80. More than a hundred and twenty-five years ago, when it was decided to build the nation’s capital on the shores of the Potomac, President Washington sent to France for Major L’Enfant, an engineer who had served in the American army during the Revolution, and entrusted to him the task of laying out the new city. L’Enfant took great pains to provide for wide streets; he designated the location of the important public buildings (such as the Capitol and the White House) and left plenty of open spaces in his plan.

81. In Washington, thanks to L’Enfant’s sagacious planning, the streets occupy about one-half the entire area.

82. This plan also renders it easy to find one’s way about, and this is particularly true when the streets are known by numbers rather than by names.

83. See the illustrative diagram facing this page.

84. Pavements Arranged in Their Approximate Order of Desirability from Different Points of View

Economy	Economy	Durability	Cleanli-	Noiseless-	Safety
in	in		ness	ness
construction	Repair
Macadam	Granite	Granite	Asphalt	Wood	Granite
Asphalt	Brick	Wood	Brick	Macadam	Macadam
Brick	Wood	Brick	Wood	Brick	Brick
Wood	Asphalt	Asphalt	Granite	Asphalt	Wood
Granite	Macadam	Macadam	Macadam	Granite	Asphalt

85. A common pretext is to allege that the lowest bidder is not a reliable contractor, or that he underpays his workmen, or that on some previous contract he failed to do a good job. Any such excuse is good enough for city officials who desire to favor their own friends at the public expense. City charters sometimes provide that contracts must be given to the lowest bidder, but a hard-and-fast requirement of this kind may sometimes lead to difficulties.

86. The unsightliness of the billboards is not their only objectionable feature. Unless they are firmly anchored in the ground they are often blown down by heavy winds; they afford places of concealment for footpads; and they become the nucleus of a rubbish heap. Land is rented for billboard space which otherwise would be improved and built upon. Billboard space is given over very largely to the advertising of non-essentials. If you will make a survey of say fifty billboards in your own community, you will find that by far the greater portion of the space is given to advertising luxuries. Local merchants use billboard advertising very little. Outside concerns take most of their surface.

87. Restrictions may legally be placed upon private property in the interest of the public safety, health, or morals. But people cannot be prohibited from using their own private property in ways which merely offend the public taste.

88. The watchmen were very unreliable. In London it was said that most of them spent the greater part of the night in the ale-houses while thieves prowled around in the streets. In order to keep the watchmen on their patrols it became the custom to have them call out the hours as they went along. These watchmen’s cries, “Three o’clock, a misty morning”, etc., were a quaint feature of London life a hundred years ago.

89. Sir Robert Peel, who established the first regular police force in England, made himself very unpopular for a time by this step. The members of the new police force, by way of ridicule, were called “peelers” and “bobbies”, and these nicknames persist in England to the present day. They wore (and still wear) blue coats with copper buttons, for which reason the London youngsters also referred to the policeman as “the copper”. In America we have shortened it to “the cop”.

90. In Berlin, for example, 98 per cent of the buildings are of brick, stone, concrete, or other fire-resisting material. In the average American city such buildings do not usually form more than 25 per cent of the total.

91. Take the income-tax amendment, for example; or the prohibition amendment. Both of them show a popular willingness to place great powers in the hands of the federal government. The people would not have agreed to direct election of senators a hundred years ago; but they did it in 1913.

92. Hawaii and Alaska are both governed in the same way, and exactly like one of the old territories. Porto Rico has a slightly different form of government, in that certain high officials besides the governor are appointed by the President. The government of the Philippines differs still further in that the higher administrative officials are appointed by the governor who, in turn, is named by the President.

93. During 1921 a study of Philippine conditions was made, at President Harding’s request, by Major-General Leonard Wood and the Hon. W. Cameron Forbes, former governor-general of the islands. These two eminent investigators, after a careful survey, found much to say in praise of the Filipinos; but their general conclusion was that the islanders needed further training in self-government under American supervision before they could wisely be given complete independence. The entire text of the Wood-Forbes report is printed in The Times “Current History” (January, 1922), pp. 678-694.

94. An area which is neither a state nor a territory, a zone nor an insular possession remains to be mentioned. This is Washington, or the District of Columbia as it is officially called, the home of the nation’s government. It has neither mayor nor aldermen. The government of the District is in the hands of three commissioners appointed by the President, one of them being an officer of the army. These three commissioners carry on all the work of municipal administration.

95. In some states, in Ohio, for example, the question of calling a constitutional convention must be voted upon every twenty years.

96. In some states the legislature, in proposing an amendment, must pass it in two successive sessions, or by a two-thirds vote, or must conform to some other special requirement.

