be voted upon a caucus, or private conference,
of the members of each party is held, and it is deter-
mined what the action of the party in respect to the
proposed measure shall be. As a rule, all the mem-
bers who attend a caucus vote on the bill in accord-
24 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
ance with the decision of the caucus but sometimes
its decision is disregarded.
If a high public official should be charged with gross
misconduct in office, if, for example, the President
should be charged with not enforcing a law, or a
federal judge accused of habitual drunkenness, he
could be reached by the process of impeachment. Im-
peachment begins in the House of Representatives,
where the charges against the unfaithful officer must
be laid (14). If in the judgment of the House the ac-
cused person is guilty, the impeachment, or accusation,
is carried to the Senate to be tried (22). The Senate,
while trying the impeachment, sits as a court of jus-
tice. Witnesses are summoned and examined and evi-
dence pro and con is presented. If by a two-thirds
vote the Senate sustains the impeachment the accused
person is deprived of his office (23). He may after-
wards be tried and punished in a court of law for his
offense, but such a trial is not a part of the process of
impeachment. The main object of impeachment is to
protect the government from the acts of faithless offi-
cers, not to punish crime. Its purpose, therefore, is
fulfilled when the offending officer is removed. Im-
peachment is plainly a judicial rather than a legisla-
tive function.
A treaty is a law of the land (126). It is only
right, therefore, that the legislature should partici-
pate in the treaty-making power. The Constitution
recognizes this principle to the extent that treaties
shall be confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the Sen-
ate (95). The Constitution also provides that certain
CONGRESS 25
presidential appointments must be confirmed by the
Senate (96). In the exercise of this power the Senate
has established a custom of confirming only those ap-
pointments which are agreeable to the senator from
the State in which the appointment is made. The sen-
ator to be consulted belongs to the President's party.
If the State in which the appointment is made has
no senator of the President 's party, the party leaders
of the State must be consulted. This deference to
the wishes of individual senators in the matter of con-
firming appointments is called senatorial courtesy.
The application of senatorial courtesy increases the
power of the Senate, for in many instances it has the
effect of taking federal patronage from the president
and bestowing it upon senators. When confirming
appointments and treaties the Senate regards itself
as acting in an executive capacity. It generally holds
its executive sessions behind closed doors. All purely
legislative sessions, both of the House and of the
Senate, are as a rule open to the public.
CHAPTER IV
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET
THE framers of the Constitution made the President
of the United States Commander-in-chief of the mili-
tary forces (92) ; they gave him the power of par-
doning offenses against the government of the United
States (94) ; they conferred upon him jointly with
the Senate the treaty-making power (95) and the
power of appointing foreign ministers, consuls, judges
of the Supreme Court and many other federal offi-
cers (96) ; they imposed upon him the function of
receiving foreign ambassadors and representatives of
foreign governments (101) ; they gave him authority
to deliver to Congress in person or to lay before that
body in writing, messages setting forth the condition
of public affairs and recommending measures for leg-
islation (100) ; they gave him power to convene Con-
gress in extraordinary session and to adjourn Con-
gress when the two Houses cannot agree as to the
matter of adjournment (101) ; they gave him the veto
power (38).
The highest and the chief duty of the President is
"to take care that the laws be faithfully executed"
(102). This is a purely executive duty and one that
the President cannot escape A law may be distaste-
26
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 27
ful to the President, he may regard it as hurtful or
unconstitutional, yet as long as it is a law he must
enforce it. "As the citizen may not elect what laws
he will obey neither may the executive elect which he
will enforce. ' ' Should the President wantonly refuse
to execute a law he would be removable by the process
of impeachment.
While the President is bound to carry out laws that
have been made whether he is in sympathy with them
or not, he at the same time may do much to prevent
the enactment of laws obnoxious to himself and much
to secure the enactment of favorite measures. His
power of prevention lies in the veto. How great this
power is may be seen by a simple calculation. A bill
may pass in the present House of 435 members by a
vote of 218 to 217, and in the Senate by a vote of 49
to 47. Now if the President should veto the bill it
would require 72 more votes in the House and 15
more in the Senate (40) to pass the measure over his
veto. The legislative weight of the President, there-
fore, is nearly one-sixth as great as that of Congress
itself.
The President's share in law-making does not end
with the negative power of the veto ; he possesses sev-
eral legislative powers of a positive nature. In mak-
ing the laws known as treaties he takes the initiative
and is coordinate with the Senate. By convening
Congress in extra session he can present to that body
subjects for its special consideration. In annual and
special messages he can give his views in respect to
needed legislation, and through his influence as a
28 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
party leader and as a distributor of patronage he can
often cause Congress to follow the suggestions con-
tained in his messages.
A vacancy in the office of President may occur by
the death, impeachment or resignation of the in-
cumbent, or by his inability to discharge the duties
of his office. The Constitution provides a Vice-Presi-
dent (88) to succeed in the case of a vacancy. If
for any reason neither President nor Vice-President
can serve, an officer designated by Congress (89) suc-
ceeds to the Presidency. Under the presidential suc-
cession act of 1886 it is provided that members of the
President's cabinet shall succeed to the Presidency
in the following order: (1) The Secretary of State,
(2) the Secretary of the Treasury, (3) the Secretary
of War, (4) the Attorney -general, (5) the Postmaster-
general, (6) the Secretary of the Navy, (7) the Secre-
tary of the Interior. The one succeeding to the Pres-
idency serves for the remainder of the four years,
but any one thus succeeding must have the constitu-
tional qualifications.
Responsibility for the smooth and efficient work-
ing of the great federal machine rests wholly on the
President, but in the supervision of the executive busi-
ness there must, of course, be division of labor. To
assist him in governing, the President summons to his
aid assistants known as secretaries. Washington be-
gan his administration with three secretaries, a Secre-
tary of State, a Secretary of the Treasury and a Sec-
retary of War. As the business of government in-
creased the work of the administration was further
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET 29
divided and new secretaries were brought in. The
chief assistants of the President now number ten and
are as follows :
1. The Secretary of State.
2. The Secretary of the Treasury.
3. The Secretary of War.
4. The Attorney-general.
5. The Postmaster-general.
6. The Secretary of the Navy.
7. The Secretary of the Interior.
8. The Secretary of Agriculture.
9. The Secretary of Commerce.
10. The Secretary of Labor.
Each of these secretaries is appointed by the Presi-
dent and is responsible to him for the management of
his own department. At stated times the secretaries
meet the President for consultation. This executive
council is known as the cabinet. The cabinet as a
body has no legal functions and is unknown to the
Constitution, although its existence is foreshadowed in
the words, "the President may require the opinion in
writing of the principal officers in each of the execu-
tive departments upon any subject relating to the
duties of their respective offices." (93). Washington,
following the letter of the Constitution, sometimes
communicated with his secretaries individually and re-
quired the opinion of each in writing. On many
occasions, however, where important matters of admin-
istration were to be settled he called his secretaries
30 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
together around a council board. It is said of Jeffer-
son: "When a question occurred of sufficient mag-
nitude to require the opinion of all the heads of
departments he called them together, had the sub-
ject discussed and a vote taken in which he counted
himself as but one." From out of these early meet-
ings of the President and his secretaries has grown
the cabinet meeting of to-day. The cabinet meets
at the White House at the call of the President.
Records of its meetings are rarely kept, and the pub-
lic does not know what takes place at them. The
President is not bound to act according to the wishes
of the cabinet, nor does he always do so. The func-
tion of the cabinet is to discuss and advise; it is for
the President to decide and act.
CHAPTER V
FEDERAL EXECUTIVE WORK
IT is chiefly through his cabinet officers as heads of
departments that the President governs. These de-
partments are:
I. The Department of State under the manage-
ment of the Secretary of State attends to foreign af-
fairs. It conducts the negotiations which lead up to
the making of treaties, instructs our foreign ministers
and consuls in their duties, extends official courtesies
to the ministers from other countries, gives passports
to those intending to travel abroad, protects American
citizens in other lands, and transacts all other busi-
ness arising between our government and other gov-
ernments. The Secretary of State is regarded as first
in rank among the heads of the departments.
II. The Department of the Treasury under the
Secretary of the Treasury manages the financial busi-
ness of the country. It collects the internal revenue,
and the customs duties ; it attends to the expenditure
of money appropriated by Congress; it manages the
public debt ; it organizes and inspects national banks ;
it controls the mints and supervises the making of
paper money. In addition to its purely financial
duties this department controls the life-saving serv-
31
32 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
ice maintained for the rescue of persons from ship-
wreck, supervises the construction of public build-
ings, and manages the marine hospitals maintained
for disabled soldiers.
III. The Department of War under the Secretary
of War has charge of the land forces. It purchases
supplies for the soldiers, controls the transportation
of troops, directs the improvements of rivers and har-
bors, superintends the signal service and controls the
Military Academy at West Point.
IV. The Department of Justice under the Attor-
ney-general is the law department of the national
government. When the President or a member of
the cabinet desires legal advice it is furnished by
this department. When the government of the United
States is interested in a case in court, an officer of
this department defends or prosecutes the suit. Next
in rank to the Attorney-general in the Department of
Justice is the Solicitor-general who, under the direc-
tion of the Attorney-general, has charge of the busi-
ness of the government in the Supreme Court of the
United States.
V. The Post-office Department under the Postmas-
ter-general, in addition to collecting, carrying and
distributing the mail, establishes and discontinues
post-offices, provides the public with stamps and postal
cards, conducts a money postal-order system by which
money may be safely transmitted to all parts of the
world, hastens the delivery of mail by means of a
special delivery system, sends by " parcels post"
packages to all parts of our own country and to about
FEDERAL EXECUTIVE WORK 33
thirty designated foreign countries, and manages the
business of the postal savings bank.
VI. The Department of the Navy under the Secre-
tary of the Navy purchases naval supplies, provides
for the construction and equipment of vessels, super-
vises the navy yards and docks, and controls the Naval
Academy at Annapolis.
VII. The Department of the Interior under the
Secretary of the Interior has charge of national af-
fairs that are of a purely domestic nature. It exam-
ines pension claims and grants pensions, controls In-
dian affairs, directs the sale of public lands, issues
patents, superintends such educational interests as
are of a national concern, directs the work of the
geological survey, superintends the construction and
operation of irrigation works authorized by Con-
gress, and investigates methods by which the safety of
miners may be provided for.
VIII. The Department of Agriculture under the
Secretary of Agriculture diffuses among the people of
the United States useful information on subjects con-
nected with agriculture in the most general and com-
prehensive sense of that term, and procures, propa-
gates and distributes among the people new and val-
uable seeds and plants. This department has charge
of the Weather Bureau which forecasts the weather;
it conducts the inspection of animals and meat and
food products when these are subjects of interstate
commerce: it studies plant life in all its relations to
agriculture and gives to farmers the benefit of its
investigations; it has charge of the forests belonging
34 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
to the United States; it collects informations as to
crops; it investigates soils and obtains information
regarding insects which injure crops and plants.
IX. The Department of Commerce under the Sec-
retary of Commerce "fosters, promotes and develops
the foreign and domestic commerce, the mining, man-
ufacturing, shipping and fishing industries and the
transportation facilities of the United States."
X. The Department of Labor under the Secretary
of Labor fosters, promotes and develops the welfare
of the wage earners of the United States, improves
their working conditions and advances their oppor-
tunities for profitable employment. One of its chief
duties is "to collect, collate and report full and com-
plete statistics of the conditions of labor and the
products and distribution of the same." It also en-
forces the immigration laws and the laws relating to
the naturalization of aliens and through the agency
of the Children's Bureau reports upon the welfare
of children.
Each of the ten departments has the control of a
vast amount of executive business, and it is necessary
to subdivide the work of a department and place an
officer at the head of each subdivision. A subdivision
of a department is sometimes known as a division of
the department but more often it is known as a bureau,
and the head of the bureau is called a director or
commissioner, or superintendent. For example, in the
department of Commerce there is a Bureau of For-
eign and Domestic Commerce, a Bureau of Light-
houses, a Bureau of Census, a Bureau of Fisheries, a
FEDERAL EXECUTIVE WORK 35
Bureau of Navigation, a Bureau of Standards, the
Coast and Geodetic Survey, and a Steamboat-Inspec-
tion Service.
A few items of executive business have not been
assigned to any one of the ten great departments.
The work of the Interstate Commerce Commission is
performed by nine commissioners who act independ-
ently of any department. The Civil Service Com-
mission, whose duty is to regulate and improve the
civil service of the United States, consists of three
commissioners who are responsible directly to the
President. The Federal Trade Commission, the Fed-
eral Reserve Board, the Shipping Board, the Farm
Loan Board, the Government Printing Office, the Li-
brary of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution are
also outside of departmental control. The chief offi-
cers in all these cases of extra-departmental activity
are nominated by the President and confirmed by the
Senate, just as other principal officers are.
There are more than 500,000 persons employed in
the executive civil service. Of these nearly 10,000
are appointed directly by the President. These are
known as the presidential appointments. The presi-
dential appointments are the leading officials, the
heads of departments and their chief assistants, the
heads of bureaus and divisions, the postmasters of
large cities and towns, the chief custom house officers,
the ministers to foreign countries and the like. All
officers and employees who are not appointed directly
by the President are appointed by the heads of the
department (98).
36 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
In 1883 Congress provided for the competitive ex-
amination of a large class of employees in the civil
service, and for appointment according to merit rather
than according to party affiliation. The rule of ap-
pointment according to ascertained merit has been
extended until it now reaches almost every depart-
ment of the national civil service and embraces about
two-thirds of all the employees. Appointees under
the competitive system hold their positions during
good behavior and efficient service. No employee,
however, is placed beyond the President's power to
remove.
The salaries of the principal officers of the federal
government are as follows:
President $75,000
Vice-President 12,000
Members of the cabinet 12,000
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court . . . 15,000
Associate Justices of Supreme Court . . . 14,500
Judges of Circuit Courts 7,000
Judges of District Courts 6,000
Representatives 7,500
Senators 7,500
Ambassadors 17,500
Ministers 10,000
Members of Interstate Commerce Commission 10,000
Members of Federal Trade Commission . . 10,000
Members of Federal Reserve Board . . . 12,000
Members of the Shipping Board .... 7,500
Heads of Bureaus and Divisions . . 3,000 to 6,000
CHAPTER VI
COURTS, STATE AND FEDERAL
UNDER our political system it has been necessary
to establish two separate and distinct systems of
judicial tribunals, State courts and federal courts.
The judges of the State courts in more than three-
fourths of the States are chosen by the voters. In
the other States they are either appointed by the
governor or chosen by the legislature. Their terms
vary in length, the average term being about eight
years. In a very few States they hold office for life.
Federal judges are appointed by the President (196).
Once appointed they cannot be removed except for
cause (106) and then only by the solemn process of
impeachment. Their salaries may not be decreased,
although they may be increased.
The State courts are entirely independent of the
federal courts. They have their own judges and court
officers sheriffs, clerks and prosecuting officers and
their own court-houses. They attend to the judicial
business of the State and cannot be compelled to per-
form judicial duties of a federal nature. Their de-
cisions, however, may be reviewed and reversed by the
federal courts. When one of the parties to a case in
a State court claims that the decision of the court is
37
38 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
contrary to the federal Constitution or to federal law
the ease may be carried over to the federal courts for
trial, but when a case is wholly outside of federal
authority it must receive its final settlement in a State
court.
In the administration of justice in the State it has
been found convenient in all the States to have at
least three grades of courts :
I. The Justice's Court. This court, the lowest in
the series, is held by a justice of the peace and may be
called the court of the neighborhood, for in every com-
munity it is near at hand to administer justice in
small affairs. In it are tried petty misdemeanors and
civil cases involving small sums of money. In the
trial of trivial offenses and of civil cases involving but
a small sum of money the decision of the court is
usually final, but when its judgment inflicts a severe
penalty or involves a considerable sum of money an
appeal may be taken to a higher court. In cities,
police courts, sometimes called municipal, sometimes
magistrates' courts, are often established for the trial
of petty criminal cases.
II. The Circuit or District Court. This is the
tribunal next above the justice's court, and it may be
called the court of the county, for it is held in every
county at the county-seat. It must not be understood,
however, that the jurisdiction of the judges of this
court is limited to a single county. A circuit (or
district) usually includes several counties, and the
judges of a circuit go from county to county to hold
court. In rural districts this court tries both civil
COURTS, STATE AND FEDERAL 39
and criminal cases, but in the larger cities there is
generally a criminal court of corresponding grade for
the trial of the criminal cases. A very large city
often has an elaborate system of courts of its own.
These courts of the second grade are the centers of
most of the judicial activity of the State. In them
are tried the weightier cases of the law. They review
the cases appealed from the justice's court and they
have original jurisdiction in serious criminal cases
and in important civil cases.
It is in these courts, too, that the jury figures most
prominently as an agency of justice. Juries are of two
kinds, grand and petit. The grand jury is a body of
men varying from 12 to 23 in number, chosen by
court officials to inquire whether there have been any
violations of the law in the community and to deter-
mine whether or not these persons under suspicion
should come up for trial. When making an inquiry
into a criminal charge the grand jury sits in secret
and hears only the evidence against the accused. Its
function is not to try the accused, but to decide
whether on the face of things there is sufficient evi-
dence of guilt to warrant a trial. When a majority
of the grand jury are satisfied that the case ought to
be tried the indictment is endorsed with the words
"a true bill/' and the case goes to the petit jury to
be tried. This body (in all the States but one) must
consist of twelve men. It sits in open session, hears
evidence on both sides of the case. During the prog-
ress of the trial questions of law are determined by the
court; the jury determines only questions of fact.
40 THE "WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
After the evidence has all been given and counsel on
both sides of the case have been heard, the jury retires
from the court-room and is locked into a small room
where it remains until it finds a verdict, or until the
judge decides that no verdict will be reached. In
nearly all the States it is required that all the twelve
members shall agree upon the verdict. When no
agreement is reached a new trial may be ordered. As
a general rule it may be said that the verdict of a
jury is decisive.
Juries are chosen from the ordinary citizens in the
neighborhood in which the trial is conducted from
farmers, mechanics, merchants and this is the fea-
ture doubtless that makes trial by jury so popular.
When a man is tried by men who are neither too far
above him nor too far below him to have sympathy
with him, he has a good chance for a fair trial. The
jury system, like every other human institution, has
its defects, but notwithstanding its shortcomings it
is one of the greatest safeguards of civil liberty ever
invented.
III. The Supreme Court. In this court resides
the supreme judicial authority of the State. It gen-
erally sits at the State capital, where it holds sessions
the greater part of the year. Its jurisdiction is for
the most part appellate, although there are a few in-
stances in which it has original jurisdiction. For ex-
ample, a case involving the official action of a State
officer is usually begun in the supreme court. Most
of the cases, however, tried in the supreme court come
up to it from the courts below. When a decision of
COURTS, STATE AND FEDERAL 41
this court conflicts in no way with the federal author-
ity it is final, and is binding upon the people of the
State as long as the State constitution remains un-
changed, but when the decision conflicts with federal
law or with the federal Constitution it may be re-
versed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
In several States where the work of the courts is
unusually heavy there has been inserted between the
court of the second grade and the supreme court an
intermediate appellate court. This additional tri-
bunal has been established to relieve the State supreme
court of some of its burden. The jurisdiction of this
intermediate court is purely appellate, and its deci-
sions are final, except in a few specified cases which
may be carried from it up to the higher court.
In many of the States we find in every county
a probate or surrogate's court sometimes called
the orphans' court. In States where there is no
separate court, the probate business is given to the
county court, an institution found in many States.
This county court in a few States has functions which
are purely judicial and may try misdemeanors and
small civil cases. In six States we find chancery
courts separate from the law courts. In these chan-
cery courts the equity 1 cases are tried. As a rule,
however, equity cases are tried in the regular law
courts of the system.
Judges in courts of equity and in most States the
1 When a civil case is tried before a judge and jury it is a
case at law; when tried before a judge only, it is a case at
equity.
