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It THE BROAD AX -t'A- SCENTS per copy volxxviil CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1922 No. 10 Down With the Proposed New Constitution for the State of Illinois for It Is a Delusion and a Snare and If the People of This State on December 12th Vote in Favor of Its Adoption They Will Rivet a Loadstone or Chain Around Their Necks and a Heavy Burden Upon Their Shoulders Which They Will Be Unable to Shake Off for the Next One Hundred Years to Come I 4- AN ABLE AND LOGICAL ARTICLE IN OPPOSITION TO THE ADOPTION OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION, BY MR. CHARLES C. ROE, MEMBER OF THE CHICAGO BAR, AND ONE OF THE ASSISTANT ATTORNEYS FOR THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. When we elected a Constitutional Convention it'was because we thought that it was necessary to bring the basic law of Illinois into line with the progressive thought of the age, and it was because of that reason that the adoption of a new constitution met with ready response. After nearly two years of debate, a new constitution has been submit ted to the voters of this state for their approval, and an election will be held by the people to determine whether the proposed draft of the constitution, as submitted by the members of the convention, shall be approved and become the new consti tution of the state of Illinois. A special election to vote on this ques tion takes place on December 12, 1922. After a careful -perusal of the proposed constitution my objections are as. follows: It limits the right of citizens charged with crime to be admitted to bail by investing Judges of our court.-, with discretionary power. Under the present law of this state, and of every state in the Union, and of the-United States under our federal law, any per- son charged with crime, other than son -ii b - murdcr. has a legal right to be ad mitted to bail pending his trial; but under this proposed new constitu tion such personal liberty would be taken away from him and the writ of 1 abeas corpus would be abrogated, be cause where the judge is given dis cretion the court . cannot Interfere v.ub the discretion.unless it be of such a character. as to indicate gross in justice. It permits the trial of an individual on a criminal - charge without pre viously showing a cause or indictment of such charge by grand jury- This is unheard of among the Anglo-Sax-cn people and is not along progressive hnes, and tends to reduce the people to personal servitude to the whims and caprices of- the attorney-general of the state, who is authorized by the new constitution, to file an information against any person he may see fit without making any showing of prob able cause. It has token -away from the people of Cook County and the city of Chi cago their proportionate share of rep resentation in the senate and limits Cook County forever to but one-third of the membership of the state sen ate, even if the county of Cook, should became so great in. population as to outnumber all the Test of the State, and although it has, now over 47 per cent of the population of the entire states Cook county, including the city of Chicago, binder the new coastita tion, will be entitled to but two mem bers out of the nine members o the new Supreme court of the state of Illinois. It takes away from the people, in ay future constitutional conves throngh then representatives ia the tion, that no matter what the popk- regular assembly, the right to legis late concerning the practice and pleadings in our courts and gives this right to the Supreme court, which is a delegation of power unheard of among English-speaking peoples. The Supreme court is authorized to appoint judges under the new consti tution, and the people would 'have no ngnT to elect their own judiciaries, which would be appointed by the seven members of the Supreme court who were elected outside of Cook County and the city of Chicago, and would place in a foreign body the se lection of judges to preside over the courts in the city of Chicago and Cook county. It has placed in the hands of the Supreme Court the ap pointment, through its selection, of from five to six hundred office holders and attaches of these .various courts which it is in power to create. Under the rew constitution the Supreme court will become a political organ ization, and it will become an office brokerage bureau, and its appointees would be determined by the political complexion of the court. ' Business and individuals will be come burdened with income taxes and preference will be given to owners of intangible property (stocks and bonds), and exempts from taxation the owners of desmenses under the wtr a - fn-Aii dual.. a .rf C VO th v. .A . r , ' . . . limitation of the exemption given to the poor at $1,000 for the head of a family and $500 for an unmarried person, the effect of which will be to require every laboring man, working girl, stenographer, and scrubwoman at present wages to file income tax re ports and claims for exemption. The income tax on earnings from business, professions, and rents, under the new constitution, could be graduated pro gressively upward, while the income tax on stocks and bonds, must be uni form, thus discriminating in favor of the stockholders and bondholders of the state as against the business, pro fessional, and working people. When this Constitutional Conven tion was elected tnere was express instructions given to many of the members of this convention to provide and incorporate in the new constitu tion provision for the creation by the legislature