97. See especially Art. I, Sec. 9; and Amendments I-XV, XIX.

98. These four propositions may perhaps be made more understandable by the accompanying table, which does not purport to be a complete enumeration but only an illustration of the way in which the propositions work out.

99. A wide range of authority is included, for example, within the term “police power”, which is the power of the state to take measures for protecting the safety, health, and morals of the people.

100. Any member of the legislature may introduce a bill, but not many of them know how to draft one properly. That is not surprising, for state legislatures are not made up of lawyers alone but of farmers, shop-keepers, and other plain citizens who have had no previous experience in lawmaking. In order to help the members of the legislature some states have established legislative reference bureaus in charge of expert bill-drafters. These bureaus keep on file all the latest information concerning what is being done in other states, including copies of laws which have been passed there. At the request of any member the bureau officials will prepare a bill embodying the member’s ideas.

101. A good deal of the trouble is due to party leaders and to lobbyists who plague the members into voting for measures or against them. Lobbyists are paid agents of corporations, labor organizations, women’s leagues, reform associations, granges, and so on, who hang around the lobby and argue with the legislators, trying to influence their action by persuasion or threats as may seem likely to be most effective. At any state capitol one may count these lobbyists by the dozen.

102. In New York State the Supreme Court, paradoxically, is not supreme. Final authority among the state courts rests with a still higher court, known as the Court of Appeals.

103. The jurisdiction of the federal courts is explained on pp. 311-313. All other cases besides those named in the constitution come within the authority of the state courts.

104. When a governor instructs these elective officials to do something, they frequently refuse. In one case a state treasurer kept large sums of money in banks which the governor and other high state officials believed to be unsafe. They urged him to withdraw these funds, but the treasurer declined to do so. A little later two of these banks were closed by order of the bank commissioner and half a million dollars of the state’s money was tied up.

105. See the diagram facing this page.

106. There were some notable absences. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not there; both were serving their country as diplomatic representatives abroad, the one in France and the other in England. Nor was John Hancock, whose flashing signature first meets the eye among the signers of the Declaration. Neither was Patrick Henry present, for he was strongly opposed to the convention’s being held at all and declined to be a delegate from Virginia.

107. Three of these compromises, commonly known as “The Great Compromises”, stand out prominently and are fully described in all books of American history, so that they do not need to be given in detail here. There were compromises on many minor points as well.

108. North Carolina did not ratify, however, until 1789, and Rhode Island not until 1790.

109. A congressman who is elected in November does not take his seat until a year from the following December. This is because, although elected in November, his term does not begin until the ensuing fourth of March. By that time the winter session is over. Thus it happens that men who are defeated at the polls often continue to make the nation’s laws.

110. No one is eligible for election to the Senate unless he is at least thirty years of age. He must also have been a citizen of the United States for at least nine years and at the time of his election an inhabitant of the state from which he is chosen. The governor of the state may be empowered by the legislature to fill any vacancy which may occur through the death or resignation of a senator, this temporary appointment to be valid until a senatorial election is held.

111. The Vice President of the United States presides over the Senate when trying impeachments, as at other times; but when the President is being impeached the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court serves as temporary presiding officer. Who would preside in case the Vice President were impeached? The constitution does not say. Presumably the president pro tempore of the Senate would preside.

112. Nine civil officers of the United States have been impeached at one time or another during the past hundred and twenty-five years. The most notable case was that of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. He was charged by the House of Representatives with having violated the laws relating to appointments (particularly the Tenure of Office Act), but was acquitted. The Senate voted thirty-five to nineteen for his conviction, but this was one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

113. Despite the desirability of keeping the membership down, there is a constant temptation to increase it in order that no state shall have fewer representatives than it has become accustomed to having.

114. When Elbridge Gerry was governor of Massachusetts in 1812, the state legislature rearranged the congressional districts in such a way that one of them had a dragon-like appearance. The boundaries of this district had been marked on a map in a local newspaper office. Gilbert Stuart, the famous painter, happened to come in and with his pencil added a head, wings, and claws to the figure. “That will do for a Salamander,” he said. “Better say a Gerry-mander,” replied the editor, and the outlandish name, thus accidentally coined, passed into the English language.

115. The plan at present (1922) is as follows: the Republican members of the House from each state select one of their members to represent them in choosing the committees. This representative from each state becomes a member of the Committee on Committees and at meetings of this committee casts a vote equal to the number of Republican Representatives from his state. This Committee on Committees selects the Republican members of the various committees. A caucus of the Democratic members of the House, sometimes through the medium of a Committee on Committees, selects the Democratic members of the Committees. Then the House as a whole accepts the joint list.