42 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
regular law courts are also courts of equity have the
power to issue the writ of injunction forbidding a
person to do, or commanding him to do, a certain
thing. If the injunction is disobeyed the person dis-
obeying it is liable to punishment. The injunction is
generally used to prevent the commission of wrongs
which could not be prevented by the ordinary work-
ings of a lawsuit. Thus, if a railroad company begins
to lay its tracks across a man ? s property without first
securing a right of way, a judge in a court of equity,
at any time of the day or night, will issue an injunc-
tion forbidding the railroad to continue the laying of
the tracks. In recent cases courts have forbidden
labor leaders and others to induce or coerce working-
men to strike where the strike would cause irreparable
injury and damage to the employers. This use of the
injunction has met with fierce opposition and is re-
garded by many as unwarranted and unjust. The
power of injunction is exercised by federal as well as
by State judges.
In certain cases State judges may issue the writ of
mandamus. This writ is issued to an officer, or cor-
poration, requiring the performance of a public duty
which the officer or corporation has refused to per-
form. The purpose of this important writ is to com-
pel the officer to go forward and do that which his
position plainly requires him to do. Federal judges
also may in certain cases issue the writ of mandamus.
The organization of the federal courts is as follows :
I. The District Courts. The lowest of the federal
courts is the District Court presided over by a district
COURTS, STATE AND FEDERAL 43
judge. In every State there is at least one District
Court and in the larger States there are several. Al-
together there are in the United States about one hun-
dred District Courts. The District Court has original
jurisdiction in nearly all those classes of cases both
civil and criminal which arise under the laws of the
United States. In this court are tried admiralty and
maritime cases, copyright and patent cases, counter-
feit cases, cases arising under the postal laws, cases
arising under the laws regulating immigration, and
naturalization, cases arising under the laws regulating
commerce, and other classes of cases cognizable by the
authority of the United States.
II. The Circuit Courts of Appeal. For the trial
of certain classes of cases upon appeal Congress has
established nine judicial circuits and has provided for
each circuit a court known as the Circuit Court of
Appeals. This court is composed of regular circuit
judges and of judges of the other courts, three judges
being necessary for the trial of a case. To the Circuit
Court of Appeals are brought all appeals from the
District Court except in the five following instances:
(1) When the case involves a question of jurisdiction;
(2) when it involves the construction of the Consti-
tution of the United States; (3) when it involves a
question of the constitutionality of a law; (4) when
it involves the construction of a treaty; (5) when it
involves conviction for higher crimes. These excepted
cases must be taken direct from the District Court to
the Supreme Court. In all other cases than these the
appeal from the District Court lies to the Circuit
44 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
Court of Appeals. The decisions of the Circuit Court
of Appeals are made final in certain enumerated
classes of cases, including copyright, patent and ad-
miralty cases, .thus relieving the Supreme Court en-
tirely of those classes of cases. The cases not enumer-
ated as final are still appealable to the Supreme Court.
III. The Supreme Court, consisting of the Chief
Justice and eight associate justices. This court holds
its regular sessions in the Capitol at Washington,
sitting from October to July. The presence of at least
six judges is required in the trial of a case, and the
judgment of a majority is necessary in rendering a
decision. The Chief Justice presides at the sessions
of the court, but when the court is forming its deci-
sion he is on an equality with the other judges. He
has but one vote, and that is often cast with the
minority. The Supreme Court has original jurisdic-
tion in all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers and
consuls, and in those cases in which a State is one of
the parties to the controversy (110). Its appellate
jurisdiction includes certain cases which are brought
up to it from the Circuit Court of Appeals, and all
those cases which must be brought to it direct from
the District Courts. As there is no higher tribunal
a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
is accepted as being the law of the land.
CHAPTER VII
THE STATE LEGISLATURE
IN outward form, at least, the legisture of one State,
although it may be widely separated by distance, and
although it is created independently, is very much
like that of another State. All legislatures meet at
the State capital ; the upper house is always called the
Senate and is always much smaller than the lower
house, which is usually called the House of Repre-
sentatives; in all the States members must reside in
the district which they represent; in all but eight
States the legislature meets every two years, and in all
but eight the length of its session is limited to a term
that varies from forty to ninety days ; in all the States
the compensation of members is the same for both
houses ; in all the States but one a law passed by the
legislature can be vetoed by the governor, and the
veto can be overcome by a majority vote or by three-
fifths or a two-thirds vote of both houses; in every
State each house is the judge of the qualifications
and election of its own members.
Upon assembling, each house of a newly elected
legislature elects its presiding officer. In the lower
house this officer is called the speaker; in the Senate
he is called chairman or president. In most of the
45
46 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
States there is a lieutenant-governor, who presides in
the Senate but does not vote except where there is a tie.
As soon as a clerk, a sergeant-at-arms, doorkeepers,
messengers and other minor officers have been elected
the presiding officer of each house announces the com-
mittees, which are as numerous as the interests and
subjects that engage the attention of the legislature,
the most important being those on finance, corpor-
ations, municipalities, the judiciary, appropriations,
elections, education, labor, manufactures, agriculture,
railroads. The committees are agencies of the utmost
importance, for they are the channels through which
all legislation must pass.
Any proposed law, called a bill, immediately after it
is introduced and read, is referred to its proper com-
mittee. The committee considers the bill in a private
room where citizens may appear to defend or oppose
it, and if it thinks the bill ought not to become a law
it reports it unfavorably, and thus usually kills it. It
is possible to pass a bill after it has been thus unfavor-
ably reported, but this is rarely done. The judgment
of the committee is practically final. If the bill is
reported favorably its title is read and it is allowed to
pass upon its second reading. In its regular order it
comes up for its third and last reading. Now it is
read in full, amended, perhaps, and voted upon. If
it fails to get a majority of the votes that is probably
the last of it. If it receives a majority of the votes it
is sent to the other branch to be acted upon. Here it
is referred by the presiding officer to its proper com-
mittee, is read three times upon three different days,
THE STATE LEGISLATURE 47
is fully discussed upon its last reading, and is then
voted upon. If it passes without amendments made
in this second branch it goes to the governor to be
signed by him. If it passes with amendment it must
be returned to the house in which it originated to be
voted upon in its amended form. If it passes in the
house in that form it becomes, as far as the legislature
is concerned a law. If there is trouble over the
amendment a joint committee, or conference commit-
tee, consisting of several members from each house, is
appointed to see what can be done to settle the matter.
The action of this committee, if it reaches an agree-
ment, is usually accepted by both houses. A bill may
originate in either house, but, as a rule bills for
raising revenue must originate in the lower house,
because this branch is supposed to be closer to the
taxpayers.
After a bill has passed both houses it is sent to the
governor for his approval. In order to guard against
hasty and unwise legislation, and especially against
encroachments of the legislature upon the other two
departments, the governor, like the President of the
United States, can (in all but one State) forbid the
passage of a bill by his veto. When he does this he
sends the bill back, with his objections stated in writ-
ing, to that branch of the legislature that sent it to
him. The bill may be voted upon again, and if it can
secure the number of votes required by the constitu-
tion in such cases it becomes a law in spite of the
governor's veto.
To make laws effective there must be strong public
48 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
opinion back of them. It is therefore a good demo-
cratic policy to have the people vote upon ordinary
laws. The number of States is constantly increasing
in which this direct legislation by the people is in
practice. The political device by which the people
vote upon the laws is known as the Initiative and
Referendum. The nature of the power which may
thus be exerted may best be learned from a clause
in the constitution of one of the States in which a
system of direct legislation is in full force: "The
legislative authority of this State shall be vested in a
legislature consisting of a senate and a house of repre-
sentatives, but the people reserve to themselves the
power to propose laws and amendments to the consti-
tution and to adopt or reject the same at the polls
independent of the legislature, and also reserve power
at their own option to approve or reject at the polls
any act of the legislature. . . . The first power re-
served to the people is the Initiative and 8 per cent,
of the legal voters shall have the right to propose any
measure, and 15 per cent, of the legal voters shall have
the right to propose amendments to the constitution,
by petition, and every such petition shall include the
full text of the measure proposed. The second power
is the Referendum, and it may be ordered (except as
to laws necessary for the immediate preservation of
the public peace, health, or safety) either by petition
signed by 5 per cent, of the legal voters, or by the
legislature as other bills are enacted. . . . The veto
power of the governor shall not extend to measures
voted upon by the people. . . . Any measure referred
THE STATE LEGISLATURE 49
to the people by the initiative [or the referendum]
shall take effect and be in force when it shall have
been approved by a majority of votes cast in such
election. . . . The referendum may be demanded by
the people against one or more items, sections, or
parts of any act of the legislature, in the same manner
in which such power may be exercised against a com-
plete act/'
The constitutional clause just quoted shows that
the device of the initiative and referendum gives life
and power to the old right of petition. If a consid-
erable number of voters (usually from 5 to 8 per
cent.) in any State desire a certain law, the initiative
enables them by petition to bring the measure before
the electorate to be voted upon. If a considerable
number of voters are opposed to a law passed by the
legislature, the referendum enables them to have the
law referred to decision of the electorate. Thus the
initiative is a positive or constructive force: it en-
ables the voters to secure what they want. The refer-
endum is a negative or preventive force: it enables
voters to veto laws which they do not want.
The general use of the Initiative and Referendum
throughout the country would introduce a new force
into American politics and would profoundly change
the character of American government. What the
results of a general system of direct legislation would
be is of course largely a matter of conjecture. In
Switzerland, where the people have had centuries of
training in public affairs, direct legislation has been
a success. In the United States it is probable that
50 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
the initiative and referendum will succeed only in
those States where the people by instinct and tradi-
tion are intensely democratic, where the popular in-
terest in public affairs is keen, universal and sus-
tained, and where the average of popular intelligence
is very high.
While the use of the initiative and referendum in
the making of State laws is important its use in con-
nection with municipal legislation is even more im-
portant. Everywhere throughout the country it is
becoming the custom to give the voters of cities the
right to manage municipal affairs quite directly
through the means of the initiative and referendum.
This is especially true of those cities that have adopted
the commission form of government.
Closely associated with the initiative and refer-
endum is the device known as the "recall." The aim
of this device is to give the people complete control
over the officers whom they have elected. Where the
recall is in use the voters, upon the complaint or
petition of a certain number of citizens vote upon the
question whether a certain officer shall be deprived of
(recalled from) his office before his term expires, and
if the vote is in favor of the officer's removal he must
give up his office before the end of his term. When
an oiiicer is removed by the operation of the recall,
the vacancy is filled by holding a special election, at
which the officer removed may be a candidate if he
so desires. The recall is in operation in many of the
cities governed by the commission system, and in some
cities not thus governed. In several instances mayors
THE STATE LEGISLATURE 51
of large cities have been removed through the pro-
cedure of the recall. In Oregon, Colorado, Washing-
ton, Kansas, Arizona and California, every State
official is subject to recall. The recall is a mild form
of impeachment. In case of impeachment the ac-
cused officer is tried by the legislature; under the
procedure of the recall the accused is tried by the
whole body of voters.
CHAPTER VIII
THE STATE EXECUTIVE
EVERY State has a governor, (almost every State
has a lieutenant governor), a secretary of state and
a treasurer; almost every State has a comptroller, or
auditor, an attorney-general and a superintendent of
education. The length of the terms of service of these
officers, the manner of their election or appointment,
and their qualifications and salaries are regulated by
the constitution or by statute. Their duties which do
not vary widely from State to State, are as follows :
The Governor. (1) The first duty of the governor
is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
The governor is commander-in-chief of the military
forces of the State, and he can call upon the soldiers to
assist him in enforcing the judgment of a court or in
suppressing riots and disorderly proceedings.
(2) Another duty of the governor is to transmit to
the legisature a message, informing it of the condition
of affairs within the State and suggesting such legis-
lation as he may deem wise. The legislature, how-
ever, is not bound to follow the suggestions made in
the message or even to consider them. If the legis-
lature is not in session and the governor thinks cer-
tain legislation urgent, he may summon it to meet in
52
THE STATE EXECUTIVE 53
extra session and lay before it the measures that de-
mand immediate consideration.
(3) In many States the governor has the pardoning
power which it is his duty to exercise when he thinks
a person has been unjustly convicted of crime. His
pardon may be absolute or he may commute the pun-
ishment. For good reason he may grant reprieves.
In a few States the power of pardon, commutation
and reprieve is not left to the governor, but is vested
in a special body of officers known as the board of
pardons.
(4) In every State it is the duty of the governor to
appoint many officials whose selection is not otherwise
provided for. When an elective official dies or re-
signs before his term ends the governor fills the
vacancy by appointing some one to serve until another
election is held. He also issues writs of election to
fill vacancies when any occur in the representation of
a State in the lower branch of Congress (12). In the
case of a vacancy in the United States Senate the gov-
ernor may issue a writ for a new election or if so au-
thorized by the legislature may make a temporary ap-
pointment to last until the people fill the vacancy by
election (162).
(5) It is the duty of the governor to check hasty
or corrupt or unwise legislation by interposing his
veto. Experience seems to prove that the possession
of the veto power enables the governor to exercise a
wholesome restraint upon the legislature, and ac-
cordingly the veto power is given to him in all the
States but one.
54 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
(6) The governor performs numerous social duties.
He opens fairs, dedicates public buildings, presents
diplomas to the graduates of normal schools and col-
leges, and honors important celebrations and meetings
with his presence.
The Lieutenant-governor. This officer serves when
the governor is out of the State or is incapacitated for
duty. He is ex officio president of the Senate, and
when a vacancy occurs in the governorship he suc-
ceeds to the office. In those States where there is no
lieutenant-governor the president of the Senate
usually succeeds to the governorship in case of a
vacancy.
The Secretary of State records the official acts of
the governor and files the laws passed by the legis-
lature. He has charge of all State papers, of the
journals of the legislature, and of the historical docu-
ments, statuary, paintings, relics, etc., owned by the
State. This officer may properly be called the chief
clerk of the executive department.
The State comptroller or auditor manages the finan-
cial business of the State. He prepares plans for the
improvement and management of revenue, reports
estimates of the revenue and expenditure of the State,
and enforces the prompt collection of taxes. He
keeps an account of all the money paid into the treas-
ury and all drawn from it. Not a dollar can be taken
from the treasury without his order. As a rule it is
his duty to see that those charged with the collection
of revenue of the State are responsible persons and
THE STATE EXECUTIVE 55
are properly bonded. In a few States the comptroller
serves on one or more State boards.
The Stale treasurer has in his keeping the money
paid into the State treasury. His principal duties
are to receive the State funds, place them where they
will be safe, and pay them out as he is ordered by the
comptroller. Like the comptroller, the treasurer
sometimes serves upon State boards.
The Attorney-general is the law officer of the State.
He appears in court for the State and when any execu-
tive officer needs legal advice he may be called upon
for an opinion.
The superintendent of public instruction stands at
the head of the public-school system of the State. He
reports to the governor or to the legislature the con-
dition of educational affairs throughout the State,
visits teachers' institutes and other educational meet-
ings, and delivers lectures upon educational topics, in-
spects schools, suggests methods of teaching and
courses of instruction and promotes the cause of edu-
cation in many ways. In some States he prescribes
the qualifications of teachers and issues their certifi-
cates, and supervises the distribution of the school
funds.
The above officers are found in almost every State.
The governor and lieutenant-governor are always
elected by the people, but the method of choosing the
others varies; sometimes the people elect, sometimes
the governor appoints and sometimes the legislature
elects.
56 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
In addition to these principal officers we find in the
different States such minor officers and boards as
special conditions may require. The titles of these
suggest the nature of their duties and may be men-
tioned without comment :
State insurance commissioner; State librarian; State com-
missioner of agriculture; State inspector of mines; State com-
missioner of immigration; State surveyor; State tax commis-
sioner ; State fire marshall ; State factory inspector ; State
commissioner of fisheries; State dairy inspector; State in-
spector of steam boilers; adjutant-general; State vaccine
physician; State board of health; State board of education;
State board of medical examiners ; State board of public works ;
State board of dentistry; State board of railroad commission-
ers; State highway commission; State board of charities;
State board of pardons; State board of public utilities.
No State has all of the above officers, but every
State has a few of them. Besides the major and
minor officials that have been mentioned there are in
the service of the State such assistants, secretaries,
clerks and employees of various kinds as may be
necessary for the efficient working of the several de-
partments.
CHAPTER IX
COUNTIES, TOWNS, AND TOWNSHIPS
ALTHOUGH county government differs as we go
from State to State there is nevertheless a certain uni-
formity in the organization of counties throughout
the Union. The official outfit of a typical county is as
follows :
I. The Board of County Commissioners or Super-
visors. This is the governing body of the county. It
consists usually of three or more members who serve
for a term varying from one to six years. It holds
its sessions at the county -seat, where all the county
officials have offices. Like most of the other county
officers the commissioners are elected by the people.
In New York, and in several of the western States the
govern ig body of the county the county board of
superv sors consists not of representatives of the
people, as in most States, but of representatives of the
townships. The county commissioners (or super-
visors) usually do the following things:
(1) They fix the rate of taxation for the county.
(2) They appoint tax assessors, tax collectors, road
supervisors, and other subordinate officials.
(3) They make contracts for repairing old roads
and opening new ones, and also for building and re-
pairing bridges.
57
58 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
(4) They make contracts for building and repair-
ing public buildings, such as court-houses, jails and
almshouses.
(5) They appropriate money for the payment of
the salaries of county officers, and for all necessary
expenses of county government.
(6) They represent the county when it is sued for
damages. (All local governments are corporations in
some respect and can be brought into court to defend
a suit as if they were persons.)
II. The Sheriff. This officer has been called the
"arm of the judge. " If the judge orders a man to
be taken to prison, or orders property to be sold, or
sentences a man to be hanged, the sheriff executes the
command. It is his duty also to preserve peace and
order, and when necessary he may call to his aid
deputies. In times of great danger or disturbance he
may call to his aid the posse comitatus, which includes
every able-bodied man in the county. The sheriff
usually lives at the county -seat and has charge of the
county jail and its prisoners.
III. The Clerk of the Circuit, or District Court.
Any court above a police court, or above that of a
justice of the peace, is a "court of record"; that is,
its proceedings are enrolled in permanent form. In
every county there is a court of record, and the keeper
of its records is the clerk of the court, or prothono-
tary. This officer often keeps a record of deeds and
mortgages given in the county, issues marriage certifi-
cates, and records all births and deaths.
IV. The Prolate Court the Orphans' Court. It
COUNTIES, TOWNS, AND TOWNSHIPS 59
is the business of this court to examine the wills of
deceased persons and decide whether they have been
made as wills by law, ought to be made. When a per-
son dies without having made a will, and leaves no one
to take charge of his estate, the probate court will
appoint an administrator to take charge of it. When
a child is left without father or mother, the probate
court will appoint a guardian, who will manage the
estate until the child comes of age. In general, the
business of the probate court is to see that the prop-
erty of the dead falls into rightful hands. In some
States the probate court is called the orphans' court.
In New York and New Jersey it is called the surro-
gate's court.
V. The Recorder, or Register keeps a record of
mortgages, deeds and leases.
VI. Tax Collectors and Assessors.
VII. The County Treasurer pays out as well as re-
ceives all money raised by taxation.
VIII. The Auditor. Sometimes the county elects
an auditor, whose duty it is to examine the books of
the treasurer and other officers and report whether the
public accounts are properly and honestly kept.
IX. The Coroner. When a person is murdered,
or is found dead, or dies mysteriously, this officer takes
charge of the corpse and inquires at once into the
cause of the death. If he thinks there has been foul
play, he summons six or twelve men to act as a jury
and holds a "coroner's inquest." Witnesses are sum-
moned, and the jury after hearing evidence, states the
probable cause of the death.
60 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
X. The State's Attorney is a lawyer whose duty is
to give legal advice to county officers, and to appear
in court at the trial of one who is charged with crime
and present the side of the State. This officer is
sometimes called a district attorney or prosecuting
attorney ; sometimes he is called the solicitor.
XL. The Superintendent of Schools is the execu-
tive officer of the school system of the county. He
sets the examinations for teachers, visits the different
schools of the county, and inspects their work. He
grades the work of the schools and devotes his time to
improving them in every way he can.
XII. The Surveyor makes surveys of land when
the county has need of such.
