62D CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session.

CONSTITUTIONS OF NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA.

MAY 12, 1911.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. FLOOD of Virginia, from the Committee on the Territories, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. J. Res. 14.]

The Committee on the Territories, to whom was referred the joint resolution (H. J. Res. 14) approving the constitutions formed by the constitutional conventions of the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, having had the same under consideration, reports it back with a substitute and with the recommendation that the substitute do pass.

The act "To enable the people of New Mexico to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States; and to enable the people of Arizona to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States," approved June 20, 1910, provided that when the constitutions for the proposed States of New Mexico and Arizona therein provided for should be formed in accordance with the terms and conditions of said enabling act, and said constitutions so framed should have been ratified by the people of New Mexico and Arizona, respectively, at elections provided for in said enabling act, certified copies thereof should be submitted to the President of the United States and to Congress for approval, and that if Congress and the President should approve the constitutions, or if the President should approve said constitutions and Congress should fail to disapprove the same during the next regular session of Congress, then, and in that event, the President should certify the fact to the governors of New Mexico and Arizona, respectively, who should, within 30 days thereafter, issue proclamations for the election of State and county officers and other officers of said proposed States, as therein set forth.

The committee reports that constitutions have been framed by constitutional conventions in accordance with the terms and conditions of said enabling act and have been duly ratified by the people of New Mexico and Arizona, respectively, at elections held for that

purpose, and that certified copies thereof have been duly submitted to Congress and to the President of the United States for approval in accordance with the terms of said enabling act.

The committee further reports that on February 24, 1911, the President approved the said constitution of New Mexico in a message to the Congress as follows:

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

The act to enable the people of New Mexico to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, etc., passed June 20, 1910, provides that when the constitution, for the adoption of which provision is made in the act, shall have been duly ratified by the people of New Mexico in the manner provided in the statute, a certified copy of the same will be submitted to the President of the United States and to Congress for approval, and that if Congress and the President approve of such constitution, or if the President approve the same and Congress fails to disapprove the same during the next regular session thereof, then that the President shall certify said facts to the governor of New Mexico, who shall proceed to issue his proclamation for the election of State and county officers, etc.

The constitution prepared in accordance with the act of Congress has been duly ratified by the people of New Mexico, and a certified copy of the same has been submitted to me and also to the Congress for approval, in conformity with the provisions of the act. Inasmuch as the enabling act requires affirmative action by the President, I transmit herewith a copy of the constitution, which, I am advised, has also been separately submitted to Congress, according to the provisions of the act, by the authorities of New Mexico, and to which I have given my formal approval. I recommend the approval of the same by the Congress.

THE WHITE HOUSE, February 24, 1911.

WM. H. TAFT.

The President so far has not acted on the said constitution of Arizona.

The committee further reports that it has had said constitutions under consideration and finds the same to be republican in form; that they make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, and that they are not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States or the Declaration of Independence, and that they are in conformity with the provisions of the enabling act.

The committee further reports that on February 16, 1911, Congress passed and the President approved a joint resolution entitled "Joint resolution reaffirming the boundary line between Texas and the Territory of New Mexico," defining the boundary line between the proposed State of New Mexico and the State of Texas, which boundary as defined in said resolution is not the boundary as defined in said constitution, and said joint resolution was passed to correct and define said boundary line and declared that any provision of said constitution that in any way tends to annul or change the boundary line defined in said joint resolution should be of no force or effect, but should be so construed as not in any way to change, affect, or alter said boundary lines defined in said joint resolution, and that the boundary line defined in said joint resolution "should be held and declared a conclusive location and settlement of said boundary lines."

The committee has carefully considered the said resolution so referred to it, and has had a number of meetings, at which citizens from the two Territories, particularly New lexico, have appeared and been heard; representatives of the Anti-Saloon League and the

The committee also had before it the report of the hearings and evidence produced before the same committee of the Sixty-first Congress on this question.

The substitute admits both of the Territories as States without approving the constitution of either; in fact, changes in both constitutions are suggested by the substitute, which in effect is a disapproval of both constitutions as adopted.

This has been done in order to meet the views of those Members of Congress who are willing to admit these Territories as States but who are averse to affirmatively approving their constitutions as adopted. It the case of New Mexico the suggested change is in Article XIX of its proposed constitution, which is the article on amendments. The reason for submitting this suggested change is that this article, as contained in the proposed constitution, taken in connection with the apportionment for the members of the legislature, renders it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to amend this constitution.

Article XIX as adopted requires that amendments may be proposed by two-thirds of all the members elected to each house of the legislature, except that at the first regular session held after the expiration of two years, and every eight years thereafter, a majority can propose amendments; but in either case only three amendments can be submitted at one election, and this must be a general election, and all amendments must be ratified by a majority of the electors voting thereon, and this majority must equal 40 per cent of all of the votes cast for any purpose and 40 per cent of the vote cast in at least one-half of the counties of the State. The question of calling a constitutional convention can not be submitted to a vote of the people until the expiration of 25 years except by a three-fourths vote of all the members elected to each house of the legislature, and to call a convention during that period there must not only be a majority of all the electors voting at the election, but there must also be a majority of all the electors voting in one-half of the counties.

From a consideration of these provisions it will be seen that it will be extremely difficult for the people of New Mexico to secure the holding of a constitutional convention during the first 25 years, and when these provisions are considered in connection with the apportionment for members of the legislature provided by the constitution, the extreme difficulty of amending the constitution in any way will be manifest. By reference to the apportionment, it will be found that the four counties of Colfax, San Miguel, Bernalillo, and Socorro, with an aggregate population of 77,000, and which, on the basis adopted by the constitutional convention for representatives in the senate, would entitle this population to between five and six senators, are so apportioned that they constitute parts of 10 senatorial districts and can control the election of 10 of the 24 senators, and thus prevent the securing of two-thirds of the senators necessary to submit to the people an amendment to the constitution.