116. On many bills the committees do not even hold hearings; if they did, they would never get through with their work. Measures by the hundred are introduced each year by congressmen simply to please people in their districts and without the slightest expectation that they will ever be passed.

117. When bills are introduced in the Senate, they are considered there first and then sent down to the House. Except in the case of bills relating to revenue and expenditure any measure may be introduced in either chamber.

118. Another way to delay business is to keep continually asking for roll-calls to see if a quorum is present. Calling the names of 435 members takes a lot of time. Some years ago a bill was introduced to provide for the installation of electric apparatus by means of which every member could register “Yes”, “No”, or “Present” by merely pressing a button at his seat. On the wall there were to be electric bulbs set opposite each congressman’s name. Pressing the button would indicate the congressman’s answer to a roll call by flashing a red or white or blue light on the wall. Congress did not adopt the plan.

119. See pp. 463-465.

120. On the question whether members of the American cabinet should sit in Congress, see p. 302.

121. During the past year or two a group of congressmen, both senators and representatives, from the agricultural states has been voting solidly and without regard to party affiliations on many important measures. This group is known as the “agricultural bloc”. Its avowed aim is to see that the interests of the farmers are properly safeguarded in all legislation. For a brief discussion of this topic from a different angle, see p. 350.

122. James Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. I, Ch. VII.

123. When the constitution was finally drawn and made public many features of it were strongly criticized, but nowhere was there any objection to this method of electing the President. Everyone seemed to feel that this method of choice by an electoral college was an admirable one. Yet curiously enough it turned out to be one of the poorest things that the convention did. It has completely failed to work out as the convention intended. Direct popular election, which the constitution endeavors to avoid, is exactly what we have. The convention, moreover, placed no limit upon the number of terms which a President might have. But Washington set the example by declining a third consecutive term and no President since his time has ever served three terms. From time to time it has been suggested that the President’s term should be lengthened to six years and that he should then be made ineligible for re-election, just as, in some of our larger cities, the mayor is ineligible to succeed himself. This suggestion, however, has never found much favor.

124. If the original plan were now followed, this is about what would happen: After the presidential election in November the people and the newspapers would be discussing the probable attitude of the electors, wondering whom they would choose and making various suggestions to them. Some electors would be announcing their preferences; others would be keeping silent. With great interest we should await the meetings of the electors in January; the newspaper reporters would crowd outside the door to gain the first inkling of their decisions in each state; the returns would come in one by one from the forty-eight state capitals and would be figured up with breathless interest. But what actually does happen is very different from this. On the evening of the presidential election the fight is all over. Nobody knows, and nobody cares who the electors are. We only know that a majority of them will vote for the Republican or for the Democratic candidate when the time comes. In January they meet, almost unnoticed, cast their votes as a matter of form, and get a small paragraph somewhere on the inside pages of the newspapers.

125. See p. 158.

126. The House votes by states; the Senate by individual members. See Amendment XII. In 1800 there was a tie, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, each having an equal number of votes. The House of Representatives decided the tie by electing Jefferson. Then the Twelfth Amendment was adopted. In 1824 no candidate received a majority, and on this occasion the House chose John Quincy Adams as President. The system worked thereafter without mishap for over fifty years, but in 1876 there was a serious muddle because twenty-two electoral voters were in dispute, namely, the votes of Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. From each of these states two sets of electors claimed to have been chosen. The controversy was decided by a special commission of fifteen members, five from the Senate, five from the House, and five from the Supreme Court. By a vote of 8 to 7 this commission decided in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes and he became President.

127. In the Republican national convention of 1920, for example, General Leonard Wood and Governor Lowden polled the largest number of votes on the first ballot. Senator Hiram Johnson of California was third and Senator Harding of Ohio was fourth. But neither of the two leading candidates could obtain a majority although ballot after ballot was taken. Finally, when the delegates were becoming tired and impatient, some of their leaders came together and agreed to unite on Senator Harding. They advised their supporters to swing over to him and on a subsequent ballot he was nominated.

128. The delegates sometimes resent this attitude on the part of the leaders. They may make a strenuous fight in the convention or they may bolt altogether. Thus, in 1912, the leaders of the Republican convention decided to renominate President Taft and, after a hard fight, managed to get a majority of the delegates recorded in his favor. But a very strong minority desired to nominate ex-President Roosevelt, who was believed to be far more acceptable to the rank and file of the party throughout the country. When they failed in the convention they left the hall, formed a new party, and nominated Colonel Roosevelt as the Progressive candidate. But this merely split the Republican ranks wide open and made certain the success of the Democrats at the forthcoming election.

129. During the past fifty years there have been eleven presidents. Of these, six came from Ohio and three from New York. One came from Indiana (but was a native of Ohio), and one from New Jersey. Only four states, therefore, have contributed occupants to the presidential office during half a century.