In New England, in the Middle States, and in most
of the States of the West, the county shares the busi-
ness of local government with a minor civil division
known as the town or township.
In New England a most important unit of local
government is the town and the central fact of town
government is the town meeting. Once a year all the
qualified voters of the town meet together to discuss
measures relating to town affairs and take action
thereon. At the town meeting the rate of taxation is
fixed; money is appropriated for the necessary ex-
pense of town government; by-laws are passed for
the regulation of local matters ; and town officers are
elected. The most important town officers are: the
selectmen, the town clerk, the town treasurer, asses-
sors and collectors of taxes and overseers of the poor.
The selectmen are the governing body in the town.
COUNTIES, TOWNS, AND TOWNSHIPS 61
In the Middle States and in most of the States in
the West the county shares the business of local gov-
ernment with a minor civil division known as the
township. The presence of townships in the county
results in a compromise system of local government
often called the county -township system. Under this
system the county government attends to those affairs
which interest the whole body of the people of the
county, while the township administers the affairs of
a small area.
The township has been found to be an institution
of great convenience. For a sparsely settled society
the county is, perhaps, the only practicable form of
government ; but as population increases the needs of
the neighborhood multiply, and many of these needs
are such as can be attended to by the people directly
interested if they only have the power granted to
them. It is not necessary to travel twenty miles to
the county-seat to see an officer about the repair of a
washout in a road, or about the purchase of a stove
for a school-house, when we can have a government
near at hand to attend to such things. The township
has been introduced as an agency by which the needs
of the immediate locality may be attended to.
Especially has the public school been a factor in the
development of the township system. Local govern-
ment in the South developed around a court-house,
and in New England around a church ; in the Middle
States and in the West it developed around a school-
house. Then, too, the care of the roads, and the sup-
port of the poor are services that may most conven-
62 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
iently be rendered by the neighborhood government.
The powers of the township vary slightly in the
different States,, but as a rule where the county-town-
ship system prevails the township (1) supports the
public schools, (2) cares for the roads and (3) helps
the poor, leaving other matters of local government to
the county. The taxes necessary for doing these
things are levied by township authority.
The organization of township government differs
greatly as we pass from State to State. In some
States, as in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa,
Minnesota, and the Dakotas, there is at the head of
the township government a committee or a board of
supervisors or trustees consisting of several persons,
the number varying from three to eleven. In New
York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Mis-
souri, Kansas and Oklahoma there is at the head of
the township a single officer known as the supervisor,
or trustee. In Wisconsin this officer is known as the
town chairman. These supervisors or trustees have
general charge of township affairs, although their
powers and duties vary considerably as we pass from
State to State.
Besides the head executive officers (or officer) there
is usually a township clerk who keeps the records of
the township ; a township assessor ; a township auditor
who examines the accounts of the township ; a justice
of the peace ; one or more constables ; overseers of the
poor; and election officers. In most instances town-
ship officers are elected by the people.
CHAPTER X
MUNICIPALITIES
MUNICIPAL corporations may be divided into two
classes. In the first class may be included all those
chartered communities, that have a simple form of
organization, limited local powers, and a small popu-
lation, although population of itself is an untrust-
worthy guide for their classification. Such communi-
ties bear different names in different parts of the
country. In Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsyl-
vania they are called boroughs. In the Southern
States they are generally called towns, while in the
West they are usually known as villages. In Indiana,,
Iowa and Colorado they are called towns.
The organization and powers of a village (or town,
or borough) do not differ widely in the different
States. Most of the officers are elected by the voters
of the village. The governing body consists of a
president, or mayor, or chief burgess, and a body of
three or more trustees or burgesses or commissioners.
In addition to these there is always a clerk, and fre-
quently a treasurer, tax collector, a constable, a justice
of the peace and a board of street commissioners.
The village government usually renders the following:
services :
63
64 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
(1) It keeps the peace.
(2) It holds a court for the trial of minor civil and
criminal cases.
(3) It keeps the streets in order and provides good
sidewalks.
(4) It lights the streets.
(5) It furnishes a supply of water.
(6) It supports the public schools.
(7) It cares for the public health.
(8) It purchases apparatus for the extinguishing
of fires.
The second class of municipalities is the cities. A
city is almost always an enlarged town or village, and
in outward appearance it is sometimes difficult to dis-
tinguish a small city from a large town, although be-
tween the governments of the two there is a sharp
difference. The government of the city is more com-
plex than that of town, its powers are greater, its
officers are more numerous, and its local independence
is more clearly defined. At what point in its growth
a town or village shall cast off its simple organization
and assume the dignity of cityhood depends upon
State law. In many States a place must have ten
thousand or more inhabitants before it is entitled to
the privileges of a city, while in other States we find
cities with less than three thousand inhabitants.
There are two well defined types of city government
in the United States, the council system and the
commission system.
The Council System. In most American cities the
municipal power is divided and given to a city council
MUNICIPALITIES 65
or board of aldermen and a mayor, the council
exercising the legislative power, and the mayor ex-
ercising the executive power. This organization is
usually known as the council system.
The organization of the city council varies with
the temper of State legislatures and with the theories
of municipal reformers. It is always a representative
body and its members are usually elected from
municipal divisions known as wards. In a very
few cities the council consists of two branches; in
others it consists of a single body. The term of
office of a councilman or alderman is some-
times as short as one year but it is never longer
than four years. The council as the legislature of
the city regulates the almost innumerable activities
of the city government. A perusal of its proceedings
as reported in the daily newspapers will show how
closely its actions are connected with the daily life of
the urban resident. Its laws, called ordinances, af-
fect profoundly the health, safety, peace, comfort,
prosperity, intelligence and morality of the city.
In cities where the council system prevails the
executive power is vested in a mayor who is elected
by the voters for a term varying from one to four
years. The powers and duties of the mayor within
the city are comparable to those of the governor within
the State. The chief duty of the mayor is to cany
into effect the laws affecting the municipality. Asso-
ciated with the mayor in the executive branch of a
large city, there are numerous heads of departments
and boards. Some of these are elected by the people,
66 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
others are appointed by the mayor; in a few States
some of them (for example, the police and health
commissioners) are appointed by the governor, or by
the State legislature. Serving under these chiefs and
boards are assistants and employees, the number of
whom increases with the size of the city, and some-
times consists of many thousands. A well organized
city will usually have such departments and officers
and boards as are indicated by the following outline :
(1) Department of Finance: comptroller, board of
estimates, collector of taxes.
(2) Department of Law: city solicitor, or attorney.
(3) Department of Public Safety: board of fire
commissioners, commissioner of health, inspector of
buildings, commissioner of streets.
(4) Department of Public Improvement: city en-
gineer, water board, inspector of boilers.
(5) Department of Parks and Squares: board of
park commissioners.
(6) Department of Education: board of school
commissioners, superintendent of schools.
(7) Department of Charities and Correction: trus-
tees of the poor, supervisors of city charities.
(8) Department of Taxes and Assessment: court
of taxes and assessment.
(9) Board of Police Commissioners.
(10) Miscellaneous: city librarian, superintendent
of lamps and lighting, surveyor, constables, superin-
tendent of public buildings, public printer.
In every large city there is a system of courts ex-
tending from the police or magistrate court up to the
MUNICIPALITIES 67
higher courts, but the judges of these courts, although
they may be elected by the people of the city, are not
strictly officers of the municipal government. Justice
is administered in the name of the State, and the judi-
cial department of a city is merely a portion of the
State judiciary acting within the borders of the city.
Appeals from courts of the city are taken to the
supreme court of the State.
The Commission System. In many of our cities the
municipal power both legislative and executive is
vested in a single body, usually known as a commis-
sion, although this body is sometimes called the city
council. This system of municipal organization
originated in Galveston after the great inundation of
1900. The success of Galveston with the commission
system led to its adoption in other cities. At the pres-
ent time more than 400 cities are governed by the
commission plan. Under the commission system the
governing body usually consists of five commission-
ers (or councilmen) elected by the voters of the city
at large, there being no ward lines recognized in the
selection or in the election of this commission. Party
lines as well as ward lines are disregarded in the elec-
tion of the commission, for candidates are nominated
without the aid of party machinery and the election is
conducted without regard to partisan results. One
member of the commission is the mayor who presides
at the meetings of the commission (council) but who
has no power to veto any measure. The commission
passes the ordinances for the government and ad-
ministration of the city and also carries the ordinances
68 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
into effect. The executive and administrative author-
ity and duties are distributed among several depart-
ments. These departments are usually five in num-
ber and are known as (1) the department of public
affairs, (2) the department of accounts and finances,
(3) the department of public safety, (4) the depart-
ment of streets and public improvements, and (5)
the department of parks and public property. At
the head of each of these departments is placed one
of the members of the commission, who is the super-
intendent of his department and who is responsible
for its workings. The mayor, by virtue of his office, is
the superintendent of the department of public affairs.
The superintendents of the other four departments are
designated by a majority vote of the commission itself.
All city offices such as the city clerk, the solicitor, the
assessor, the treasurer, the auditor, the chief of the
fire department and the like, are appointed by the
commission.
Thus it is seen that under the commission plan very-
great power is lodged in a small body of men. But
the commission (council) is not likely often to abuse
its power for wherever the commission system has
been installed the people have usually reserved for
themselves the powers residing in the initiative and
referendum, and in the recall. Where these devices
are in operation the commission is held directly re-
sponsible and accountable to the electorate.
A considerable number of cities have adopted a
form of government known as the city manager plan.
This has for its aim a greater concentration of the
MUNICIPALITIES 69
executive authority than that provided by the com-
mission form. Where the city manager plan has
been adopted the entire administration of the affairs
of the city is entrusted to a single officer the city
manager appointed by an elective- commission or
council. The power of the city manager sometimes
[or] in some cases extends even to the appointment
of all the city officers and employees; the activities
of the council being confined strictly to the passage of
ordinances.
CHAPTER XI
THE TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES OF THE
UNITED STATES
ALL territory not included within the boundaries
of a State, yet subject to the dominion of the United
States, is wholly dependent upon Congress for its
governmental powers (119). This is a fundamental
principle underlying all questions relating to the
government of territory subject to the sovereignty of
the United States and not included within a State.
When planning for the government of federal terri-
tory from time to time, Congress has dealt with each
case according to its merits. Now it has permitted a
newly acquired possession to enter into an immediate
enjoyment of statehood ; now it has provided liberally
for local self-government; now it has held the reins
of government tightly in its own hands. This policy
of giving to each community a government suitable to
its needs has led to the establishment of so many dif-
ferent kinds of governments in the Territories and
Dependencies that a satisfactory classification of them
cannot be made. Nevertheless, the inferior govern-
ments may be conveniently studied under two head-
ings, namely: (1) Territories and Dependencies on
the American Continent, and (2) Insular Territories
and Dependencies.
70
TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 71
The Territories and Dependencies on the American
Continent are: The District of Columbia, ceded to
the United States by Maryland in 1790 as the perma-
nent seat of the Federal Government; Alaska, pur-
chased from Russia in 1866 ; Indian Reservations and
National Parks; the Panama Canal Strip.
I. The District of Columbia. The government of
the District of Columbia is, by the Constitution,
vested exclusively in Congress (61). Several methods
of governing the District had been tried when in 1878
Congress established the present form of government.
The District is governed by a board of three com-
missioners appointed by the President. Two of the
commissioners must be appointed from civil life, and
one must be an officer of the army. This board exer-
cises not only the executive power, but acts in many
respects as a legislature, Its reasonable regulations
in respect to matters affecting the life, health and com-
fort of the people have the force of laws. Although
Washington the District of Columbia is but another
name for the city of Washington has no distinct
legislature of its own, it nevertheless enjoys the serv-
ices of the greatest legislative body of the country,
for Congress keeps its eye upon the affairs of the
District and devotes certain days to the consideration
of District business. When legislating for the Dis-
trict, Congress acts as a city council, and visitors to
the Capitol may hear senators and representatives
discussing topics of local government as the repair-
ing the streets or the regulation of trolley lines or the
adjustment of teachers' salaries.
72 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
The judicial system of the District consists of a
court of appeals, a regular trial court called the
supreme court, and a police court for the trial of
petty offenses and municipal regulations. Justices of
the peace are provided for the trial of certain kinds
of civil cases. All these judicial officers are appointed
by the President.
The District of Columbia has no delegate in Con-
gress, and no provision whatever has been made for
the expression of the popular will in a law-making
body. The inhabitants of the District are citizens of
the United States.
II. Alaska. After neglecting this region for a
long time Congress at last, in 1900, provided for it a
code of laws and a suitable form of government. In
1912 Congress vested the legislative power of the
Territory of Alaska in an elective Legislature consist-
ing of a senate and a house of representatives. The
governor of the Territory is appointed by the Presi-
dent. The governor has the veto power but his veto
may be over-ruled by a two-thirds vote of all the
members of each house. All laws passed by the Terri-
torial legislature must be transmitted by the governor
to the President of the United States and by him sub-
mitted to Congress. If a law of the Territorial Legis-
lature is disapproved by Congress it becomes null and
void. In addition to the governor, Alaska has as its
other executive officers a secretary of territory, a
treasurer, and a superintendent of education. The
Territory is divided into four judicial divisions with
a judge for en eh division.
TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 73
Alaska has a territorial delegate in the House of
Representatives at Washington. The delegate is the
political tie which binds the Territory to the federal
government. The territorial delegate is elected every
two years by popular vote. He has a right to a seat
in the House of Representatives and receives the same
salary as other members of Congress. He serves on
committees and may speak on all questions pertaining
to his Territory, but he has no vote.
III. Indian Reservations and National Parks. In
the management of the territory that has been under
its control the National government has from time
to time marked off and reserved certain lands for the
use of the Indians. Scattered over the country there
are in all about 150 of these Indian reservations.
Some of them have a very large area. The Navajo
reservation in Arizona has an area considerably larger
than the State of Maryland. An Indian reservation
is a kind of Dependency of the United States. The
tribes living on a reservation are under the control
of Congress. The National government protects the
Indians on the reservation against injustice at the
hands of the white man, gives them food supplies, and
supports schools among them. The interests of the
Indians on the reservations are looked after by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, one of the bureaus in the
Department of the Interior.
In the management of its public domain the
National government has also set off several large
tracts of land to be used as parks. These national
parks are in some instances of vast extent. The Yel-
74 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
lowstone National Park has an area nearly half as
great as that of Massachusetts.
IV. The Panama Canal Strip. This consists of a
zone of land of the width of ten miles, extending to
the distance of five miles on each side of the central
line of the route of the Panama Canal. The region
has been placed under the control of a governor who
is appointed by the President. The canal itself is
absolutely neutral, being free and open to the vessels
of commerce and war of all nations. The toll rates
on the canal are the same for the vessels of all nations
and the vessels of no nation, not even those of the
United States, are exempted from the payment of
tolls. It is provided by treaties that the canal shall
never be blockaded and that no act of hostility shall
ever be committed in it. Warships must pass through
the canal with the least possible delay and no bellig-
erent vessel while in the canal may embark or dis-
embark troops or munitions of war.
The Insular Territories and Dependencies are:
Hawaii, annexed by a joint resolution of Congress
in 1898 (July 7) ; Porto Rico, occupied July 25,
1898, by military forces of the United States under
General Miles; the Philippine Islands, occupied
August 13, 1898, by military forces under Admiral
Dewey; Guam, seized by the United States navy
during the war with Spain in 1898 ; the Virgin Islands
acquired from Denmark in 1917.
I. Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands are governed
under the name of "The Territory of Hawaii" by an
act of Congress passed in 1900. This act provides
TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 75
that the Territory shall have a properly elected legis-
lature of two houses. The powers of the territorial
legislature are similar to those of a State legislature.
A law of the territorial legislature can be annulled by
Congress. The executive power of the Territory is
vested in a governor appointed by the President of the
United States for a term of four years. The powers
and duties of the Governor correspond very closely
to those of a governor of a State. Other executive
officers provided for are a secretary of the Territory,
an attorney-general, a treasurer, a commissioner of
public works, a superintendent of public instruction,
a surveyor and an auditor. These are appointed by
the governor of the Territory and confirmed by the
territorial senate. The judicial power of the territory
is vested in a supreme court and in circuit courts.
The judges of both the supreme court and of the
circuit courts are appointed by the President of the
United States. The legislature is empowered to pro-
vide for Hawaii a system of local government con-
sisting of counties, towns and municipalities. Hawaii,
like Alaska, has a Delegate in the House of Repre-
sentatives. The inhabitants of Hawaii are citizens of
the United States.
II. Porto Rico. The organic act establishing the
present government of the island was passed by Con-
gress in 1917. The act contains a bill of rights which
accords to the citizens of Porto Rico civil rights similar
to those enjoyed by citizens of the United States.
Legislative power in the island is vested in a legisla-
ture consisting of a senate and a house of representa-
76 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
lives. Both senators and representatives are elected
by the voters. A law passed by the legislature may
be vetoed by the governor but the veto may be over-
ruled, and if it is overruled the law is sent to the
President for approval or disapproval. The executive
power in the island is vested in a governor appointed
by the President. The President also appoints an at-
torney general and a commissioner of education. A
treasurer, a commissioner of the interior, a commis-
sioner of agriculture and labor and a commissioner
of health are appointed by the governor.
The judicial system of the island consists of a
Supreme Court composed of judges appointed for life
or good behavior by the President ; of district courts
presided over by judges appointed by the governor;
and of municipal courts whose judges are elected by
the people.
The organic act for Porto Rico provides that the
voters of the island every two years shall elect a
commissioner, who shall be entitled to official recog-
nition as such by all the departments at Washington.
This commissioner in the intention of the law is
plainly not a delegate, yet by the grace of the House
of Representatives he has been accorded the right to
speak in that body and to serve on its committees.
For all practical purposes, therefore, he is in reality a t
territorial Delegate, although Porto Rico can hardly
be said to be a Territory, for it is not a part of the
United States. Under the act of 1917 inhabitants of
Porto Rico not citizens of a foreign country were de-
clared to be citizens of the United States.
TERRITORIES AND DEPENDENCIES 77
III. The Philippine Islands. Congress has given
to the Filipinos the form of government which has
seemed best suited to their needs, changing the form
from time to time as conditions on the islands have
changed. At present (1918) the legislative power in
the Philippines is vested in the Philippine Legislature,
which consists of two houses, a senate and a house of
representatives. Both senators and representatives
are elected by the qualified voters. The members of
both houses of the Legislature must be residents of the
islands. Any law enacted by the Legislature must be
affirmed by the Governor General, who may veto
a law, but whose veto may be overruled by the Legis-
lature. A law passed over the head of the Governor
General is sent to the President for approval or dis-
approval. If the President approves it becomes a
law; if not, it does not become a law. The executive
power in the island is vested in the Governor General
of the Philippine Islands, an officer appointed by the
President.
The Philippine Islands have no delegate in Con-
gress, yet they are permitted to send to Washington
two commissioners who appear before the committees
of Congress and represent the interests of the Islands.
The judicial system of the Islands includes a su-
preme court, consisting of a chief justice and six
associate justices, courts of general trial for the prov-
inces, and justices' courts for the municipalities.
The judges of the supreme court are appointed by the
President of the United States, but the judges of the
provincial courts and the justices of the peace are
78 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
appointed by the governor of the island. Cases may
be carried by appeal from the supreme court of the
island to the Supreme Court of the United States.
IV. Guam and Samoa (Tutuila). Governmental
power in these islands is vested in the naval officers
who happen to be in command of the naval station.
As a matter of fact the inhabitants of the islands in
a large degree govern themselves. At times, how-
ever, it is necessary for the naval officer to interpose
his authority, and upon such occasions his orders have
the force of laws.
V. The Virgin Islands. These islands, purchased
(in 1917) from Denmark and acquired as a base for
naval operations, are under the direct control of the
Navy Department.
CHAPTER XII
PARTY ORGANIZATION
IN almost every township, village, election district,
and city ward, each of the great parties has its perma-
nent local committee of management. Likewise it
has its permanent county, city and State committees.
Above all these it has a permanent National Commit-
tee, consisting of one member from each of the States.
and Territories.
