RECENT STATE CONSTITUTION-MAKING 1 



By John B. Phillips 



Constitutions which determine the form a government shall take are 

 always the result of slow growth. It does not matter whether they are 

 written or consist only of unwritten precedent. In every case they must 

 needs represent the fundamental notions of the people in regard to the 

 proper safeguards necessary to secure them in the enjoyment of their 

 liberties. What these safeguards are can be determined only by the 

 slow changes of time and the processes of evolution. These fundamen- 

 tal notions are constantly changing in order to keep pace with the shift- 

 ing conditions of opportunity for human endeavor. The growth of 

 opportunities in modern times has made it necessary to embody in the 

 constitutions many things which were not considered by the constitution- 

 makers of one hundred years ago. Intricate and complex have become 

 the industrial relations of our time, and so great the consequent pressure 

 upon the weaknesses of our legislators that it has become necessary to 

 modify greatly the older constitutions in order to cope successfully with 

 this new form of danger to the liberties of a people. Hence the growth 

 of modern constitutions. There is no evidence that this growth will be 

 arrested. On the contrary, it will probably increase for a considerable 

 time to come. It is highly probable that we are now only in the begin- 

 ning of the new industrial era; and if this is the case, it is clear that 

 with new industrial opportunities it will be necessary further to define 

 the limits of individual rights. It is unlikely that this will be left to 

 the courts alone. On the contrary, it will probably be settled by putting 

 into the constitution something to mark the limits of the individual's 

 sphere of action. 



Aside from the variations in their interpretation by the courts the con- 

 stitutions of the American States can grow in but two ways. They 

 may be changed by amendment, or an entirely new constitution may be 



1 Reprinted from the Yale Review, Vol. XII, No. 4 (February, 1904), by permission of the editors. 



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