130. England is a monarchy and the United States a republic, yet the English monarch has no veto power like that of the President. By usage the king must sign every bill that is laid before him. Someone has said that the king of England would be under obligations to sign his own death warrant if parliament should send it up to him. The President of the United States is given his far-reaching power to override the wishes of a majority in Congress because he is an elective officer and in the exercise of his veto acts for the people, not for himself.

131. When Mr. Harding was elected in November, 1920, President Wilson was slowly recovering from a severe illness. Great problems were awaiting attention and by many it was deemed unfortunate that the newly-elected President could not take hold of them for four months. So Mr. Bryan suggested that Mr. Harding should be appointed Secretary of State and that thereafter the President and Vice President should resign. This, under the rules of succession, would have enabled Mr. Harding to take office at once. But the suggestion was not accepted.

132. On assuming office in 1921 President Harding invited the Vice President to attend all meetings of the cabinet.

133. When President Wilson was ill in 1920 the Secretary of State, Mr. Robert Lansing, called the cabinet together to discuss some urgent matters of business. In due course the President heard of this action and resented it. In a letter to the Secretary of State he called attention to the fact that without the President there was nothing that the cabinet could legally do.

134. President Lincoln, for example, did not consult the cabinet in the framing of the Emancipation Proclamation; he merely read it to the cabinet after it was finished. General Grant treated his cabinet as though it was merely his general staff with the function of carrying out orders rather than giving advice. President Roosevelt usually had his own mind made up on matters of policy, and the members of his cabinet, although they differed from him in temperament, did not often differ from him in opinion. President Wilson, in choosing his cabinet, made it a point to get men whose minds ran along with his own. On the other hand, President Hayes, President Harrison, and President McKinley were considerably guided by the advice of their cabinets and consulted them freely.

135. The State Department deals chiefly with foreign and diplomatic affairs as well as with relations between the nation and the states; it also promulgates the laws passed by Congress. The Department of the Treasury collects the revenues, pays the government’s bills, attends to the borrowing of money when necessary, issues the currency, and has general supervision over the national banks. The War Department has charge of the armed forces, the land fortifications, the purchase of munitions, and the whole upkeep of the army. The Department of the Interior has functions of a very miscellaneous nature, so much so that it has been jocularly called the “department of things in general”. It has charge of national parks and forests, patents, pensions, the geological survey, and various other things which have little relation to one another. The Postmaster-General assumes the oversight of the entire postal service. The Department of Justice has an Attorney-General at its head. He is the government’s chief legal advisor and represents it in all legal controversies. The Navy Department has charge of all the nation’s armed forces afloat. The Department of Agriculture has to do with the promotion of agricultural interests throughout the country (see pp. 346-348). The Department of Labor has charge of immigration, naturalization, and the execution of the federal laws relating to labor. The Department of Commerce is concerned with the development of foreign and domestic trade, the inspection of steamboats, the publication of consular reports (see pp. 373-374), and so forth.

136. In addition to the ten regular departments there are other branches of the national administration whose heads are not members of the cabinet. These include such bodies as the Interstate Commerce Commission (p. 364), the Federal Trade Commission (p. 391), the Civil Service Commission (p. 103), the Tariff Commission (p. 370), besides various bureaus of one kind or another. Members of these boards and heads of the independent bureaus are all appointed by the President, responsible to him, and removable by him.

137. This is old French for Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The custom of opening a court session with these words goes back to the time of the Plantagenets in English history.

138. It may be well to explain briefly some of the terms commonly used in connection with the law and the courts. The parties to a suit at law are usually known as the plaintiff and the defendant. A criminal case is one in which some crime is charged; in a civil case, the issue concerns the private rights of individuals (for example, when a man is sued for debt). A court has original jurisdiction where cases come before it in the first instance without having already been heard by some other court; it has appellate jurisdiction when cases come up from some other court on appeal.

139. In more than one hundred and thirty years only one Supreme Court justice has been impeached and he was acquitted. The charges in this case, moreover, did not reflect upon the integrity of the judge.

140. Article III, Section 1.

141. A few cases come directly before the Supreme Court, for example, suits between two states of the Union; but the great majority of cases come up on appeal, or on writ of error, which is a method of appeal.

142. There are, in addition, some special federal courts, such as the court of claims, the courts which try cases in the District of Columbia, and the courts of the insular possessions.

143. These rules were gathered together and put into written form by various commentators, chief among whom were Glanvil, Bracton, Coke, Littleton, and Blackstone. Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Common Law of England, compiled before the American Revolution, is still the standard work, known to every lawyer.