ILLINOIS v<*ers will have an oppor- 

 tunity at the general election in 1946 

 to ballot on a proposed change in the 

 amending process of the state constitu- 

 tion. On the face of it, this may appear 

 to be a technical question which is of no 

 great concern to the average voter. 



However, the issue is vital and far- 

 reaching. For. all practical purposes, Il- 

 linois has a constitution which is difficult 

 if not impossible to amend under the 

 present system of voting. This means 

 that almost insurmountable barriers stand 

 in the way of amending the state con- 

 stitution to meet the current and chang- 

 ing needs of the people. Here are a 

 few examples of amendments held up by 

 the constitution's cumbersome amending 

 formula. 



For several years the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association has strongly urged an 

 amendment to the revenue article of the 

 state constitution which would permit 

 the General Assembly to classify prop- 

 erty for taxation and modernize our tax 

 system. Farmers have a major interest 

 at stake in this matter. 



The lAA also has agreed to the need 

 for a change in the reapportionment arti- 

 cle of the constitution. The present pro- 

 vision is unworkable and impractical. 

 This is clearly evident from the fact that 

 although the constitution provides for a 

 reapportionment after each census, no 

 reapportionment has been made since 

 1901. ; , ^ : 



However, until the amending process 

 of the constitution is changed, it is near- 

 ly impossible to secure any merited re- 

 visions. 



Why is it almost impossible to change 

 the constitution? It doesn't take long 

 to explain. To secure adoption of an 

 amendment to the constitution, it is 

 necessary that a majority of all the peo- 

 ple voting at the election vote for the 

 amendment. It sounds simple, but it 

 isn't. There is always a large number 

 of people who vote on the candidates, 

 but who do not vote on the amendments. 

 By not voting on the amendments, these 

 persons in effect are counted as voting 

 against the amendments. 



Let's look at the amendment proposed 

 in 1942 to remove the sales tax from 

 food. There were 979,000 who voted 

 "yes" on this question, and 346,000 

 who voted "no." Thus the count on 

 those who actually voted on the amend- 

 ment was almost 3 to 1 in its favor. 



But there were 1,723,000 other per- 

 sons who cast ballots in that general elec- 

 tion, who did not vote on the sales tax 

 amendment. These votes were counted 

 against the amendment and when added 

 to the 346,000 who voted "no", resulted 

 in defeat of the amendment by a margin 

 of 2 to 1. 



WHAT IS THIS 



GATEWAY AMENDMENT? 



By CRESTON FOSTER 



Thus from 1891 to 1943, only two of 

 of the 12 proposed constitutional amend- 

 ments were adopted, although all but 

 two amendments received a majority of 

 the votes cast on the respective proposi- 

 tions. The amendments were defeated 

 by those who >were not sufficiently in- 

 terested in constitutional matters to vote 

 on the questions involved. 



The Gateway amendment which the 

 people of Illinois will be asked to vote 

 on in 1946 will change this procedure so 

 that in future elections an amendment 

 will be adopted if it secures a "yes" vote 

 from two-thirds of those who actually 

 vote on the amendment. It also pro- 

 vides that the General Assembly may sub- 

 mit amendments to the voters on as many 

 as three articles of the constitution in- 

 stead of one as at present. 



Adoption of the Gateway proposal 

 would not make amendment of the 

 constitution easy, but it would make it 

 reasonably possible. It would give the 

 people of Illinois the opportunity and 

 privilege in the future of amending 

 basic articles of the constitution to meet 

 current needs, if such amendments are 

 submitted to the electorate by two-thirds 

 vote of each House of the General As- 

 sembly, and if two-thirds of those vot- 

 ing on the proposal vote "yes". 



However, the vote on the Gateway 

 amendment itself in 1946 will be on the 

 same basis which has spelled defeat of 

 four Gateway amendments in past years. 

 Unless sufficient interest can be aroused 

 among the electorate so that everyone 

 who votes at the election, votes on the 

 Gateway amendment, it will be defeated. 



The lAA in the recent session of the 

 General Assembly made a strong fight 

 to give the Gateway amendment a fair 

 chance at the polls by sponsoring the so- 

 called party circle bills. The bills would 

 have permitted the use of the party cir- 

 cle method of voting so that straight 

 tickets would count for the Gateway 

 proposal if the voter's party had en- 

 dorsed the proposition in state conven- 

 tion. It also provided that if the voter 



was not in accord with the position taken 

 by his party, he could vote directly on 

 the proposition in any manner he chose. 



The lAA pointed out that it was sup- 

 porting the party circle method of voting 

 only for use in adopting the Gateway 

 amendment. The wording of the Gate- 

 way amendment, if adopted, is such that 

 it will forever close the door to the use 

 of the political convention or party circle 

 voting in the consideration of any 

 amendment later submitted to a basic 

 article of the constitution. 



TTie party circle bills passed the Sen- 

 ate by a vote of.40 to 1 and the House 

 by a vote of 127 to 3. Notwithstand- 

 ing the importance of the bills, as re- 

 flected by the very large favorable vote. 

 Governor Green killed the bills and his 

 veto message was a lengthy and rather 

 bitter denunciation of the legislation. 



Many of Governor Green's statements 

 in his veto message were not in keeping 

 with his attitude during early consider- 



• 



Farm Adviser H. N. Myers, DeWiti county, 

 operates a machine he invented to cut 

 strips oi building poper into 4-inch rolls ior 

 chinch bug barriers.. These rolls, soaked 

 in creosote, will be placed edgewise in 

 the soil to stop chinch bugs from crawling 

 into com fields. (Pantograph Photo) 



16 



L A. A. BECORD 