These permanent committees do the heavy work of
politics. Indeed, they do all the work of politics ex-
cept the voting. They issue calls for the nominating
conventions to be described below; they organize po-
litical clubs ; they arrange for political mass meetings
and processions; they solicit funds for conducting
campaigns; they urge voters to register, and then
urge them to come to the polls; in many other ways
they promote and defend the interests of the party,
through good and ill report, after defeat as well as
after success.
The chief task of the permanent committees is to
keep the nominating machinery of the party in mo-
tion. The nomination of candidates is accomplished
in two ways, by the direct vote of the members of the
party, and by the action of party conventions. Under
79
80 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
the plan of direct nominations the voters go to a pri-
mary meeting, which is managed in practically the
same way as a regular election, and vote directly for
the candidates whom they wish to represent their
party at the next election. In other words, under
the direct system the voters select their own party
candidates ; they do not entrust the selection to party
representatives, or to the action of party conventions.
When county officers, for example, are to be nomi-
nated, the voters of a party, instead of electing dele-
gates to a county convention authorized to nominate
these officers, express their choice for candidates at
primary elections held throughout the county, and the
candidates who win at the primaries are put on the
ticket as the regular party nominees. If a candidate
for governor is to be chosen the voters of the party
throughout the State express their choice at the
primaries and the person most in favor at the pri-
maries becomes the regular party candidate for gov-
ernor.
The direct method of nominating candidates has
been adopted by a majority of the States and in many
States it extends to the nomination of all candidates,
from the lowest to the highest.
In some of the States candidates for the higher
offices are nominated by the conventions composed of
party representatives or delegates. Under this system
a candidate for sheriff for example is nominated at a
county convention composed of delegates chosen at
primary meetings which have been held throughout
the county. When a candidate for a State office is
PARTY ORGANIZATION 81
to be nominated as, for example, a candidate for
governor, the county (or city) conventions through-
out the State send delegates to a State convention
which nominates the candidates for governor.
Party organization in the United States was built
up while men were finding a way to nominate a candi-
date for the Presidency and the Presidential nomina-
tion is still the central object of party activity. Since
this is so, party organization may be best understood
by following the workings of a party in a presidential
year.
In the States which have adopted the plan of direct
nomination each of the great parties by a direct vote
of its members elect delegates to the National Conven-
tion which nominates the party candidates for Presi-
dent and Vice-President. In a few States at the pri-
maries at which these delegates are chosen the voters
are given an opportunity to express their preference
in respect to presidential candidates.
The meetings and conventions in states where the
convention system is in operation will now be de-
scribed.
I. The Primary or Caucus. In the spring of a
presidential year the permanent local committees of
the lowest grade, in response to an order which has
come down to them through the State committee from
the National Committee, call upon the voters of the
party within the town or election precinct or ward, to
take action in a primary meeting sometimes called a
caucus upon matters relating to the nomination of a
candidate for President. At this Primary meeting
82 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
delegates to a county (or city) convention are elected.
For many years the primary, like the entire party or-
ganization, was an extralegal, voluntary institution.
It was controlled by rules made by party managers
and whether it was conducted honestly or otherwise
was not an affair of governmental concern. If at the
primary election there was cheating or irregularities
no one could be punished. But in recent years, in
most of the States, primaries have been placed under
the control of the law and have been conducted as
regularly and as honestly as other elections are con-
ducted.
II. The County (or City) Convention. The dele-
gates chosen at the local primary are sometimes in-
structed to act in the interest of a certain man as the
party candidate for President, and sometimes they are
left free to act as their judgments direct. In a short
time after the primary election they assemble
(usually at the county-seat) as the county convention
of the party which they represent. This body, con-
sisting perhaps of forty or fifty men, elects three or
four or five delegates to represent the party in a
State convention. If the county convention is in fa-
vor of a certain man for President it may instruct
these delegates for this man in the State convention.
III. The State Convention. A few weeks after the
county convention, delegates from all the counties
(and cities 1 ) assemble at some convenient place as
i In a city each ward in primary meeting sends delegates to
a city convention and this body elects delegates to the State
convention to meet with the delegates from the counties.
PARTY ORGANIZATION 83
the State convention of the party. This body, con-
sisting sometimes of several hundred men, passes reso-
lutions expressing the political views of the party in
the State, names its choice for presidential candidate
if it happens to have a choice and elects delegates
to a National Convention, the number of delegates
allotted to each State being twice the number of its
representatives in both Houses of Congress. 2 Some-
times it also selects candidates for presidential elec-
tors. Although the men in this convention are sev-
eral degrees removed from the voting mass, yet if the
sentiment at the primaries is pronounced and def-
inite it will find expression in the State convention.
If, on the other hand, the voters at the primaries
give no direct indication of their will the delegates
in the higher conventions must act according to their
judgment.
IV. The National Convention. In June or July,
all the State conventions having been held, the dele-
gates from the States (and Territories) assemble as
the great National Convention. This body, consist-
ing of more than a thousand men, meets in some con-
venient city, and after several days of discussion,
expresses the views of the party upon public ques-
In some States the delegates elected at the city primaries go
straight to the State convention or to a congressional district
convention.
2 In most of the States the State convention elects only
four delegates (called delegates at large) to the National Con-
vention, the other delegates being elected at congressional dis-
trict conventions, two delegates being chosen from each dis-
trict. Where this is the practice the district convention se-
lects a candidate for presidential elector.
84 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
tions in the shape of a platform and chooses candi-
dates for President and Vice-President.
After all the political parties have named their
candidates the struggle for election begins. Political
meetings are held, the claims of the candidates are
urged, the platforms are explained and defended, and
everything that can be done to influence voters is
done.
The campaign, with all its faults, is a most whole-
some element in our public life. It is the school-time
of democracy. By it, men's attention is strongly at-
tracted to public affairs, civic spirit is awakened, and
voters are educated. The greatest objection to length-
ening the presidential term is that to do so would be
to deprive the people of the great educational advan-
tage of frequent presidential campaigns.
The campaign continues until the election day,
the first Tuesday after the first Monday in No-
vember, when the voters render their decision.
They do not vote for a President directly, but for
electors as the Constitution provides (146). Since
these electors are nominated and elected by a party
they are morally bound to vote for the candidate of
the party which elected them, and no elector has ever
proved unfaithful to the party that elected him. The
President is, therefore, really elected at the polls.
The electors chosen in November meet in their re-
spective States on the second Wednesday in Jan-
uary and vote for President and Vice-President.
The results of this vote are despatched from the
several States to the President of the Senate
PARTY ORGANIZATION 85
at Washington and on the second Wednesday in
February Congress meets to count the votes. The
person receiving the majority of the votes cast for
President is declared to be elected, and the person
receiving the majority of the votes cast for Vice-Presi-
dent is declared to be elected. When no person re-
ceives a majority of all the electoral votes, the Con-
stitution provides that the House of Representatives
shall choose a President and the Senate a Vice-Presi-
dent, and states precisely how the election shall be
conducted (148).
CHAPTER
POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS
DIFFERENCES of opinion on national issues have
caused the organization of a number of political par-
ties in the United States. Of the parties now in
existence the Democratic is the oldest, dating back
to the time of Jefferson. It was first known as the
Democratic-Republican party. In 1824 there came a
split and the Democratic party as organized in 1828-
1831 is stated by some authorities as the real begin-
ning of the present Democratic party.
As a direct result of the passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska bill, making slavery possible in the north,
the Republican party came into being in 1854.
Actuated by a desire for national and State legis-
lation to stop the liquor traffic, the Prohibition party
was organized in 1869 and nominated its first na-
tional ticket in 1872.
The Socialist-Labor party, organized as a propa-
ganda society in 1877, decided in 1890 on permanent
independent political action. It differs from the So-
cialist party in advocating a complete reconstruction
of government, replacing Congress by a parliament
elected by industries or occupations instead of by
localities, and direct democratic control of industry
by the workers employed therein.
86
POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS 87
In 1888 a faction which believed in political action
as a working class party left the Social Democracy
and in 1890 with a group of the Socialist Labor party
organized the present Socialist party.
The organization of the Progressive party in 1912
was caused by discontent in the Republican party.
A statement of reform principles has been an-
nounced by the National party, formed in 1917.
Party Principles. Each political party, at its na-
tional and state conventions, adopts a platform de-
claring its principles. Before affiliating with a party,
the citizen should not only study carefully the princi-
ples outlined in the platforms, but should note whether
the parties through their elected candidates put these
policies into effect.
At their 1916 conventions, both Republican and
Democratic parties declared for the protection of the
American citizen and for the enforcement of the Mon-
roe doctrine, although they differed as to the methods
by which these ends may be attained. Both
platforms approved friendly and helpful inter-rela-
tions of Pan-American countries, the conservation of
natural resources, provision for national defense, econ-
omy in government and the budget system, upholding
the civil service regulations and the extension of
suffrage to women.
Democratic Platform. The Democratic party re-
affirmed its belief in tariff for revenue and en-
dorsed the Underwood tariff bill as exemplifying that
doctrine. It endorsed the pending shipping bill. It
commended the current administration (Demo-
88 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
cratie) for its legislation on behalf of the farmer. It
stated that the Federal Government should put into
effect these "principles of just employment" and
should urge them in State legislation : "A living wage
for all employees ; a working day not to exceed eight
hours, with one day of rest in seven ; the adoption of
safety appliances and the establishment of thoroughly
sanitary conditions of labor; adequate compensation
for industrial accidents; the standards of the 'Uni-
form Child Labor Law' wherever minors are em-
ployed; such provisions for decency, comfort and
health in the employment of women as should be ac-
corded the mothers of the race; an equitable retire-
ment law providing for the retirement of superannu-
ated and disabled employees of the civil service to
the end that a higher standard of efficiency may be
maintained."
It favored ' ' the speedy enactment of a Federal Child
Labor Law," "the regulation of the shipment of
prison-made goods in interstate commerce," "the
creation of a Federal Bureau of Safety in the De-
partment of Labor," "the extension of the powers
and functions of the Federal Bureau of Mines," "the
development upon a systematic scale of the means
already begun under the present administration to
assist laborers throughout the Union to seek and ob-
tain employment," public health work, the establish-
ment by the Federal Government of sanatoriums for
needy tubercular patients, the alteration of the Sen-
ate rules to secure prompt transaction of business.
Self-government for the Philippine Islands was en-
POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS 89
dorsed. These principles of prison reform were
urged: Training in remunerative occupations, the
setting apart of the net wages of the prisoner for his
dependent family or to be paid to him upon his re-
lease, the liberal extension of the principles of the
Federal Parole Law and the adoption of the proba-
tion system. Generous pensions for soldiers and their
widows were recommended. The development of har-
bors and waterways was favored and the control of
the Mississippi River was stated as a national problem
to be handled by the National Government. Legisla-
tion for the development of Alaskan resources was
pledged and the granting of the United States tradi-
tional territorial government to Alaska, Hawaii and
Porto Rico was favored.
Republican Platform. The Republican platform
condemned the Democratic policy of granting self-
government to the Philippine Islands immediately and
reaffirmed its policy of government by the United
States with constantly increasing participation by
the Philippine people. It reiterated its approval of
treaties recognizing the absolute right of expatriation
and pledged itself to maintaining the right of asylum.
It repeated its belief in a protective tariff and con-
demned the Underwood tariff bill. It expressed be-
lief in ' ' rigid supervision and strict regulation of the
transportation and great corporations of the country"
and "that all who violate the laws in regulation of
business should be individually punished." The
Democratic policy in this regard was condemned as
involving "the Government in business which should
90 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
be left within the sphere of private enterprise and in
direct competition with its own citizens."
It declared that the Democratic administration had
not made good its claims of beneficial legislation for
rural credits and extension of rural free delivery and
pledged itself to accomplish these things. It disap-
proved the Government ownership of vessels proposed
by the Democratic party and instead favored liberal
payments to ships in the foreign trade for services in
carrying the mails, and the passage of other legisla-
tion to aid the merchant marine. It recommended
the placing of the entire transportation system of the
country under Federal control.
It pledged the party to faithful enforcement of all
Federal laws passed for the protection of labor, de-
clared for vocational education, the enactment and
rigid enforcement of a Federal child labor law, the
enactment of a generous and comprehensive work-
man's compensation law, within the commerce power
of Congress; an accident compensation law covering
all Government employees, and legislation for public
safety.
Socialist Platform. The Socialist platform stated:
* l The Socialist party as the political expression of the
economic interests of the working class calls upon
them to take a determined stand on the question of
militarism and war, and to recognize the opportunity
which the Great War has given them of forcing dis-
armament and furthering the cause of industrial free-
dom." It further declared, "Socialism admits the
private ownership and individual direction of all
POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS 91
things, tools, economic processes and functions which
are individualistic in character, and requires the col-
lective ownership and democratic control and direc-
tion of those which are social or collectivistic in char-
acter."
The platform recommended as peace measures "that
all laws and appropriations for the increase of the
military and naval forces of the United States shall
be immediately repealed," that the power to fix for-
eign policies and conduct diplomatic negotiations be
lodged in Congress, exercised publicly and that the
people be free by referendum at any time to order
Congress to change its policy: that no war be de-
clared or waged by the United States at any time
without a referendum vote of the entire people, except
for the purpose of repelling invasion; the abandon-
ment of the Monroe doctrine, immediate self-govern-
ment for the Philippine Islands, the calling by the
Government of a congress of all neutral nations to
mediate for lasting peace and to arrange for an In-
ternational Congress with power to adjust disputes
between nations and to guarantee equal rights to all
oppressed nations and races.
The political demands in the platform were out-
lined as: Equal suffrage for men and women, the
adoption of the Susan B. Anthony suffrage amend-
ment, the initiative, referendum and recall and pro-
portional representation, national and local; aboli-
tion of the Senate and veto power of the President,
election of President and Vice-President by direct
vote of the people, provision for the amendment of the
92 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
National Constitution by a majority of the voters, a
convention to revise the National Constitution, aboli-
tion of the power of the Supreme Court to pass upon
the constitutionality of legislation enacted by Con-
gress, the only repeal for such legislation to be by
Congress or referendum vote of the whole people;
abrogation of the power of the courts to issue injunc-
tions, election of all judges to United States courts
for short terms, free administration of the law, suf-
frage for the District of Columbia with representation
in Congress and a democratic form of municipal gov-
ernment for purely local affairs, extension of demo-
cratic government to all United States territory, free-
dom of the press, speech and assemblage, increase of
income and corporation taxes and extension of inher-
itance tax, general educational measures, vocational
education, health measures, abolition of monopoly
ownership of patents in favor of collective ownership
with direct royalty rewards to inventors.
The industrial demands were: A shortened work
day, freedom of political and economic organization
and activities, a rest period of not less than a day
and a half in each week, more effective inspection of
workshops, factories and mines, employment forbid-
den for those under eighteen years old, interstate
transportation of child labor products and products
of uninspected factories and mines forbidden, min-
imum wage scales, old age pensions, state insurance
against unemployment and sickness, compulsory in-
surance by employers of their workers, without cost
POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS 93
to the latter, against industrial diseases, accidents and
death; mothers' pensions.
Prohibition Platform. The Prohibition platform
declared primarily for national and state legislation to
stop the liquor traffic. It endorsed suffrage for
women, a world court for peace, abolition of militar-
ism, employment of the army in normal times in
reclamation work. It claimed protection for the
American citizen, reaffirmed its faith in the Monroe
doctrine, recommended that the Philippines be gov-
erned by the United States with increasing local
privileges, and urged reciprocal trade treaties and a
tariff investigation commission. It recommended
legislation for the merchant marine, upholding civil
service regulations, labor legislation, public grain
elevators operated by the Federal Government, Fed-
eral grain inspection under a system of civil service
and the abolition of any institution in which " gam-
bling in grain" "or any other so-called speculation
is indulged in." It endorsed Government warehouses
for cotton, public ownership of utilities and the de-
velopment of free institutions. It declared that de-
partmental decision ought not to be final and that the
people should be protected by provision for court
review. Conservation of natural resources, economy
in government and the budget system, the right of the
President to veto any single item in an appropriation
bill, uniform marriage and divorce laws, a single
presidential term of six years, the initiative, referen-
dum and recall were endorsed.
CHAPTER XIV
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THE management of international affairs is a serv-
ice of the highest importance, and the power to direct
foreign relations is a sovereign power. In the United
States all power in respect to matters of an interna-
tional character is lodged in the federal government,
the organ of our national sovereignty. International
affairs have never been regulated by the State. Un-
der the Articles of Confederation negotiations with
foreign countries were conducted by the Congress;
under the Constitution States are expressly forbidden
to enter into political relations with foreign countries
(72), and the management of international affairs is
given to the President and Senate (95).
The international political affairs of a state are con-
ducted by its diplomatic representatives, of whom the
ambassador is the highest in rank. The ambassador
represents the person of the executive of the country
from which he comes, and he receives for this reason
the highest personal respect and consideration. A
minister, who is next to the ambassador in rank, rep-
resents the government from which he comes, but not
the personality of the executive. In foreign courts
an ambassador, being a personal representative of a
ruler, is admitted to an audience with officials ahead
94
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 95
of a minister. For a long time a minister was the
highest diplomatic representative of the United States,
but when it was found that under the rules of prece-
dence in favor of ambassadors a minister of the
United States was sometimes kept waiting for an offi-
cial audience while the ambassador of some petty
kingdom was being received, Congress (in 1893) cre-
ated the rank of ambassador. We have ambassadors
for Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Austria,
Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Chile, Argen-
tina, and Turkey. In other countries we are repre-
sented by ministers.
Ambassadors and ministers, their property and
their households, are exempt from the laws of the
country to which they are accredited. The residence
of a foreign minister is, according to international
law, a little patch of territory under the dominion
of the country which the minister represents. If the
Chinese minister at Washington should commit a
crime, Chinese and not American authorities must try
the case and administer the punishment. If a case
should arise where a judicial decision affecting diplo-
matic agents is necessary, it must be taken direct to
the Supreme Court, no matter how trivial it may be
(110).
The duties of a diplomatic representative depend
upon the powers which his government has conferred
upon him and upon the relations which exist between
his government and the one to which he is sent. In
general, he represents and defends the interests of his.
country. He keeps the home government informed
96 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
upon topics of public interest, especially upon political
topics, but he must not interfere in any way with the
politics of the country where he resides. "When a
citizen of his own country has been injured by a vio-
lation of a rule of international law he seeks a remedy
from a foreign government, and when a treaty is
made he usually serves as the channel of negotiation.
A consul is a business agent of a government sent
to a seaport or inland city to look after the welfare
of citizens of his own country. He does not repre-
sent a government, he is not a diplomatic agent, and
he does not enjoy the honors and immunities of a min-
ister. Sometimes a consul-general is appointed to su-
pervise all the consuls in the country to which he is
sent.
The first duty of the consul is to aid his country-
men in securing their commercial rights. Among his
other duties are the following: He places the con-
sular seal upon official acts of the foreign government ;
he certifies to marriages, births and deaths among his
countrymen in his consular district; he certifies in-
voices; he administers on the personal property of
deceased persons when there is no representative at
hand. The consul receives applications for passports,
and, when specifically authorized to do so, grants
them. He also grants passports in the absence of the
regular diplomatic representatives.
When two or more states are at war and desire
peace, or if in times of peace their commercial or
monetary systems require adjustment, or if their
boundaries need to be defined, or if in any way their
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 97
international affairs are to be regulated, they may
accomplish any of these objects by entering into a
solemn compact or agreement called a treaty. A
treaty, when made by sovereign states and signed by
the proper diplomatic agents, and ratified by the gov-
ernments of the signatory powers, becomes the law
for all the states entering into the compact. In the
United States a treaty concluded by the federal gov-
ernment is the supreme law of the land (126), and
any State law in conflict with a treaty which is con-
stitutional is null and void. Since a treaty is simply
a law, Congress may repeal a treaty by passing a law
contrary to its provisions, or an existing law may be
repealed by the terms of a new treaty. A treaty con-
trary to the Constitution is void.