of, the initiative and refer endum, which, in spite of this express understanding, this convention was so dominated by the money power that it has failed entirely to include any pro vision for the creation by the people of the state of Illinois of any initiative legislation, and refuses to the people the referendum for the approval of any iniquitous legislation that might be passed by subsequent general assem blies after the adoption of this pro posed new constitution. Cook countr would have but two members out of the nine members of the new Supreme court of the state of Illinois, although it has now nearly one-half of the population of the state, and will in a few years have a great deal more than one-half of the popu lation of the state, thus discrimi nating against the people of the me tropolis of the state in favor of the people down-state. It provides that tion of Cook county and Chicago might be, it could only have 45 out of 121 members of any new constitution al convention that might be called either ten years from now or one hundred years from now. No provision is made in this con stitution for the many progressive ideas of the times: such as old age. '&Gi7& pensions, etc This new constitution permits the reading of selections from any ver sion of the old or new testament in the public schools without comment by the teachers. This is in direct op position to the wishes of two large and influential bodies of our people the Roman Catholics and the Jews. Selections from the new testament of- all versions reflecting upon the Jew could be made by teachers if they so saw fit, and from the Roman-Cath olic version there could be selections made to Protestants that would be distasteful, and from the Protestant version there could be selections that would be distasteful and would re sult in ill feeling on the part of the Roman Catholics, and would be very detrimental to the proper training of our children. Ever since the founda tion of this great American republic, it has been the purpose of the people to keep the church and state separate. and to keep religion out of our pub lic schools; and since the foundation of the state of Illinois, over 100 (years, it has been unlawful to read selections from the old and new tes tament in the public .schools. With the large number of public school teachers of all religious faiths and nationalities, it is quite likely that there would be fanatics among all branches of religious thought, who would be authorized to select such parts of the old and new testament from any version they saw fit to em phasize their unreasonable and ta- satical views, and to force them upon HON. CHARLES C. ROE One of the able and resourceful Assistant Attorneys for the Board of Education of Chicago, fires into the proposed 5 new Constitution for the State of Illinois children whose parents would not wish them to be so instructed; and if for no other reason than that the new constitution permits to be read in the publif schools of this state se lections from any version of the new and old testament, it should be de feated. It erntraizes the tinner of covern- nieHS at tle expense of popular ma jorities ani undermines the principals ot major it; rule. It denic home rule to Chicago. It will intcrf re seriously with the future progress if Chicago in its power to ssuc bonds for municipal projects, on income-producing utilities. It will prevent legislation by initia tive of the people and it has many other daigerous innovations upon the present (constitution which are un heard of and would be too long to discuss An this 'short communication. For vecks and months the state has been fUoded by the proponents of the new constitution with arguments fa voring its adoption. Where the nionej is coming from to pay this vast expense no one knows, but we have . ur ideas. This new constitu tion i lay contain some provisions which are good, but it contains so many ad things that it should be de feated. It provides that "the truth, when pub) is 1 ed with good motives and for justifia e"cnds, is a sufficient defense" in trills fop -libels, civil or criminal. This vfculcT permit newspapers to pub hsh all sorts of lies and libels ruinous to profession and character, and to escape damages by publishing (after the damage had been done) the truth. The people of Illinois want a new constitution, but we want one that will reflect the progressive spirit of the times and until we can secure such a! constitution let us hold fast to that which we have. ' HAVE HIS Wife Confessed Love for Rival, Says Veteran Who Wins Divorce Los Angeles, Cal. "She told me she loved the other man better than she did me. I let her have him." Forest Tyrrell, an overseas soldier, concluded his statement of why his home was broken up with these words and Judge Summcrficld granted him a decree of divorce. The other man, according to the wife, seemed to tyield an influence over Mrs. Lcona May Tyrrell. She begged her husband to help her break the spell. When the other man looked at her, she said her. brain was in a whirl. She was unable to resist him. Mrs. Tyrrell crept back to her hus band and he thought the spell had been broken, but the man again crossed her path and she went away with him. Mr. Tyrrell found them toc-'Mer, and then she confessed her love for the "other man." The chances arc ten to one that Mrs. Tyrrell put the spell on the other man and that she had an evil eye for him, and that the other man under stood her and was able to handle her much better in every way than the husband whom she deserted. Editor. r Honorable John H. Ryan, Re-elected to the