CHANGES IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

(1909-1913)1

IMPORTANT CHANGES OR GENERAL MOVEMENTS

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES

The Income Tax Amendment. For the first time in 43 years the national Constitution was amended in 1913. This sixteenth amendment deals with income taxes. It was proposed by Congress in July, 1909, and was proclaimed by the Secretary of State as a part of the Constitution, in February 1913, having been ratified by 38 States. (See § 246.)

The amendment reads as follows:

Article XVI. The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without any apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or enumeration.

An

Amendment for the Direct Election of Senators. amendment, the seventeenth, to provide direct election of senators, was proposed by Congress, June 12, 1912, and was ratified by three fourths of the States by May, 1913. (See § 304.)

NEW STATES

New Mexico was admitted to the Union, Jan. 6, 1912, and Arizona, February 14, 1912, the number of States now being 48.

POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT

Woman's Suffrage. After years of objection, the opposition to granting the ballot to American women has broken

1 The four years from 1909 to 1913 have seen marvelous changes in American government. The most important of these are listed in the following paragraphs, the main text of the book not being cut at the present time for the insertion of the new material. For a study of the historical changes of these years consult Ashley's American History, revised, Chapter XXII, the part on the Rule of the People, 1906-1914.

down somewhat. Modern economic and social conditions, having given woman a new position in the business world, are yielding her the ballot as well. In January, 1913, nine States made no distinction between men and women as voters. These were Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona, and Kansas. Illinois (June, 1913) gave the suffrage to women by statute for all statutory offices, that is, those not mentioned in the state constitution. These include presidential electors, city mayors, and many others.

Direct Nominations.-The nominating convention (§ 24) is being abandoned, being used now in a minority of the States for the selection of state and local candidates. Presidential candidates were selected by conventions in 1912, but nearly one half of the delegates to these conventions were elected directly by the people voting in direct primaries (§ 26). As the direct primary is in use in all but a very few Western States and in some of those in the East, it is the common method of selecting candidates and will be the almost universal method within a very short time. Many methods are in use, however, for determining which voters shall vote for candidates of any party, most States permitting each voter to have absolute and final choice of the party with which he allies himself.

The Recall.

Control of public officials through the recall (§ 35) has spread from southern California along the Pacific Coast and eastward. It may be used in numerous cities and is now legal in eight States. Most of these permit the removal of any elected officials, state or local, at the will of the voters. Some of them exempt all judicial officials from the recall, the conservatives fearing that judges will lose their independence, if the voters may remove them. Theodore Roosevelt has suggested the recall of judicial decisions as a means by which court decisions may conform to the popular will.

The Initiative and the Referendum.

The movement for direct participation of the voters in government has been chiefly through the direct primary and the initiative and the referendum. The latter are used now in one third of the States for the making of laws, although Oregon is the only State in which these methods have been used enough to give the people an active share in the work of lawmaking. The subject deserves extended consideration. These methods

seem to modify the representative character of our government. Coupled with the use of direct nominations and the recall, they give the people of most of our western States opportunity to exercise direct control over their government.

COMMISSION GOVERNMENT IN CITIES

Within the last five years nearly 300 of our cities have adopted a form of government called government by commission. A small number of commissioners, usually five, is elected on a general ticket for a term of two or four years. One of them acts as mayor and has charge of an administrative department. Each of the others is the head of some grand department (§ 73). Ordinances are passed, taxes levied, and franchises granted by the commission as a whole.

Advantages claimed for the commission form of government are simplicity of organization, opportunity for coöperation because the experts who administer the laws are part of the lawmaking body, concentration of authority, and the opportunity to get good men, because positions of authority attract good men and the people can select the best since the ballot is short.

Commission government is still an experiment. It really has not been used in large cities, but it is now the form of government for about 20% of our urban population, and it has been quite successful where it has been tried. Whether this success is due to the form of government or to the increased interest in municipal affairs in those cities which have adopted the commission form of government, remains to be seen.

THE PROTECTION OF LABOR

Child Labor (§ 144). The last four years have seen considerable progress in child legislation. Many States have adopted the fourteen-year age limit in new occupations. The schools coöperate more than formerly in preventing the use of child labor during school hours. A national children's bureau was created (1911) in the Department of Labor.

Women's Hours of Labor. Since the United States Supreme Court upheld, in the Müller case (1908), the right of a State to protect the race by limiting the hours of labor for women, many States have passed laws limiting the hours to 8 to 10 per day, and from 48 to 54 per week.

Minimum Wage.

During the winter of 1912-3 several