If a citizen violates a treaty his government will
punish him as the violator of a law ; but suppose the
state itself should violate one of its treaties, is there
a power to punish the state ? There is no power but
the sword of the aggrieved country. The violation of
treaty obligation is universally regarded as a just
cause of war. But suppose a powerful state violates
a compact which it has made with a puny state ? In
such a case punishment through war is out of the
question and the weak state must rely upon the nat-
ural operation of the law of nations. "In the eye
of international law treaties are made to be kept,"
and if. a powerful nation persistently and perversely
breaks its treaties it will incur the hostility of its
neighbors and sooner or later these will combine and
force it to abide by the rules of international law.
98 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
The President, acting through the Secretary of
State and diplomatic agents, negotiates treaties with
foreign powers. After a treaty has been framed, if
it meets with the approval of the President, it is sent
to the Senate, where it must be ratified by a two-thirds
vote (95). If it is successful in the Senate it is sent
to the foreign government for ratification. When it
has been ratified by the foreign power the treaty is
law for all the states whose governments have signed
it.
A treaty provides for the peaceful intercourse of
two or more nations in the future. How shall ques-
tions and disputes arising out of past transactions be
settled? One nation has wounded the pride of an-
other, or has trespassed upon its boundaries, or dam-
aged its commerce, or maltreated its citizens; how
shall the injured nations find redress without declar-
ing war? Nations which are capable of a humane
and enlightened policy may find a peaceful exit from
the most exasperating situations: they may submit
their differences to a court of arbitration, just as pri-
vate citizens often submit their differences to arbitra-
tion in order to avoid a battle in the courts of law.
Nations wishing to settle a dispute by arbitration
enter into a preliminary treaty, and agree upon a
method of selecting the members of the arbitration
board, appoint a time and place for the meeting of
the board, and define precisely the question to be set-
tled. The arbitrators, like impartial judges, listen
to the claims of the several states, investigate and
weigh the facts pertaining to the case, and render a
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 99
decision in accordance with the facts and the princi-
ples of justice. When the decision of a board of arbi-
tration has been fairly obtained, all the nations af-
fected by it are under the most solemn obligations to
acquiesce in it.
During the nineteenth century international dis-
putes were settled by arbitration more frequently
than ever before, and in the number of cases sub-
mitted to arbitration the United States led the nations
of the world. The increasing success of arbitration,
and the expressed desire of many of the great powers
to adopt it as a substitute for war, have encouraged
lovers of peace to look forward to a time when the
countries of the earth shall agree to submit all differ-
ences to a permanent board of international arbitra-
tion. If such a tribunal shall be constituted and its
decisions obeyed, peace may be permanent and the
money and talents and energy that are devoted to the
support of war will be devoted to commerce and in-
dustry.
For preventing the sudden outbreak of war the fol-
lowing plan has been proposed: All the great na-
tions of the world are to join in a Peace League and
are to agree that, when a dispute arises between two
countries, the question in dispute, if it cannot be
settled in the ordinary manner, shall be submitted to
a court, or to a "Council of Conciliation," and that
neither nation shall begin war upon the other until
the court, or council, renders its decision. After the
decision is rendered the nation against which the
case is decided may go to war if it wills to do so, for
100 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
it will not be compelled to abide by the judgment of
the court. If the war between two nations of the
Peace League is begun 'before the question in dispute
is submitted to a tribunal, then all the other nations
are to join together and use their military and finan-
cial forces against the nation that strikes the first
blow.
CHAPTER XV
TAXATION
GOVERNMENT in America must receive its revenue
through the consent of the legislature. When the
legislature makes a general call upon the citizens for
contributions for the support of government, it is said
to tax them. When the levy or call is properly made
the contribution is compulsory and cannot be escaped.
A tax, therefore, may be denned as an enforced con-
tribution of money levied by the legislature on per-
sons, property or income, for the support of govern-
ment. Property is the thing universally taxed. If
any property escapes taxation, it is not as a rule the
fault of the law, for legislators attempt to tax almost
everything upon which a tax can possibly be laid.
For the sake of system they divide property and other
subjects of taxation into classes and name the tax
according to the class upon which it is levied. The
kinds of taxes which are usually collected are the fol-
lowing :
1. The general property tax, levied (a) on real
property, which includes lands and buildings and
other things erected on land, and (&) on personal
property, which includes such things as household
furniture, money, goods, bonds, notes of promise,
101
102 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
stocks, mortgages, jewelry, horses, carriages, auto-
mobiles, and farming implements.
2. The income tax, levied upon income whether
from wages or salary or profits upon business.
3. The inheritance tax, levied upon property ac-
quired by inheritance or will. Sometimes this tax is
regarded as an income tax, an inheritance or legacy
being considered as nothing more than a part of the
yearly income.
4. The corporation tax, levied upon private corpo-
rations. This tax sometimes takes the form of an in-
come tax levied upon the corporation regarded as a
person; sometimes it is levied upon the bonds and
stock of the corporation. In a few States it is levied
upon the earnings of the corporation.
5. The franchise tax, levied upon a privilege granted
by government. When a city council confers upon a
corporation the right to operate a trolley line upon a
certain street, the right conferred is a franchise, and
upon the value of this right the franchise tax is laid.
Though franchises are not material, visible property
they have nevertheless been declared by the Supreme
Court of the United States to be property. Some-
times franchises have an enormous value. For exam-
ple, while the tangible property, the rolling stock,
rails, wires and power-houses of a trolley company
may be worth only a million dollars, the right to use
the street (the franchise) would not be sold for a
sum several times as great. Sometimes a corporation
is compelled to pay both a franchise tax and a prop-
erty tax on its material possessions.
TAXATION 103
6. The poll or capitation tax is a sum ranging from
one to four dollars levied as a personal tax. It is a
tax on the person, as a person, and not as a possessor
of property.
7. Customs duties, levied upon articles imported
from a foreign country. In some countries customs
duties are levied upon exported articles, but this can-
not be done in the United States (67).
8. Excises or internal revenue taxes, levied upon
goods manufactured within the country. The articles
which yield most of the internal revenue are: dis-
tilled spirits, beer, ale, tobacco and oleomargarin and
playing cards. The corporation tax is also regarded
as aji excise.
9. License taxes, collected from merchants, peddlers,
hack-drivers, showmen, saloon-keepers, and others, for
the privilege of transacting business. The license tax
resembles the franchise tax.
10. Fees and special assessments, collected as a par-
tial payment for services rendered by the government.
The charge for issuing a marriage certificate is an
example of a fee, while a charge made for connecting
a private drain with a public sewer is an example of
a special assessment. Fees and special assessments
are not always taxes properly so called.
It is sometimes contended that one ? s duty in respect
to the payment of taxes should be measured, not by
ability, but by sacrifice. According to this view a
tax is burdensome, not in proportion to what is paid,
but to what is left. To equalize the sacrifice of tax-
payers a graduated or progressive tax has been pro-
104 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
posed. Under the workings of this tax the rate in-
creases with the amount of property. For example,
if A, B, C and D are worth respectively $10,000,
$20,000, $30,000 and $40,000, a scheme of progressive
taxation might impose upon A a rate of one per cent.,
upon B a rate of two per cent., upon C a rate of three
per cent., and upon D a rate of four per cent. D's
property is only four times as great as A's, yet it
pays sixteen times as much in taxes.
The principle of progressive taxation is recognized
in the federal income tax imposed upon the incomes
of individuals and corporations. In addition to the
underlying or normal tax Congress levies a surtax the
rate of which increases as the income grows larger.
A few States have progressive income taxes while
many have progressive inheritance taxes.
One of the most radical of tax reforms is the plan
by which all revenues, federal, State and local, are
to be raised from a single tax imposed on land. Ac-
cording to this plan, men should contribute to the
support of government, not in proportion to what
they produce or accumulate, but in proportion to the
value of the natural opportunities they hold; and it
is contended that the landholder is the great monop-
olist of natural opportunities. The single tax would
be laid upon land as such, and not upon the improve-
ments upon land. The tax upon a vacant lot, pro-
vided it were as favorably located, would be as heavy
as the tax upon a lot improved by a magnificent
structure. The fundamental principle of the single
tax is this : The individual should get the advantage
TAXATION 105
of all improvements upon land, while the government
(society) should get the advantage of favorable loca-
tion, and of the increased values that accrue to land
in a community which is progressive and which is in-
creasing in population.
In 1916 Congress imposed an inheritance tax, known
as the Estate Tax, upon the estates of all decedents
leaving property valued at $50,000. This tax is grad-
uated, the ratio being from one per cent, on estates of
$50,000 to ten per cent, on estates of $5,000,000. '
It is plain that expenditures for government in the
United States must be very heavy, for there are three
highly organized governments to be supported: the
federal government with its army and navy and courts
of law and high officials and thousands upon thou-
sands of employees ; the State governments with their
numerous departments; the local governments with
their school system and charitable institutions and
highway improvements and police and sanitary serv-
ice. In normal times the federal government spends
about $1,250,000,000 a year, State and Territorial gov-
ernment about $250,000,000, local government about
$1,500,000.000, making a total public, expenditure of
$3,000,000,000 a year. These numbers in themselves
mean nothing they are too large for the mind to grasp
but comparison enables us to comprehend their sig-
nificance. $3,000,000,000 is about one-twelfth of the
combined annual earnings of every man, woman and
child in the United States. The people, therefore,
contribute to government in a year about as much as
they earn in a month.
CHAPTER XVI
PUBLIC FINANCE
SINCE under our dual system of government taxa-
tion is a concurrent function exercised with sovereign
power by the State as well as by the federal govern-
ment, and since each government determines its own
expenditures, public finance in the United States is
resolved into two sharply defined systems national
finance and State finance. The system of national
finance will first receive attention.
At the opening of every regular session Congress
receives the report and recommendations of the Sec-
retary of the Treasury, containing detailed estimates
prepared by the heads of departments of the sums
necessary for the maintenance of the national gov-
ernment. Not a dollar of the estimates can be raised
constitutionally without the consent of Congress. As
a matter of practice, the consideration of the esti-
mated expenditures begins in the House of Repre-
sentatives, where the recommendations found in the
Book of Estimates are referred by the Speaker to the
proper committees.
The committees virtually control federal expendi-
tures. There is no limitation upon their power of
appropriation, except that any appropriation for the
106
PUBLIC FINANCE 107
support of the army shall not be made for more than
two years (56). They take the estimates submitted
by the Secretary of the Treasury and do with them
as they please. Sometimes they accept them, some-
times they modify them, but often they ignore them
altogether. It is their function to prepare bills pro-
viding for the expenses of the government ; and in this
exercise of their duty they are entirely independent
of executive authority. Quite often they invite treas-
ury officials to assist them and advise them, but they
are under no constitutional obligation to do so. The
committees express their judgments in reference to
the proper expenditures in the form of appropriation
bills. These, like all other bills, must run the gaunt-
let of legislation. They must pass both houses and
receive the signature of the President. When they
have received the signature of the President and have
become laws, the first step in national finance has been
taken : it has been determined how much money shall
be spent for the support of the federal government.
The second step in national finance is taken when
Congress passes the laws for raising the money which
it has decided to spend. While private individuals
ordinarily estimate their income first and then decide
upon their expenditures, governments are accustomed
to estimate their expenditures first and to attend to
the matter of income afterward. Bills for raising
national revenue must originate in the House of Rep-
resentatives (36), because the House directly repre-
sents the people. Post-office bills and bills relating
to the mints and to the sale of public lands may orig-
108 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
inate in the Senate, and any revenue bill whatever
may be modified to almost any extent in the Senate.
The House Committee of Ways and Means has exclu-
sive control of bills for raising- revenue. Since this
committee prepares the tax bill for the nation, it is
justly regarded as the most important committee in
Congress.
When levying taxes for the support of the national
government Congress has many sources of revenue
upon which it may rely. One of these is the tariff,
that is, the customs duties on imports. In normal
times the customs tax ordinarily yields nearly half
of the national revenue. The customs tax is levied
upon several hundred articles, but most of the tariff
revenues are collected from manufacturers of wool,
cotton, silk, iron, copper and tin, and from sugar,
fruit, liquor, wines, cigars, drugs and chemicals.
Among the articles admitted free of duty are : coffee,
tea, anthracite coal, books over twenty years old, dye-
woods and fertilizers.
Federal revenues not raised by duties on foreign
goods are for the most part derived from excises
taxes on articles produced in the United States
from an inheritance tax, and from an income tax
imposed on individuals and corporations.
We now come to the subject of State finance.
Although they may differ somewhat in detail, the
financial systems of the States are quite uniform in
their workings. Authority for all public expenditures
within each State flows directly or indirectly from its
constitution and its legislature. Expenses of the
PUBLIC FINANCE 109
State government are estimated and levied directly
by the legislature, and are usually comparatively
light. In some States the constitution limits the
amount which can be levied in one year.
The heavy expenses of local government are met by
taxation imposed by the minor legislative bodies, by
the municipal council, or board of county commis-
sioners a legislative body as far as taxation is con-
cerned or town-meeting, or the township supervisors
or trustees. Cities, counties, and other minor civil
divisions are strictly under the control of the State
government, and the limits of their power to tax are
usually defined by the higher authority. In some
States the limitations are fixed by the legislature, in
others by the constitution. In about one-third of the
States counties are not allowed to tax beyond a cer-
tain per cent, of the assessed valuation of property.
Municipalities, in the matter of taxation, are often
restricted by the terms of their charters. Taking the
country over, however, the localities are quite free to
tax themselves as they see fit. The most that the leg-
islature or the constitution undertakes to do is to
throw around the local taxing power such safeguards
as will prevent bankruptcy. Since the greater part
of the sum paid for taxes is levied by local authority
with the almost direct sanction of the voters them-
selves, it can almost be said that the people are not
taxed for they really tax themselves.
Very often a legislature makes appropriations in a
hap-hazard, extravagant manner, with the result that
the finances of the State are in an unsatisfactory con-
110 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
dition. In order to remedy the evils of indiscrimi-
nate and unsystematic action by the legislature, a
" budget system" has been proposed. Under this
system the Governor submits to the legislature an
itemized statement of the needs of all the State de-
partments. This statement, called the " budget" is
used as a basis for legislative action when making
appropriations. Advocates of the system are in
favor of allowing the legislature to reduce an item
of the budget, but would withhold from it the power
to increase an item. Of course the power of the legis-
lature could not be thus restricted except under the
authority of the State Constitution. The budget sys-
tem is in operation in Great Britain and other foreign
countries and a movement for its adoption in the
United States is gaining strength. In fact, in several
States, the system has already been adopted.
In the State the general property tax is the great
source of revenue. This tax reaches all property, real
and personal, located within the boundaries of the
State. When the owner of property resides outside
the State, he does not escape taxation for that reason.
In the payment of the general property tax the tax-
payer should bear a burden proportioned to his
wealth; all the property of every person should con-
tribute according to its true value. This is a funda-
mental principle of taxation. In order to realize this
principle of equality and justice when levying the
general property tax the government must set in mo-
tion an elaborate taxing machinery, and must care-
fully control all the processes of taxation.
PUBLIC FINANCE 111
Its officers, called assessors, must discover all the
property of every person and place on it a fair valua-
tion. The sum of all the valuations of property thus
made in a community is the assessment of the com-
munity. The tax rate of the community is found by
dividing the expenditures determined upon the assess-
ment. But the community, even if it be a large city,
most probably is located in a county in which there
are additional expenses of county government. The
local division must bear its share of these expenses,
and this will increase the rate of the taxpayer. The
county rate is found by dividing the county expendi-
tures by the county assessment, which is the sum of
the assessments of all the local divisions of the county.
Again, the county as a part of the State must con-
tribute its share to the support of the general State
government. The State rate is found by dividing the
State expenditures by the State assessment (the sum
of the county assessments). This rate added to the
local and county rates gives the full tax rate of the
local taxpayer.
The government must provide agencies for correct-
ing unjust and unfair valuations. Very often there
is a local board of equalization, to which taxpayers
may appeal when they think they have not been
treated fairly by the assessors. Sometimes such com-
plaints are taken to an appeal tax court, or to the
board of county commissioners. When the board of
equalization or other body to which appeal is made
finds that there has been an unjust assessment, it will
order a new one made. State boards of equalization
112 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
have been established in some instances to correct
evils growing out of uneven assessment among local-
ities. Where assessors of one locality place the valua-
tion of property too low and those of other localities
name the true valuation the citizens of the latter are
obliged to contribute more than their just share to
the state expenses.
When the taxpayer fails to pay his tax-bill
promptly the property upon which the tax is levied is
said to be delinquent, and is liable to be sold to satisfy
the claim. If the property sold for taxes should
bring more than the amount of the tax the excess is
given to the owner. Moreover, the owner usually has
the right to buy back his property at the price for
which it is sold. This right of redemption, however,
continues for only a limited period, usually two years.
State constitutions almost always specify the kinds
of property that may be exempt from taxation, and
the legislature is usually forbidden to exempt any
other kind. A clause from the constitution of Min-
nesota will illustrate the practice in reference to ex-
emption: " Public burying grounds, public school-
houses, public hospitals, academies, colleges, univer-
sities and all seminaries of learning, all, churches,
church property used for religious purposes, and
houses of worship, institutions of purely public char-
ity, public property used for public purposes, and
personal property to an amount not exceeding in
value two hundred dollars for each individual, shall
by general laws be exempt from taxation." Many
PUBLIC FINANCE 113
States are careful to exempt household furniture to
a certain value. Thus the constitution of Texas pro-
vides that two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of
household and kitchen furniture shall be exempt from
taxation.
A most important topic of public finance is public
debt. The necessity of incurring debt in the conduct
of public affairs is perhaps stronger than it is in the
management of private business. Governments can-
not accumulate money; they must confine taxation
to such amounts as are necessary to meet expenses for
the current year. At the end of the fiscal year the
treasury is supposed to be virtually empty. This is
unquestionably the correct policy. A government is
sorely tempted to be extravagant when it has more
money on hand than it needs. It has been said with
some truth that the way to keep governments pure is
to keep them poor.
Since it cannot save for a rainy day, when the rainy
day comes, and large sums of money must be had at
once, government must borrow. Increased taxation
cannot be relied upon to supply the necessary revenue.
In 1863 the federal government used its taxing power
to the utmost to raise the money for the support of
its war operations, yet it could not collect by taxation
one-sixth of what it spent during the year. More
than five-sixths of its expenses had to be met by bor-
rowing.
When a government wishes to raise money by bor-
rowing, it usually sells its bonds to voluntary buyers.
114 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
A government bond resembles a promissory note given
by an individual who borrows money. In the bond
are stated the amount owed by the government, the
date of payment, and the rate of interest.
CHAPTER XVII
MONEY
THE currency of the United States consists of gold
coin, certificates representing gold, silver dollars, cer-
tificates representing silver, subsidiary coins of silver,
bronze and nickel, United States notes (greenbacks),
national bank notes and federal reserve notes.
The precious metals gold and silver are coined
under the authority of Congress. In 1792 Congress
provided that all gold or silver brought to the gov-
ernment mint should be coined free of expense to the
person bringing the metal. The relation that was to
exist between the value of gold and that of silver was
stated in these words : * ( Every fifteen pounds weight
of pure silver shall be equal value in all payments with
one pound of pure gold." The law of 1792 thus
provided for the free coinage of gold and silver at
the ratio of 15 to 1. In 1834 Congress changed the
ratio placing it at 16 to 1. The free coinage of the
two metals at this ratio continued until 1873 when
Congress demonetized silver, that is, discontinued its
coinage entirely.
The demonetization of silver proved to be a very
unpopular measure. Accordingly Congress in 1878
passed the "Bland- Allison Act." This provided
115
116 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
"that the government should buy not less than two mil-
lion dollars' worth, and not more than four million dol-
lars' worth of silver bullion each month, and coin it
into silver dollars, these to be full legal tender."
This law remained in force for twelve years, during
which $378,166,793 in silver was coined, $57,000,000
entering circulation and the remainder being de-
posited in the vaults of the Treasury and silver certifi-
cates being issued against it.