Legislature in the State of Washington Honorable John H- Ryan, who suc cessfully conducts a weekly (newspa per at Tacoma. Wash, was at ihe late election re-elected to the legisla ture of that state on the farmers' la bor ticket. Mr. Ryan has the honor of being the only Colored man elected to a leg islative body in that body of the ex treme west, LET "OTHER MAN" WIFE ECHOES AND RE-ECHOES OF THE LATE ELECTION. THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE RECOMMENDED AND URGED THE VOTERS RESIDING IN THE THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DIS TRICT OF ILLINOIS TO ELECT THOMAS M. CRAINE TO CON GRESS AND DEFEAT HON. EL LIOTT W . SPROUL. THE BROAD AX, SUPPORTED CONGRESSMAN SPROUL, AND DEFEATED THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. A SPLENDID JOKE ON THE GREAT EST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER IN THE WORLD. ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND POLITICIANS IN THE CITY HALL OR COUNTY BUILDING HAD NEVER HEARD OF IT UNTIL A FEW DAYS PRIOR TO THE LAST ELECTION. Prior to the late election, Novem ber 7, some mighty funny things hap pened and among them were that in many instances the voters paid not the slightest attention to the sugges tions or recommendations of the old Chicago Tribune, for it tried its level best to defeat Hon. Elliott W. Sproul in his race for re-election to Con gress from the Third Congressional District of Illinois and it supported Mr. Thomas M. Craine, Democrat, but this newspaper loyally supported Con gressman Sprout and he won out and the Chicago Tribune was defeated in that instance by The Broad Ax. That same newspaper urged the voters re siding in the 11th Senatorial District of Illinois to elect Hon. William H. Cm den to the state senate and this newspaper advised the voters in that district to elect Hon. Frank J. Ryan to the state senate and he was elected so this newspaper scored two big points over the Chicago Tribune. One week before the late election a half baked preacher, representing the greatest weekly newspaper in the world called on one of the candidates seeking re-election to one of the most important positions in Cook County, being located in the County Building and the would-be preacher endeavored to secure an advertisement from him. It so happened that ttje writer was engaged in conversation with that prominent politician at the time that the so-called preacher approached him and he was requested to state his busi ness very briefly and right to the point and the one-horse preacher went on to state that his newspaper was the greatest weekly newspaper in the world, that it had more than two hun dred and fifty thousand circulation, that he wanted seven dollars per inch per issue for an advertisement." When he had finished talking, looked over its political advertisements and he only ran across five small cuts stuck; away down in several corners of the paper and they were so black with real black ink that it was very hard to tell whether they represented white men or colored men and the preacher stated that they represented white men and tnat prominent politician simply responded, "is that so?" At that point that big politician brought a copy of The Broad Ax, of October 28. which contained twenty five beautiful half tone cuts of all the ! leading candidates both Democrats and Republicans in this city and coun ty and the prominent politician strong ly intimated that all of the live apd the biggest politicians or candidates seemed to be using Mr. Taylor's news paper to reach the colored voters and that it contained the finest and the cleanest cuts of any newspaper in this city and in every respect it is a real live newspaper and finally the prom inent politician capped the climax "when he asked the preacher if his greatest weekly newspaper in the world was published in Chicago" and the preacher responded by saying, "Yes, sir, it is published right here in this city." Then the politician said, "Is that so? I have never heard of it before, but I have heard of the Broad Ax," and in winding up the conversa tion the big politician said, "Come in and see me next week, and I will see what I "can do for you, but do not bank on securing a write-up or an ad vertisement from me," and after the preacher representing the greatest weekly newspaper in the world had departed from his rooms, the big pol itician locked the main door leading into them and he pulled 'out a roll of money big enough to choke ten horses and he said, "Friend, Taylor, one thousand dollars of this roll will be expended in buying the misses a new fur coat and after I have finished paying a few other bills, my money will be mighty scarce, but here is a brand new one hundred dollar bill for you and do the best you can for me for it. After tucking the one hundred dollar bill away we 'almost rolled down all the steps from the 10th floor to the main floor in the county build ing. Years ago when this newspaper first began to treat Democrats who were friendly inclined toward the colored people fairly through its columns the colored editors and owners of the other newspapers in this city hounded us as an old "Nigger Democrat," they laboring under the impression that'sby calling us a "Nigger Democrat" that in time would loll us oft but ati the late election the greatest weekly newspaper in the world and the heads. of the other colored newspapers in this!; aty raked in all the money that they possibly could from the Democratic candidates which enabled them to buy some new black silk or satin dresses for their wives or lady friends. &,&ifc, & . u.tb. jib' Ji. x