Then it will be further seen that if under such conditions an amendment is submitted to the people the Constitution makes it extremely difficult to secure the necessary vote for its adoption. To adopt such an amendment a majority of the electors voting on the amendment must of course vote for it, and in addition this majority must consist of 40 per cent of the vote cast on all questions and 40 per cent of the vote cast in one-half of the counties. Thus it will be seen that if an

amendment is submitted at a general election at which 25,000 votes are cast but only 10,000 votes cast upon the amendment, 9,000 of which are in favor of it and 1,000 against it, the amendment would be lost, because 40 per cent of all the votes cast at the election were not cast for the amendment. Or, again, if the amendment was popular in 12 of the 26 counties and unpopular in the other 14, 15,000 votes might be cast for it and none against it in the 12 counties, and 3,500 votes for it in the other 14 counties and 6,500 against it, and yet an amendment upon which there might have been 18,500 votes cast for and 6,500 votes against, would be lost. It is only necessary to call attention to such provisions to secure their condemnation.

It is moreover found that the population of the counties lying along the eastern border of New Mexico have increased very rapidly in population in the past decade and will probably increase more rapidly in the future. The apportionment provided in the constitution suggests the denial of adequate representation to the rapidly increasing population of that section for a long time, unless the constitution is made more easy of amendment.

Certain other provisions of the constitution as framed and adopted are very objectionable, and will in their operation be very oppressive to the people of the new State, and it is claimed that they were brought about at the instigation and in the interest of certain large corporations and special interests whom it is claimed exerted large influence in the framing of the proposed constitution. The committee, however, has not thought fit to undertake to correct such objectionable features because it did not feel that it was in the province of Congress to make a constitution for the proposed State. The substitute resolution suggests an amendment to the proposed constitution of New Mexico, providing that any amendments may be proposed at any regular session by a majority of all the members elected to the legislature, and that the same shall be submitted to the electors for ratification or rejection at the next general election or at a special election, and if ratified by a majority of the electors voting thereon such amendment or amendments shall become a part of the constitution, thus putting it in the power of the people of the new State to amend their constitution if desirable to correct or eliminate any provisions thereof that may be found to be objectionable or oppressive.

The constitution also attempts to secure the original Mexican or Spanish-American population of New Mexico in their equal right of suffrage and in the enjoyment of equal rights of education with other citizens, present and prospective, of the new State. Your committee has not only by its proposed amendment of said Article XIX preserved such rights as are secured in the proposed constitution, but has made sections 1 and 3 of Article VII, on the elective franchise, and sections 8 and 10 of Article XII, on education, more secure against amendment than is provided in said proposed constitution. This was done to make clearer and more certain what seemed to be the unanimous wish of the people of New Mexico.

It will be noted that the amendment suggested in the substitute is not made mandatory, but is to be submitted to the electors for ratification or rejection, as a majority may determine.

It has been represented to the committee, and is no doubt true,

hood that when the proposed constitution was submitted its merits and demerits were not carefully considered, but, being submitted to them, as it was, as a whole, a large majority, through their great desire to secure statehood, voted for it without regard to what its provisions were. The amendment suggested by the substitute resolution reported by the committee, if adopted, will give the people of the Territory the power and opportunity which they otherwise would not have-to change any provision which in their desire for statehood may not have been sufficiently considered when the proposed constitution was ratified.

It will be seen from section 4 of the substitute resolution that provision is made for a separate ballot for the purpose of voting upon such amendment, which is to be printed on paper of a blue tint so as to be readily distinguishable from the white ballots which will be used for the election of officers at the same election, and that these ballots are to be delivered only to the election officers and to be delivered by them to the individual voter when he offers to vote.

These provisions were made because the election is in other respects to be held under and subject to the election laws of New Mexico now in force, which do not provide for a secret ballot and under which ballots are required to be printed on plain white paper 3 inches in width and 8 inches in length or within one-quarter of an inch of that size." (Compiled Laws of New Mexico, 1897, sec. 1634.) And said ballots are to have the names of all candidates for the respective offices printed thereon, and if the suggested amendments were required also to be printed on these ballots, it is obvious that there would not be room for that purpose, and besides, under the present election laws of the Territory the ballots can be distributed indiscriminately among the people some time before the day of election, and in other respects these election laws are lacking in the usual safeguards, while the provisions made by the substitute resolution in reference to the separate constitutional ballots will guarantee the necessary and usual safeguards.

The committee has also provided in said proposed substitute that the enabling act of June 20, 1910, shall be amended by making section 5 of said act so read as to remove the disqualification imposed upon the Spanish-American population of New Mexico who can not read, write, and speak the English language for holding State offices, including membership in the legislature of the new State. No just reason is found for such disqualification.

The evidence before the committee was that these SpanishAmerican citizens are eager for education and largely now speak the English language, and strive to advance the teaching of English to their children in all of their public schools, but that this provision of the enabling act is regarded by them as a reflection upon them and their race. They have at all times supported by their votes and the imposition of taxes the developing of the public-school system of New Mexico. They are largely an agricultural people, frugal, industrious, and earnest supporters of every movement intended to advance the progress, prosperity, and civilization of New Mexico.

Again, it was suggested that this disqualification violates the spirit and the letter of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and the Republic of Mexico, entered into on the 2d day of