In 1890 the Bland- Allison act was repealed and the
Sherman Act was passed, requiring the Secretary of
the Treasury to purchase at its market value 4,500,000
ounces of silver each month and pay for it with
treasury notes. A further decrease in the value of
silver led to a demand from the holders of treasury
notes for redemption in gold. The Treasury faith-
fully redeemed in gold, but the fear that the reserve
would be exhausted and that silver, a dollar of which
was worth only sixty-seven cents, would be the only
money available for redemption purposes, caused a
panic in the financial world. This led to the repeal
(in 1893) of the purchasing clause of the Sherman
Act and thus the issue of treasury notes ceased.
Since 1893 coinage has been on a gold basis. No
silver bullion has been purchased at the mints
for purposes of regular coinage since that date,
although a considerable portion of that which was
bought under the Sherman Act has been coined
as Congress has from time to time directed. Under
a law of 1900 gold was made the standard unit
of value and no provision was made for the coinage
MONEY 117
of silver other than that which was already in stock.
Silver dollars and silver certificates, however, are still
legal tender, and it is the declared policy of the gov-
ernment to keep them on a parity with gold ; that is to
say, when silver certificates are presented to the
treasury for redemption it is the policy of the gov-
ernment to redeem them in gold at their face value,
and if silver dollars are presented for exchange they
will be exchanged for gold, dollar for dollar. The
coinage of gold is free.
In addition to the metallic currency we have in cir-
culation a large volume of paper currency. This
consists of bank notes and United States notes. A
bank note is a promissory note, payable on demand,
made and issued by a bank and intended to circulate
as money. Whether a bank note will circulate as
money or not ordinarily depends upon the reputation
of the bank and upon its ability to pay the note when
presented for payment. If those persons to whom the
note is offered have no faith in the bank's promise
they will not receive the note, and its circulation is
thereby made impossible. A United States note
(greenback) is a form of paper money issued by the
federal government and based upon the credit and
good faith of the country. It is a legal tender for all
debts public and private.
Paper money, called United States notes or green-
backs, was issued by the government during the Civil
"War. When the war was over the government began
to destroy the notes when they came into the treas-
ury, just as one destroys a promissory note when it
118 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
is paid. This policy continued until 1868, when the
people demanded that the notes continue in circula-
tion. Now that the greenbacks were to remain in
circulation it was necessary to make them as good as
gold. So Congress, in 1875, passed the Redemption
Act, which provided that after January 1st, 1879,
gold, dollar for dollar, should be paid when the notes
were presented to the Treasury for redemption. The
result was that the notes began to circulate at par.
Under the currency law of 1900 the gold reserve in
the Treasury was increased to $150,000,000 to safe-
guard the redemption of the notes. The greenbacks
in circulation at the present time amount to about
$346,000,000.
In 1863 Congress created a system of national
banks, which became the basis of our banking system
as it exists at present. The national banking law of
1863 has been modified from time to time, but its es-
sential features have remained unchanged. Our na-
tional banking system as it is to-day may be described
as follows :
(1) National banks with a capital of $25,000 may
be organized in towns of less than 3000 inhabitants;
in towns of more than 3000 and less than 6000 inhab-
itants the capital must be $50,000 ; in places of more
than 6000 and less than 50,000 inhabitants it must be
$100,000; in places of more than 50,000 it must be
$200,000.
(2) The organizers of a bank (not less than five
in number) must purchase United States bonds equal
in amount to at least one-fourth of the capital of the
MONEY 119
bank and deposit these bonds with the comptroller of
the currency at Washington. The bank remains the
owner of these bonds and receives interest from them.
(3) The bank receives from the comptroller na-
tional bank notes equal in amount to the par value of
the bonds deposited. These bank notes are not legal
tender; they are promises to pay like the old notes
of the State banks ; like any bank note, in fact.
(4) The bank notes are secured by the bonds in
the possession of the Treasurer of the United States.
If a bank should fail in business and be unable to re-
deem its notes in legal tender money, the comptroller
will sell the bonds and get the money with which to
redeem the notes. A bank note is thus as good as a
government bond, as good as the government itself.
Banks frequently fail, but the holders of their notes
have never lost a dollar by reason of the failure.
In 1913, Congress established a system of federal
reserve banks. The purpose of these banks is two-
fold: to bring about a more even diffusion through-
out the country of the money that is already in circu-
lation; and second, to make such additions to the
present volume of currency as the conditions of trade
may require. Under the federal reserve act the
United States has been marked off geographically
into twelve districts and in one of the cities of each
district there has been established a federal reserve
bank. The cities which have federal reserve banks
are: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland,
Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis,
Kansas City (Missouri), Dallas, and San Francisco.
120 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
The members and owners of a federal reserve bank
are the national banks within the district and sneh
State banks and trust companies as may choose to
join under the conditions laid down by the law. The
federal reserve bank is a bank of banks : its depositors
are the member banks and the deposits in its vaults
consist of a certain specified portion of the reserve
fund which the member banks within the district are
required by law to keep in their possession for the
safety of their customers. The borrowers from a re-
serve bank are the member banks within the district.
Before 1914, a very large portion of the reserves of
banks flowed into two or three financial centers and
there was a harmful congestion of money in those
centers, but under the act of 1913 the reserves of the
banks of a given district will be kept within the
boundaries of that district and congestion will be pre-
vented. Yet under certain conditions reserves may
flow from one district to another, for in an emergency
funds may be transferred from one reserve bank to
another, if in the judgment of the Federal Reserve
Board, the transfer is desirable.
Additions to the existing volume of currency are
made under the act of 1913 by the issuance of federal
reserve notes by any federal reserve bank that desires
to issue such notes, but no federal reserve notes can
be issued without the authority of the Federal Reserve
Board. Federal reserve notes are secured not by
bonds, as in the case of national bank notes, but by
a gold reserve equal to 40% of the face value of the
note plus an amount of commercial paper (promis-
MONEY 121
sory notes) equal to 100% of the face value. Fur-
thermore, the United States Treasury is pledged to
redeem in gold all federal reserve notes actually pre-
sented to it for redemption.
The federal reserve banks are wholly under the
control of the Federal Reserve Board. This Board
consists of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Comp-
troller of the Currency, and of five members appointed
by the President.
In 1916 Congress provided for the establishment
of twelve Farm Loan Banks, whose primary purpose
is to enable farmers to borrow money on farm-mort-
gage security at a reasonable rate of interest for
long periods of time, and repay the debt in small an-
nual or semi-annual payments. These banks are un-
der the control of the Farm Loan Board.
The following is a summary of our monetary sys-
tem:
(1) The federal government has complete control
of all currency issues whether metallic or paper and
may issue legal tender paper money as well as gold
and silver currency.
(2) The gold dollar of 23.22 grains is the unit of
monetary value, and the coinage of gold is free.
The amount of gold coined from year to year is
wholly a matter of private initiative. Government
does not regulate it. The amount is regulated by
supply and demand the supply of gold bullion and
the demand for gold coin.
(3) Silver dollars and silver certificates, the treas-
ury notes of 1890, federal reserve notes and United
122 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
States notes (greenbacks) are exchangeable for gold
at their face value upon presentation at the treasury
of the United States.
(4) This redemption is made possible by the re-
serve fund of $150,000,000 in gold and other reserves
in gold which are at the command of the government.
(5) The paper money, when redeemed with gold,
is again used by the government in the payment of its
debts, and thus again finds its way into circulation.
(6) The volume of money in circulation is in-
creased by the coinage of gold at the mints and by
the notes issued by the national banks and the federal
reserve banks.
(7) Bank notes are as good as gold because the gov-
ernment bonds, and other securities which are back
of them, are as good as gold.
CHAPTER XVIII
COMMERCE
IN the United States power in respect to commerce
is divided between the State and the federal govern-
ment. Foreign commerce, interstate commerce and
commerce with Indian tribes (47) are regulated by
Congress, while the regulation of commerce carried
on wholly within the boundaries of a State is the func-
tion of the State government.
From the beginning of our national history to the
present time two distinct policies have been advanced
in reference to foreign goods: (1) the free-trade pol-
icy and (2) the policy of protection. The adherents
of the free-trade policy, regarding free commercial
intercourse between nations as a good thing in itself,
contend that taxes on foreign goods should be levied,
not with the view of keeping the goods out of the
country, but with the view of raising the necessary
revenue, and with that view only. The adherents of
the protective policy, desiring to protect home pro-
ducers from competition with foreign goods, would
levy the customs, not so much with the view of raising
revenue, as with the view of at least discouraging im-
portations.
The essence of the free-trade argument is that, un-
123
124 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
der normal conditions of production and competition,
a country will satisfy its needs with the least possible
effort. Those things that can be produced with the
greatest economy at home will be so produced, and
any surplus will be exchanged abroad for what other
nations can produce with less effort. Commerce be-
tween two countries, each of which produces accord-
ing to its natural resources, is always profitable to
both countries, the free-traders contend, for each
country exchanges that which it wants less for that
which it wants more.
The argument of the protectionist is that by im-
posing high import duties upon certain classes of
goods and thereby partly or wholly keeping them out
of the country you encourage the production of those
goods at home, and this encouragement results in new
occupations and in a diversified industry at home.
The additional producers thus called into being by
the protective tariff are also consumers, and they buy
at least a part of the country's surplus. Another
argument for protection is based upon the difference
in the standards of comfort and rates of wages in
different countries. If there were no tariff hindrances
the lower standard and the lower wage would be
given the advantage in competition and workmen
would suffer as a result.
Since passengers as well as goods are included in
the term commerce, immigration is regulated by Con-
gress. During the greater part of our history we
encouraged immigration, for in the development of
our country we needed all the brain and muscle we
COMMERCE 125
could get. Had it not been for the millions of immi-
grants who have come to us from England, Ireland,
Scotland, Germany, Russia, Norway, Sweden, France,
Italy, a large part of our country would still be a
wilderness.
About 1880 Americans began to feel that immigra-
tion on a large scale was no longer desirable, and
demanded that restraints be placed upon the admis-
sion of foreigners. First the Chinese were excluded.
In 1882 Congress, in defiance of a treaty with China,
prohibited Chinese laborers from coming into the
United States, and but few of these people have en-
tered since the exclusion law was passed. In the
same year Congress ordered that the character of all
immigrants be looked into and commanded that con-
victs, lunatics, idiots and other persons not able to
take care of themselves should not be admitted into
the United States, but should be sent back at the
expense of the owners of the vessels upon which they
came. By a law of 1885 it is made unlawful for
certain classes of laborers to enter the United States,
if they have previously entered into a contract to
perform labor here, and any person brought here un-
der a contract to perform labor can be sent back at
the expense of the vessel which brings him here. As
a further restriction upon immigration Congress has
imposed a tax upon immigrants of eight dollars per
person and has prohibited the admission of any illit-
erate alien who is over sixteen years of age. These
restrictive laws have had the effect of checking im-
migration to some extent, but they have by no means
126 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
solved the immigration problem: they have by no
means been successful in keeping out all undesirable
foreigners and letting in only those whose presence is
beneficial.
I. Interstate Commerce Defined. Domestic com-
merce is that which is carried on within the United
States, and consists of interstate commerce and intra-
state commerce. It is not easy to draw clearly the
line which separates interstate from intrastate com-
merce. Broadly speaking, when a commercial trans-
action begins in one State and ends in another, that
transaction is a subject of interstate commerce, but
when a commercial transaction begins and ends in
the same State it is a subject of intrastate commerce.
When a merchant ships his goods to a point within
a State he engages in intrastate commerce; when he
ships them to a point outside of the State he is en-
gaged in interstate commerce. A railroad which has
its termini and the whole length of its tracks within
the State cannot be regarded as being engaged in in-
terstate commerce, but a railroad which has its termini
in different States must be so regarded. A river
lying wholly within a State and having no connec-
tion with bodies of water extending beyond the
boundaries of the State a thing which rarely ever
occurs is an instrument of intrastate commerce, but
a river wholly within a State connecting with navi-
gable waters that extend beyond the boundaries of the
State is regarded as an instrument of interstate com-
merce. Does a certain commercial act or a certain
instrument of commerce, a river, a canal, a railroad,
COMMERCE 127
concern one State or more than one? If it concerns
one State only it is an affair of intrastate commerce;
if it concerns more than one State it is an affair of
interstate commerce.
II. The Regulation of Interstate Commerce. The
men of the convention treated the whole subject of
commerce with a firm hand. They gave to Congress
complete power to regulate commerce between the
States (47). They forbade a State to lay tonnage
(76) or any export or import duty without the con-
sent of Congress (74). Within its borders a State
can regulate its commerce in its own way, but goods
and passengers that are on their way from one State
to another are placed under the regulation of the
federal government.
The power of Congress over interstate commerce is
comprehensive and far-reaching. It extends to the
instruments of commerce, to canals and vessels and
railways and telegraph lines, and to the persons en-
gaged in it, as well as to the articles of commerce
themselves. Under the provisions of the interstate
commerce clause a State is not permitted to discrim-
inate by taxation or otherwise against residents of
other States, or against business carried on by them
in the State.
III. The Interstate Commerce Commission. The
most important agency for regulating interstate com-
merce is the Interstate Commerce Commission (p.
35), which was established by Congress in 1887.
The law which created this commission requires that
freight and passenger rates shall be just and rea-
128 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
sonable, that there shall be no discrimination between
persons and localities; it provides that there shall be
proper facilities for the interchange of traffic between
connecting lines ; it forbids the issuance of free inter-
state passes ; it requires that railroads print and make
public their freight and passenger rates. A supple-
mental law (the Elkins law, passed in 1903) forbids
rebates and provides that rates lower than those pub-
lished shall not be charged. It is the duty of the In-
terstate Commerce Commission to carry these provi-
sions into effect.
In 1906 Congress gave the Commission, upon the
complaint of an interstate shipper (or passenger), the
power to do away with a rate which it regards as un-
just or unreasonable, and to fix a new rate which it
regards as just and reasonable. In 1910 Congress
went a step further and empowered the Commission
to make investigations of its own motion, and when
it finds certain rates unreasonable and unjust, to
change them, even though there has been no complaint
whatever. Moreover, by the law of 1910 new rates
may be suspended in their operation by the order of
the Commission, and if upon investigation they are
found by that body to be unjust and unreasonable they
cannot go into operation at all. The railroads, how-
ever, have the right to appeal to the federal courts
where the decisions of the Commission may be over-
ruled. The control which the Interstate Commerce
Commission exercises over railroad rates makes it an
agency of vast importance and power.
In 1916 Congress created a Shipping Board for the
COMMERCE 129
purpose of encouraging, developing and creating a
naval auxiliary and reserve and a merchant marine
to meet the requirements of the commerce of the
United States. The Board is composed of five com-
missioners appointed by the President. The Board
is authorized to purchase, lease, or charter vessels
suitable for marine trade and it may operate such
vessels itself or lease them to be operated by others.
It has large powers in respect to the regulation of the
rates and fares charged by vessels engaged in foreign
or interstate commerce.
CHAPTER XIX
CORPORATIONS
I. Individual Enterprise. The great private cor-
poration of to-day is the outcome of changes which
have been occurring in commerce and industry dur-
ing the last two centuries. Before the eighteenth
century commerce and industry were organized on
the basis of individual effort. Cloth was woven in a
shop in which there was but one loom, and the oper-
ator of the loom was its owner. The man who ground
the grain was the owner of the mill. Shoes were made
by the owner of the shop. Passengers were con-
veyed from town to town in a coach owned by its
driver. And so it was in all the trades and occupa-
tions : they were all organized and conducted on the
basis of individual enterprise.
About the middle of the eighteenth century a great
change began to come over the face of industry. In
1733 John Kay invented the flying shuttle and thereby
doubled the efficiency of the loom. A few years later
water power was applied to the loom. One man could
now operate two looms, and could weave four times as
much cloth as could be woven before. In 1769 Ark-
wright brought out his wonderful spinning-machine,
and in the same year Watt patented his condensing
130
CORPORATIONS 131
steam-engine. These inventions reorganized the tex-
tile industry. Instead of the little shop with its
single loom and weaver, there appeared the great fac-
tory with its hundreds of looms and scores of oper-
ators. As it was with weaving, so it was with other
industries : inventions and improved machinery caused
nearly all of them to be conducted on a new plan.
II. The Partnership. How was this reorganiza-
tion accomplished? How were the humble shops of
the seventeenth century transformed into the huge
factories of the eighteenth century? By a combina-
tion of the wealth and services of individuals. The
single craftsman did not have enough money to build
a factory and equip it with machinery, so several
persons combined their capital and formed a partner-
ship. The partnership as a legal form of business
association is almost as old as recorded history, yet it
had never before been brought into such frequent
use as during the industrial revolution of the eight-
eenth century. The two important legal character-
istics of a partnership are: (1) the partners are in-
dividually liable for the debts of the partnership;
(2) the death of one of the partners brings the part-
nership to an end. A partner is liable, therefore, to
lose his entire fortune in paying the debts of the
partnership, and the partnership is liable to be
brought to an end at any moment.
III. The Corporation. The colossal enterprises
which were inspired by the appearance of the steam-
boat and the locomotive and the telegraph in the first
half of the nineteenth century could not be satisfac-
132 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
torily conducted under the partnership form of as-
sociation. Here was a railroad to be built at a cost
of five million dollars. The people of the region
through which the road was to pass favored the en-
terprise and were ready to invest their funds in it,
but men with money were loath to enter into a part-
nership for building the road because they feared that
the enterprise might fail and that they might be
ruined by the debts of the partnership. Besides they
could not tell when the enterprise would be brought
to an end by the death of a partner. To meet these
objections of investors the corporation was brought
into use. The corporation does not die with the
death of a member but lives on for the period
given to it by law, if that is for a thousand years.
This immortality of the corporation gives time for the
accomplishment of great things. Another advantage
of the corporation over the partnership is that the
shareholders in a corporation are not individually
liable for the entire debt of the company. Further-
more, the shares in a corporation can be easily and
quickly transferred and sold when the holder wishes
to dispose of them. Through the agency of the cor-
poration the building of the coveted railroad was
made possible. To raise the money fifty thousand
shares of one hundred dollars each were offered to
the farmers and merchants and mechanics and capital-
ists of the communities to be benefited by the road, and
shares were taken according to each one's ability and
willingness to invest, some taking a single share, others
ten shares, others a hundred shares. In this way
CORPORATIONS 133
thousands of people assisted in the building of the
road and in the development of the country, and thou-
sands shared in the profits. As it was with the rail-
road, so it was with many other undertakings : about
the middle of the nineteenth century the corporation
began to be brought into general. use in the organiza-
tion of industry and commerce.
The charters under which corporations conduct
business are nearly always granted by State author-
ity. The Constitution of the United States has no
specific provisions in reference to corporations, yet
Congress can and does grant charters to corporations
organized for carrying on enterprises which come
within the range of federal authority. For example,
Congress under its power to regulate the currency has
granted charters to national banks; under its power
to regulate interstate commerce it has granted charters
to transcontinental railway companies. As a rule,
however, the creation and regulation of corporations
are State functions. How important these functions
are may be seen in the State constitutions, where the
article on corporations sometimes requires as much
space as is given to one of the three great departments.
" Formerly, " says Justice Brewer, " there were two
factors, the individual and the State; now there are
three, the individual, the State and the corporation."
About 1880 the great corporations began to devise
methods of protecting themselves against the ravages
of competition. While competition gives life to trade
it at the same time plays havoc with profits. Espe-
cially is this true in these times, when a salesman with
134 THE WOMAN VOTER'S MANUAL
the aid of the telephone and telegraph can do as much
higgling and bargaining in an hour as could be done
a hundred years ago in a month, and when new
inventions and processes are constantly reducing the
cost of production. So in order to stifle competition,
the corporations began to pool their interests and
enter into agreements as to prices and as to the amount
of goods to be produced. In a few years corporate
combination had been carried so far that it seemed
that the principle of competition in business would
have to die and that the principle of monopoly would
be established. Now monopoly is not only contrary
to the constitutions of most of the States, but it is also
contrary to the commercial instincts of the American
people. So in order to check the growth of monopoly,
Congress, in 1890, passed the Sherman Anti-Trust
Act. This famous statute declares that every con-
tract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise,
or conspiracy in restraint of trade, or commerce
among the several States, is illegal, and it provides
that persons entering into such contracts or engaged
in such combinations shall be liable to a heavy fine or
to imprisonment, or to both fine and imprisonment.
The Anti-Trust law did not prevent the growth of
corporate combinations. The corporations continued
to merge and blend their interests and by the opening
of the twentieth century, one-third of the total prod-
ucts of all industries, excluding that of agriculture,
had been brought under the control of corporate com-
binations, or trusts so-called.
Congress in 1913 undertook to strengthen the
CORPORATIONS 135
Sherman Law by passing a supplementary act known
as the Clayton Trust Bill. The Clayton law makes
it unlawful for any concern to discriminate in
price between different purchasers where the ef-
fect of such discrimination is substantially to lessen
competition or create a monopoly in any line of
trade; it forbids any corporation from acquiring
the whole or any part of the stock of another corpo-
ration where the effect of such acquisition may sub-
stantially lessen competition between the corporation
whose stock is so acquired and the corporation making
the acquisition; it forbids directors in certain classes
of corporations to serve as directors in corporations
conducting the same line of business. In 1914 Con-
gress took another step forward in the warfare against
monopoly. It declared unfair methods of competition
to be unlawful and it established the Federal Trade
Commission and gave it power to prevent persons,
partnerships, and corporations (excepting banks and
railroads) from using unfair methods in trade. This
commission is composed of five members appointed by
the President at a salary of $10,000 a year. When
the commission finds that a person or corporation is
using unfair methods of competition it may order the
offender to desist and if the order is not obeyed the
offender is liable to be brought before the Circuit
Court of Appeals where the order of the Commission
may be affirmed or set aside as the court shall deter-
mine. If the order is affirmed the offender is liable
to be punished if he does not desist from his unfair
practices.
APPENDIX A
[THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA]
THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Or- 1
der to form a more perfect Union, establish
Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, pro-
vide for the common defence, promote the
general Welfare, and secure the Blessings
of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION
for the United States of America.
ARTICLE I
SECTION 1. All legislative Powers herein
granted shall be vested in a Congress of the 2
United States, which shall consist of a Sen-
ate and House of Representatives.
SECTION 2. The House of Representatives
shall be composed of Members chosen every 3
137
138 APPENDIX A
second Year by the People of the several
States, and the Electors in each State shall
4 have the Qualifications requisite for Electors
of the most numerous Branch of the State
Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who
5 shall not have attained to the age of twenty-
five Years, and been seven Years a Citi-
zen of the United States, and who shall
6 not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that
State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be
apportioned among the several States which
may be included within this Union, accord-
ing to their respective Numbers, which shall
be determined by adding to the whole Num-
ber of free Persons, including those bound to
Service for a Term of Years, and excluding
Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other
Persons.* The actual Enumeration shall be
made within three Years after the first
9 Meeting of the Congress of the United States,
and within every subsequent Term of ten
Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law
10 direct. The Number of Representatives shall
not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but
each State shall have at Least one Repre-
sentative; and until such enumeration shall
be made, the State of New Hampshire shall
11 be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts
eight, Rhode- Island and Providence Planta-
APPENDIX A 139
tions one, Connecticut five, New York six,
New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Dela-
ware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North
Carolina five, South Carolina five, and
Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the Repre- 12
sentation from any State, the Executive Au-
thority thereof shall issue Writs of Election
to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse 13
their Speaker and other Officers; and shall 14
have the sole Power of Impeachment.
SECTION 3. The Senate of the United States
shall be composed of two Senators from 15
each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof,
for six Years; and each Senator shall have
one Vote.
Immediately after they shall be assembled
in Consequence of the first Election, they
shall be divided as equally as may be into
three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of
the first Class shall be vacated at the Expi-
ration of the second Year, of the second Class
at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of
the third Class at the Expiration of the
sixth Year, so that one-third may be chosen 16
every second Year ; and if Vacancies happen
by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Re-
cess of the Legislature of any State, the
Executive thereof may make temporary Ap-
140 APPENDIX A
17 pointments until the next Meeting of the Leg-
islature, . which shall then fill such Vacan-
cies.
No Person shall be a Senator who shall not
18 have attained to the age of thirty Years, and
been nine Years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an
19 Inhabitant of that State for which he shall
be chosen.
The Vice President of the United States
20 shall be President of the Senate, but shall
have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.
The Senate shall chuse their other Officers,
21 and also a President pro tempore, in the Ab-
sence of the Vice President, or when he shall
exercise the Office of President of the United
States.
The Senate shall have the sole Power to try
all Impeachments. When sitting for that
Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirma-
tion. When the President of the United
22 States is tried, the Chief Justice shall pre-
side : And no Person shall be convicted with-
out the Concurrence of two-thirds of the
Members present.
Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall
not extend further than to removal from
Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy
any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the
23 United States: but the Part}' convicted shall
nevertheless be liable and subject to indict-
APPENDIX A 141
ment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, ac-
cording to Law.
SECTION 4. The Times, Places and Manner
of holding Elections for Senators and "Rep-
resentatives, shall be prescribed in each State
by the Legislature thereof ; but the Congress 24
may at any time by Law make or alter such
Regulations, except as to the Places of chus-
ing Senators.
The Congress shall assemble at least once
in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on 25
the first Monday in December, unless they
shall by Law appoint a different Day.
SECTION 5. Each House shall be the Judge 26
of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications
of its own Members, and a Majority of each
shall constitute a Quorum to do business; 27
but a smaller Number may adjourn from day
to day, and may be authorized to compel the
Attendance of absent Members, in such Man-
ner, and under such Penalties as each House
may provide.
Each House may determine the Rules of 28
its Proceedings, punish its Members for dis-
orderly Behaviour, and, with the Concur-
rence of two-thirds, expel a Member. 29
Each House shall keep a Journal of its
Proceedings, and from time to time publish
the same, excepting such Parts as may in
142 APPENDIX A
their Judgment require Secrecy; and the
Yeas and Nays of the Members of either
House on any question shall, at the desire
30 of one-fifth of those Present, be entered on
the Journal.
Neither House, during the Session of Con-
31 gress, shall, without the Consent of the other,
adjourn for more than three days, nor to any
other Place than that in which the two
Houses shall be sitting.
SECTION 6. The Senators and Representa-
32 tives shall receive a Compensation for their
Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid
out of the Treasury of the United States.
They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Fel-
33 ony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged
from Arrest during their Attendance at the
Session of their respective Houses, and in
going to and returning from the same; and
for any Speech or Debate in either House,
they shall not be questioned in any other
Place.
No Senator or Representative shall, during
34 the Time for which he was elected, be ap-
pointed to any civil Office under the Au-
thority of the United States, which shall
have been created, or the Emoluments
whereof shall have been en creased during
35 such time; and no Person holding any Office
under the United States, shall be a Member
APPENDIX A 143
of either House during his Continuance in
Office.
SECTION 7. All Bills for raising Revenue 36
shall originate in the House of Representa-
tives ; but the Senate may propose or concur
with Amendments as on other Bills.
Every Bill which shall have passed the 37
House of Representatives and the Senate,
shall, before it become a Law, be presented to
the President of the United States ; If he ap-
prove he shall sign it, but if not he shall re- 38
turn it, with his Objections to that House in
which it shall have originated, who shall en-
ter the Objections at large on their Journal,
and proceed to reconsider it. If after such
Reconsideration two-thirds of that House 39
shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent,
together with the Objections, to the other
House, by which it shall likewise be recon-
sidered, and if approved by two-thirds of 40
that House, it shall become a Law. But in
all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall
be determined by yeas and nays, and the
Names of the Persons voting for and against
the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of
each House respectively. If any Bill shall
not be returned by the President within ten 41
Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have
been presented to him, the Same shall be a
Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it,
144 APPENDIX A
unless the Congress by their Adjournment
prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not
be a Law.
42 Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which
the Concurrence of the Senate and House of
Representatives may be necessary (except on
a question of Adjournment) shall be pre-
43 sented to the President of the United States ;
and before the Same shall take Effect, shall
be approved by him, or being disapproved
by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of
the Senate and House of Representatives,
according to the Rules and Limitations pre-
scribed in the Case of a Bill.
44 SECTION 8. The Congress shall have Power
to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and
Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the
45 common Defence and general Welfare of the
United States; but all Duties, Imposts and
Excises shall be uniform throughout the
United States ;
46 To borrow money on the credit of the
United States ;
47 To regulate Commerce with foreign Na-
tions, and among, the several States, and with
the Indian Tribes;
48 To establish an uniform Rule of Natural-
ization, and uniform Laws on the subject of
Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
49 To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof,
APPENDIX A 145
and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard
of Weights and Measures ;
To provide for the Punishment of coun- 50
terfeiting the Securities and current Coin of
the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads; 51
To promote the Progress of Science and
useful Arts, by securing for limited Times 52
to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right
to their respective Writings and Discoveries ;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the 53
supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies 54
committed on the high Seas, and Offences
against the Law of Nations ;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque 55
and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning
Captures on Land and Water ;
To raise and support Armies, but no Ap- 56
propriation of Money to that Use shall be for
a longer Term than two Years ;
To provide and maintain a Navy ; 57
To make Rules for the Government and 58
Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to 59
execute the Laws of the Union, suppress In-
surrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and
disciplining, the Militia, and for governing
such Part of them as may be employed in the
Service of the United States, reserving to
146 APPENDIX A
the States respectively the Appointment of
60 the officers, and the Authority of training
the Militia according to the discipline pre-
scribed by Congress;
61 To exercise exclusive Legislation in all
Cases whatsoever, over such District (not
exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Ces-
sion of particular States, and the Acceptance
of Congress, become the Seat of the Govern-
62 ment and of the United States, and to exer-
cise like Authority over all Places pur-
chased by the Consent of the Legislature of
the State in which the Same shall be, for the
Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals,
dock- Yards, and other needful Buildings;
And
63 To make all Laws which shall be neces-
sary and proper for carrying into Execution
the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers
vested by this Constitution in the Govern-
ment of the United States, or in any Depart-
ment or Officer thereof.
[SECTION 9. The Migration or Importation
of such Persons as any of the States now
existing shall think proper to admit, shall not
be prohibited by the Congress prior to the
Year one thousand eight hundred and eight,
but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such
Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for
each Person.]
APPENDIX A 147
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Cor- 64
pus shall not be suspended, unless when in
Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public
Safety may require it.
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law 65
shall be passed.
No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall 66
be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or
Enumeration herein before directed to be
taken.
No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles 67
exported from any State.
No Preference shall be given by any Regu-
lation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports 68
of one State over those of another : nor shall
Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be
obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in an-
other.
No Money shall be drawn from the Treas- 69
ury, but in Consequence of Appropriations
made by Law ; and a regular Statement and 70
Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of
all public Money shall be published from time
to time.
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by 71
the United States: And no Person holding
any Office of Profit or Trust under them,
shall, without the Consent of the Congress,
accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or
Title, of any kind whatever, from any King,
Prince, or foreign State.
148 APPENDIX A
72 SECTION 10. No State shall enter into
any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation;
grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin
Money ; emit Bills of Credit ; make any Thing
but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Pay-
73 ment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder,
ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the
Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title
of Nobility.
No State shall, without the Consent of the
74 Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Im-
ports or Exports, except what may be abso-
lutely necessary for executing its inspection
75 Laws : and the net Produce of all Duties and
Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Ex-
ports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of
the United States ; and all such Laws shall be
subject to the Revision and Control of Con-
gress.
No State shall, without the Consent of Con-
76 gress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops,
or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into
any Agreement or Compact with another
77 State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in
War unless actually invaded, or in such im-
minent Danger as will not admit of delay.
ARTICLE II
78 SECTION 1. The executive Power shall be
vested in a President of the United States of
APPENDIX A 149
America. He shall hold his Office during the
Term of four Years, and, together with the 79
Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be
elected, as follows
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner 80
as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Num-
ber of Electors, equal to the whole Number
of Senators and Representatives to which 81
the State may be entitled in the Congress:
but no Senator or Representative, or Person
holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the
United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
[The- Electors shall meet in their respec-
tive States, and vote by ballot for two Per-
sons, of whom one at least shall not be an 82
Inhabitant of the same State with them-
selves. And they shall make a List of all the
Persons voted for, and of the Number of
Votes for each; which List they shall sign
and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat
of the Government of the United States,
directed to the President of the Senate. The
President of the Senate shall, in the Pres-
ence of the Senate and House of Representa-
tives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes
shall then be counted. The Person having
the greatest Number of Votes shall be the
President, if such Number be a Majority of 83
the whole Number of Electors appointed;
and if there be more than one who have such
a Majority, and have an equal Number of
150 APPENDIX A
Votes, then the House of Representatives
shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of
them for President ; and if no Person have a
Majority, then from the five highest on the
List the said House shall in like Manner
chuse the President. But in ch using the
President, the Votes shall be taken by States,
the Representation from each State having
84 one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall
consist of a Member or Members from two-
thirds of the States, and a Majority of all
the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In
every Case, after the Choice of the President,
the Person having the greatest Number of
85 Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice Pres-
ident. But if there should remain two or
more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall
chuse from them by Ballot the Vice Presi-
dent.]
The Congress may determine the Time of
chusing the Electors, and the Day on which
they shall give their Votes ; which Day shall
be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen,
86 or a Citizen of the United States, at the
time of the Adoption of this Constitution,
shall be eligible to the Office of President;
neither shall any Person be eligible to that
87 Office who shall not have attained to the Age
of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years
a Resident within the United States.
APPENDIX A 151
In Case of the Removal of the President
from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or
Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties 88
of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on
the Vice President, and the Congress may by
Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, 89
Resignation or Inability, both of the Presi-
dent and Vice President, declaring what
Officer shall then act as President, and such
Officer shall act accordingly, until the Dis-
ability be removed, or a President shall be
elected.
The President shall, at stated Times, re-
ceive for his Services, a Compensation which 90
shall neither be encreased nor diminished
during the Period for which he shall have
been elected, and he shall not receive within
that Period any other Emolument from the
United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his
Office, he shall take the following Oath or
Affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or af- 91
firm) that I will faithfully execute the Office
of President of the United States, and will to
the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United
States/'
SECTION 2. The President shall be Com- 92
mander in Chief of the Army and Navy of
the United States, and of the Militia of the
152 APPENDIX A
several States, when called into the actual
93 Service of the United States; he may re-
quire the Opinion, in writing, of the prin-
cipal Officer in each of the Executive Depart-
ments, upon any Subject relating to the
94 Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall
have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons
for Offences against the United States, ex-
cept in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the
Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make
95 Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators
present concur; and he shall nominate, and
by and with the Advice and Consent of the
96 Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other
public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the
97 supreme Court, and all other Officers of the
United States, whose Appointments are not
herein otherwise provided for, and which
shall be established by Law: but the Con-
98 gress may by Law vest the Appointment of
such inferior Officers, as they think proper,
in the President alone, in the Courts of Law,
or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up
99 all Vacancies that may happen during the
Recess of the Senate, by granting Commis-
sions which shall expire at the End of their
next Session.
SECTION 3. He shall from time to time give
APPENDIX A 153
to the Congress Information of the State of
the Union, and recommend to their Consid-
eration such Measures as he shall judge nec-
essary and expedient ; he may, on extraor- 100
dinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or
either of them, and in Case of Disagreement
between them, with Respect to the time of
Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such 101
Time as he shall think proper; he shall re-
ceive Ambassadors and other public Minis-
ters; he shall take Care that the Laws be 102
faithfully executed, and shall Commission all
the Officers of the United States.
SECTION 4. The President, Vice President 103
and all civil Officers of the United States,
shall be removed from Office on Impeach-
ment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bri- 104
bery, or other high Crimes and Misdemean-
ors.
ARTICLE III
SECTION 1. The judicial Power of the
United States, shall be vested in one supreme 105
Court, and in such inferior Courts as the
Congress may from time to time ordain and
establish. The Judges, both of the supreme
and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices 106
during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated
Times, receive for their Services, a Compen-
154 APPENDIX A
sation, which shall not be diminished during
their continuance in Office.
SECTION 2. The judicial Power shall extend
to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising un-
der this Constitution, the Laws of the United
States, and Treaties made, or which shall be
made, under their Authority; to all Cases
107 affecting Ambassadors, other public Minis-
ters and Consuls; to all Cases of admiralty
and maritime Jurisdiction; to Controversies
108 to which the United States shall be a Party;
to Controversies between two or more
109 States ; between a State and Citizens of an-
other State; between Citizens of different
States; between Citizens of the same State
claiming Lands under Grants of different
States, and between a State, or the Citizens
thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Sub-
jects.
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other
public Ministers and Consuls, and those in
which a State shall be a Party, the supreme
110 Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In
all the other Cases before mentioned, the
supreme Court shall have appellate Juris-
diction, both as to Law and Fact, with such
Exceptions, and under such regulations as
the Congress shall make.
The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of
111 Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such
APPENDIX A 155
Trial shall be held in the State where the
said Crimes shall have been committed; but
when not committed within any State, the
Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the
Congress may by Law have directed.
SECTION 3. Treason against the United 112
States, shall consist only in levying War
against them, or in adhering to their Ene-
mies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No
Person shall be convicted of Treason unless 113
on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the
same overt Act, or on Confession in open
Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare 114
the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder
of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood,
or Forfeiture except during the Life of the
Person attainted.
ARTICLE IV
SECTION 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be 115
given in each State to the public Acts, Rec-
ords, and judicial Proceedings of every other
State. And the Congress may by general
Laws prescribe the Manner in which such
Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be
proved, and the Effect thereof.
SECTION 2. The Citizens of each State shall 116
156 APPENDIX A
be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.
A Person charged in any State with Trea-
117 son, Felony, or other Crime, shall on De-
mand of the executive Authority of the State
from which he fled, be delivered up, to re-
move to the State having Jurisdiction of
the Crime.
[No Person held to Service or Labour in
one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping
into another, shall, in Consequence of any
Law or Regulation therein, be discharged
from such Service or Labour, but shall be
delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom
such Service or Labour may be done.]
118 SECTION 3. New States may be admitted by
the Congress into this Union; but no new
State shall be formed or erected within the
Jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State
be formed by the Junction of two or more
States, or Parts of States, without the Con-
sent of the Legislatures of the States con-
cerned as well as of the Congress.
119 The Congress shall have Power to dispose
of and make all needful Rules and Regula-
tions respecting the Territory or other Prop-
erty belonging to the United States; and
nothing in this Constitution shall be so con-
strued as to Prejudice any Claims of the
United States, or of any particular State.
APPENDIX A 157
SECTION 4. The United States shall guaran- 120
tee to every State in this Union a Republican
Form of Government, and shall protect each
of them against Invasions; and on Applica-
tion of the Legislature, or of the Executive 121
(when the Legislature cannot be convened)
against domestic Violence.
ARTICLE V
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both 122
Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose
Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the
Application of the Legislatures of two-thirds
of the several States, shall call a Convention
for proposing Amendments, which, in either
Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Pur-
poses, as Part of this Constitution, when
ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths 123
of the several States, or by Conventions in
three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other
Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the
Congress; Provided that no Amendment
which may be made prior to the Year One
thousand eight hundred and eight shall in
any Manner affect the first and fourth
Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first
Article; and that no State, without its Con- 124
sent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage
in the Senate.
158 APPENDIX A
ARTICLE VI
All Debts contracted and Engagements en-
125 tered into, before the Adoption of this Con-
stitution, shall be as valid against the United
States under this Constitution, as under the
Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the
126 United States which shall be made in Pur-
suance thereof; and all Treaties made, or
which shall be made, under the Authority of
the United States, shall be the supreme Law
of the Land; and the Judges in every State
127 shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the
Constitution or Laws of any State to the
Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before
mentioned, and the Members of the several
State Legislatures, and all executive and ju-
dicial Officers, both of the United States and
of the several States, shall be bound by Oath
128 or Affirmation, to support this Constitution ;
but no religious Test shall ever be required
as a Qualification to any Office or public
Trust under the United States.
ARTICLE VII
129 The Ratification of the Conventions of
nine States, shall be sufficient for the Estab-
APPENDIX A
159
lishment of this Constitution between
States so ratifying the same.
the
Done in Convention by the Unanimous
Consent of the States present the Seven-
teenth Day of September in the Year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and
Eighty seven and of the Independence of the
United States of America the Twelfth. In 130
Witness whereof We have hereunto sub-
scribed our Names,
G: WASHINGTON Presidt.
and deputy from Virginia
Attest WILLAM JACKSON Secretary
[JOHN LANGDON
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
[NICHOLAS GILMAN
[NATHANIEL GORHAM
[BuFus KING
J WM. SAML. JOHNSON
[ROGER SHERMAN
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
'WiL: LIVINGSTON
DAVID BREARLEY
WM. PATERSON
JONA : DAYTON
160
APPENDIX A
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
Georgia
B. FRANKLIN
THOMAS MIFFLIN
ROBT. MORRIS
GEO. CLYMER
THOS. FITZ SIMONS
JARED INGERSOLL
JAMES WILSON
Gouv MORRIS
GEO: READ
GUNNING BEDFORD jun
JOHN DICKINSON
RICHARD BASSETT
JACO : BROOM
JAMES MCHENRY
DAN OF ST THOS. JENIFER
DANL CARROLL,
[JOHN BLAIR
1 JAMES MADISON JR.
(WM : BLOUNT
RICHD. DOBBS SPAIGHT
Hu WILLIAMSON
f J. RUTLEDGE
CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY
CHARLES PINCKNEY
[PIERCE BUTLER
[WILLIAM FEW
1 ABR BALDWIN
APPENDIX A 161
ARTICLES
IN
ADDITION TO, AND AMENDMENT OF
THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
PROPOSED BY CONGRESS AND RATIFIED BY THE LEGISLA-
TURES OF THE SEVERAL STATES, PURSUANT TO THE
FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE I
Congress shall make no law respecting an 131
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the free- 132
dom of speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 133
petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.
ARTICLE II
A well regulated militia, being necessary 134
to the security of a free State, the right of
the people to keep and bear arms, shall not
be infringed.
162 APPENDIX A
ARTICLE III
135 No soldier shall, in time of peace be quar-
tered in any house, without the consent of
the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a man-
ner to be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE IV
136 The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not
be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but
upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized.
ARTICLE V
No person should be held to answer for a
137 capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless
on a presentment or indictment of a Grand
Jury, except in cases arising in the land or
naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual
service in the time of War or public danger ;
nor shall any person be subject for the same
offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or
limb ; nor shall be compelled in any Criminal
Case to be a witness against himself, nor be
APPENDIX A 163
deprived of life, liberty, or property, with- 138
out due process of law; nor shall private
property be taken for public use, without
just compensation.
ARTICLE VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public 139
trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been
committed, which district shall have been
previously ascertained by law, and to be in-
formed of the nature and cause of the accusa-
tion; to be confronted with the witnesses
against him ; to have compulsory process for 140
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have
the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
ARTICLE VII
In suits at common law, where the value 141
in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars,
the right of trial by jury shall be preserved,
and no fact tried by a jury shall be other-
wise re-examined in any Court of the United
States, than according to the rules of the
common law.
164 APPENDIX A
ARTICLE VIII
142 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and un-
usual punishments inflicted.
ARTICLE IX
143 The enumeration in the Constitution of
certain rights, shall not be construed to deny
or disparage others retained by the people.
ARTICLE X
144 The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by-
it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.
ARTICLE XI
145 The Judicial power of the United States
shall not be construed to extend to any suit
in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted
against one of the United States by Citizens
of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects
of any Foreign State.
ARTICLE XII
146 The Electors shall meet in their respective
States, and vote by ballot for President and
APPENDIX A 165
Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State with
themselves; they shall name in their ballots
the person voted for as President, and in 147
distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice
President, and they shall make distinct lists
of all persons voted for as President, and of
all persons voted for as Vice President, and
of the number of votes for each, which lists
they shall sign and certify, and transmit
sealed to the seat of the government of the
United States, directed to the President of
the Senate; The President of the Senate
shall, in presence of the Senate and House
of Representatives, open all the certificates
and the votes shall then be counted; The
person having the greatest number of votes
for President, shall be the President, if such
number be a majority of the whole number of
Electors appointed; and if no person have
such majority, then from the persons having
the highest numbers not exceeding three on
the list of those voted for as President, the
House of Representatives shall choose im-
mediately, by ballot, the President. But in 14&
choosing the President, the votes shall be
taken by States, the representation from each
State having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or mem-
bers from two-thirds of the States, and a ma-
jority of all the States shall be necessary
166 APPENDIX A
to a choice. And if the House of Repre-
sentatives shall not choose a President when-
ever the right of choice shall devolve upon
them, before the fourth day of March next
following, then the Vice President shall act
as President, as in the case of the death or
other constitutional disability of the Presi-
dent. The person having the greatest num-
ber of votes as Vice President, shall be the
Vice President, if such number be a majority
of the whole number of Electors appointed,
and if no person have a majority, then from
the two highest numbers on the list, the
Senate shall choose the Vice President; a
quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-
thirds of the whole number of Senators, and
a majority of the whole number shall be nec-
essary to a choice. But no person consti-
tutionally ineligible to the office of President
shall be eligible to that of Vice President of
the United States.
ARTICLE XIII
149 SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involun-
tary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their juris-
diction.
SECTION 2. Congress shall have power to
APPENDIX A 167
enforce this article by appropriate legisla-
tion.
ARTICLE XIV
SECTION 1. All persons born or natural-
ized in the United States, and subject to 150
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any 151
law which shall abridge the privileges or im-
munities of citizens of the United States ; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of 152
law ; nor deny to any person within its juris-
diction the equal protection of the laws.
SECTION 2. Representatives shall be ap-
portioned among the several States accord- 153
ing to their respective numbers, counting the
whole number of persons in each State, ex-
cluding Indians not taxed. But when the
right to vote at any election for the choice of
electors for President and Vice President of
the United States, Representatives in Con-
gress, the Executive and Judicial officers of
a State, or the members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhab-
itants of such State, being twenty-one years
of age, and citizens of the United States, or
in any way abridged, except for participa-
tion in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of 154
168 APPENDIX A
representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male
citizens shall bear to the whole number of
male citizens twenty-one years of age in such
State.
SECTION 3. No person shall be a Senator
or Representative in Congress, or elector of
President and Vice President, or hold any
office, civil or military, under the United
States, or under any State, who, having pre-
viously taken an oath, as a member of Con-
gress, or as an officer of the United States,
or as a member of any State legislature, or
as an executive or judicial officer of any
State, to support the Constitution of the
155 United States shall have engaged in insur-
rection or rebellion against the same, or
given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of
each House, remove such disability.
SECTION 4. The validity of the public
156 debt of the United States, authorized by law,
including debts incurred for payment of
pensions and bounties for services in sup-
pressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not
157 be questioned. But neither the United States
nor any State shall assume or pay any debt
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection
or rebellion against the United States, or any
claim for the loss or emancipation of any
APPENDIX A 169
slave; but all such debts, obligations and
claims shall be held illegal and void.
SECTION 5. The Congress shall have 158
power to enforce, by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article.
ARTICLE XV
SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the 159
United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
SECTION 2. The Congress shall have
power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
ARTICLE XVI
The Congress shall have power to lay and
collect taxes on incomes from whatever 160
source derived, without apportionment among
the several States, and without regard to any
census or enumeration.
ARTICLE XVII
The Senate of the United States shall be
composed of two Senators from each State,
elected by the people thereof, for six years;
and each Senator shall have one vote. The 161
170 APPENDIX A
electors in each State shall have the qualifica-
tions requisite for electors of the most numer-
ous branch of the State legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representa-
tion of any State in the Senate, the executive
authority of such State shall issue writs of
election to fill such vacancies: Provided,
That the legislature of any State may em-
power the executive thereof to make tem-
porary appointments until the people fill the
vacancies by election as the legislature may
direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed
as to affect the election or term of any Sen-
ator chosen before it becomes valid as part
of the Constitution.
APPENDIX B
NEW YORK STATE ELECTION LAWS
General Election. The General Election takes
place each year on the Tuesday after the first Mon-
day in November, the polls being open continuously
from 6 A. M. until 5 p. M. A vote on national, state,
county, city, town and village officers and on con-
stitutional amendments and public questions is taken
on this date in varying years. Every fourth year
the General Election is on the same day as the Na-
tional Presidential Election, when 45 electors for
President and Vice President of the United States
are elected by state-wide vote. The Governor, Lieu-
tenant Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller,
Treasurer, Attorney-General and State Engineer are
chosen at the General Election each even-numbered
year. The state is represented in the national Sen-
ate by two senators, each holding office for six years.
A new senator is elected at the General Election pre-
ceding the expiration of the term of the holder of
the office. A Congressman from each of the 43 con-
gressional districts is elected each even-numbered
year, as well as a state senator from each of the 51
senatorial districts. An assemblyman from each of
the 150 assembly districts is elected each year. The
171
172 APPENDIX B
fourteen-year terms of office of the seven judges of
the court of appeals and of the supreme court judges
expire in varying years, and their successors are
chosen at the General Elections preceding the expi-
ration of the terms. County officers are elected at
the General Election in odd-numbered years, as are
officers in first and second and some third class cities.
Smaller communities have their elections on varying
dates.
Qualifications of Voters. A qualified voter is a
citizen who is or will be on the day of election 21
years old, who has been an inhabitant of the state
for one year preceding the election, who has been a
resident of the county for the last four months, who
has been a resident of the election district in which
he votes for the last 30 days. If a naturalized citi-
zen he must in addition to the foregoing provisions
have been naturalized at least 90 days prior to the
election. Property-owning qualifications are neces-
sary for voting on some town and village questions.
The ownership of property taxable for school pur-
poses or the guardianship of a child of school age
is also necessary for voting in school district meet-
ings.
Registration of Voters. Days are appointed an-
nually in each district for the registration of voters.
At this time are registered, the name, address, occu-
pation and other statistics concerning the applicant.
In cities and villages of 5,000 or more inhabitants
only those may be registered who appear personally
at the appointed time. In an election district sit-
APPENDIX B 173
uated wholly outside a city or village of 5,000 or
more inhabitants the election inspectors register with-
out personal application the names of those voting at
the last General Election still living in the district
and the names of such others as are shown to be quali-
fied to be registered. On registration days registra-
tion may be made for any election in the district
during the following year, provided the citizen will
be qualified to vote on the day of election. A person
who has been registered and who changes his resi-
dence within the same election district may state the
change to the election inspectors on registration day
or election day.
Official Primary Elections. An official primary
election is held each year on the seventh Tuesday be-
fore the General Election. In the year of a National
Presidential Election an additional official primary
is held on the first Tuesday in April. On these days
the political parties choose their candidates, the offi-
cial polling places and regular election officers being
used. Each primary is open for voting from 7 A. M.
until 9 P. M., except in a city of more than 1,000,000
inhabitants, where the primaries are open from 3
p. M until 9 P. M. To be entitled to vote at an official
primary election a citizen must have enrolled in the
preceding year as a member of the party holding the
election and must be qualified to vote on the day of
election.
Party Enrollment. Party enrollment is made on
registration day where personal registration is re-
quired. A person enrolled as a member of one po-
174 APPENDIX B
litical party may not enroll as a member of any other
political party before the first day of the next regis-
tration except in the instance of one who has been
an enrolled member of the same political party for
five years. If by mistake such a person enrolls with
a different political party, the enrollment may be
cancelled upon application to the custodian of the
primary records and the voter may again be en-
rolled with his party. One who becomes of age after
the General Election may enroll as a member of a
political party on or before the fourth Tuesday pre-
ceding an official primary election of the party. No
voter may take part in any primary election of any
party other than the party in which he is at that
time enrolled. A voter already enrolled who moves
into, another election district in the same assembly
district may at any time between February 1st and
the thirtieth day before the annual primary election
become enrolled therein as a member of the same
party by making application to the proper official
and filing an affidavit with the custodian of primary
records.
Casting a Vote. A voter on entering the appointed
polling place to vote at an election, gives his name
and address to the election inspectors. If his right
to vote is not challenged, the voter proceeds to the
machine, or where ballots are used, a ballot or set of
ballots is presented by the ballot clerks. At the
head of each ballot are instructions for marking it.
The marked ballot is returned to the inspector in
charge of the ballot box. If the ballot or set of bal-
APPENDIX B 175
lots is spoiled others may be obtained, not exceeding
three sets.
Time Allowed Employees to Vote. Any person en-
titled to vote at a General Election may absent him-
self from his service or employment for a period of
two hours during the time that the polls are open.
If the voter notifies his employer of such intended
absence, time is designated by the employer and the
voter is absent during the designated hours ; or if the
employer upon the day of such notice makes no desig-
nation and the voter is absent from business during
any two consecutive hours while the polls are open,
no deduction shall be made from his usual salary and
no other penalty shall be imposed by the employer
for such absence.
Party Committees. One member is elected from
each assembly district in even-numbered years to the
party state committee. One member is elected from
each election district annually to the party county
committee. Delegates and alternates to the national
party convention are elected from congressional dis-
tricts and from the state at large, the number from
the state at large being limited to four delegates and
alternates.
Designation of Candidates. Designation of candi-
dates for party nomination or for election to party
positions is by petition only, the number of signa-
tures required varying according to the office and
population of the community. No enrolled voter
shall join in designating a greater number of candi-
dates for any position than the number to be elected
176 APPENDIX B
thereto. All such petitions must be filed not earlier
than the fifth Tuesday and not later than the fourth
Tuesday preceding the primary at which the candi-
dates are to be voted for.
FINIS
INDEX
(References are to pages)
Agriculture, Department of,
33
Alaska, government of, 72
Aldermen, Board of, 65
Aliens, 8, 9
Ambassadors, 94
Amendment, of State consti-
tutions, 6; of the federal
constitution, 7
Amendments of the Constitu-
tion, the fourteenth, 8, 12;
fifteenth, 14
Anarchy, 9
Anti-Trust Law, 134
Apportionment of Represen-
tatives, 17
Arbitration, 98
Assessment, 103
Assessors, 59, 111
Attorney General, of United
States, 32 : of a State, 55
Auditor, of State, 54 ; of coun-
ty, 59
B
Bail, 11
Banks, postal savings, 33; na-
tional, 118; federal reserve,
119: Farm Loan, 121
Bank notes, 117
Bills, passage of in Congress,
21; in State legislatures, 46
Bland-Allison Act, 115
Bonds, 113
Boroughs, 63
Cabinet of the President, 29
Campaign, the presidential, 84
Candidates, nomination of, 79
Capitation tax, 103
Casting a Vote, 174
Caucus, 81
Chancery courts, 41
Child Labor Law, federal, 88
Circuit Court of Appeals
(federal), 43
Circuit Courts (State), 38
Cities, 64-69
Citizenship, 8-16
City Manager Plan, 67
Civil Service, the national, 35
Coinage, 115-117
Commerce, 123-129
Commerce, Department of, 34
Commission System of mu-
nicipal government, 67
Committees, of Congress, 19;
of State legislatures, 146
Comptroller of State, 60
Congress (of the United
States), 17-25
177
178
INDEX
Constitutional conventions, 6
Constitutional government, 5
Constitutions (State), 5-7
Consuls, 96
Conventions of political par-
ties, 82-84
Coroner, 59
Corporations ( municipal ) , 63
Corporations (private), 130-
135
Council system of municipal
government, 64
County, the, 57-60
County convention, 82
Courts (federal), 42-44;
(State), 37-42
Custom Duties, 103
Democracy, 3-4
Democratic Platform, 87
Demonetization of silver, 115
Dependencies, 71-78
Designation of Candidates,
175
Direct Nominations, 80-81
District courts (federal), 42
District courts (State), 38
Duties of citizenship, 15
Elections, 84, 171
Electors, Presidential, 84, 85
Equal Guardianship Law, xiii
Equalization of taxes, 111
Executive departments, na-
tional, 31-35; State, 52-56
Expenditures, national, 105
Federal courts, 42-44
Federal Reserve Board, 121
Finance, 106-114
Floor leader, 23
Free trade and protection,
123-125
G
Gold, coinage of, 115-117
Government Printing Office,
35
Governor of a State, 52-54;
of Territories and Depend-
encies, 72-78
Graduated taxation, 103
Grand Jury, 39
Greenbacks, 117-118
Guam, government of, 78
Habeas Corpus, 1 1
Hawaii, government of, 74
House of Representatives, 17
23
Immigration, regulation of,
124
Impeachment, 24
Income tax, 102
Indian reservations, 73
Inheritance tax, 102, 105
Initiative and Referendum,
47-50
Injunction, writ of, 42
Insular possessions, 74-78
Interior, Department of, 33
Internal revenue taxes, 31,
103, 108
INDEX
179
International relations, 94-
100
Interstate commerce, 126-128
Interstate Commerce Com-
mission, 35, 127
Judiciary (federal), 42-44;
(State), 37-42
Jury, trial by, 39-40
Justice, Department of, 32
Justices of the peace, 38
Juvenile Court Law in Colo-
rado, xv
Labor, Department of, 34
Library of Congress, 35
Lieutenant Governor, 52, 54
M
Mandamus, 42
Mayor, 65
Ministers, 94-96
Money, 115-122
Monopoly, 134
Montana, Equal Suffrage in,
xiv-xv
Mothers' Pension Law, xiv
N
National Convention, 83
National parks, 73
Naturalization, 9
Navy, Department of, 33
New York State Election
Laws, 171
New Zealand, Equal Suffrage
in, xii
Nomination of candidates, 79
O
Office, right of holding, 13
Official Primary Elections, 173
Panama Canal strip, 74
Parcels post, 32
Parks, national, 73
Parties, political, committees,
175; enrollment, 173; or-
ganization, 79-85 ; plat-
forms, 86-93
Partnerships, 131-133
Philippine Islands, 77
Political rights, 13-15
Popular government, 3-7
Porto Rico, 75
Postal Savings Bank, 33
Post Office, Department of, 32
President of the United
States, 26-30
Primary elections ( official ) ,
173
Primary meetings, 81
Probate Courts, 41, 58
Progressive taxation, 103
Prohibition platform, 93
Property tax, 101, 110
Protection and free trade,
123-125
Public debt, 113
Public finance, 106-114
Q
Qualifications of Voters, 172
180
INDEX
R
Railroads, 126
Recall, 50
Recorder, county, 59
Redemption Act, 118
Referendum, 48-50
Register of deeds, 59
Registration of Voters, 172
Representative government, 4
Representatives, House of, 17-
23
Republican Platform, 89
Rights of Citizenship, 8-16
Rules of the House of Repre-
sentatives, 21
S
Salaries of federal officers, 36
Samoa, government of, 78
Secretary of State, of the
United States, 31; of a
State, 54
Senate (of the United
States), 23-25
Sheriff, 58
Sherman Silver Act, 116
Sherman Anti -trust Act, 134
Shipping Board, 128
Single tax, 104
Smithsonian Institution, 35
Socialist-Labor platform, 90
Solicitor general, 32
Speakership of the House of
Representatives, 19
State conventions, 82
State, Department of, 31
States Attorney, 60
Subsidiary coinage, 115
Superintendent of public in-
struction, State, 55
Supervisors, 57
Supreme Court (State), 40
Supreme Court of the United
States, 44
Surrogate's court, 41
Surveyor, 60
Tariff, 123
Taxation, 101-105
Territories, 71-78
Time Allowed Employees to
Vote, 175
Town (New England), 60;
(incorporated), 63
Township, 61
Trade Commission, 35, 135
Treasurer (State), 55;
( county ) , 59
Treasury, Department of, 31
Treasury notes, 116
Treaties, 26, 98
Trusts, 134
Veto, power of President, 27;
governor, 53
Vice-President, 23, 28
Villages, 63
Virgin Islands, 78
Voters, qualifications of, 78,
172; duties, 13-15
W
War, Department of, 32
Woman's Party in Politics,
xvii-xviii
Writs, habeas corpus, 11; in-
junction, 42 ; mandamus, 42
Women Police, xir
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
LOAN DEPT.
This book is due on the last date stamped below
on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall
or
LD 21A-50m-9,'58
(6889slO)476B
.General Library
University of California
Berkeley
6636
U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES
LI
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
