Senate, like the national Senate, is a permanent body; half its number are old members, or "hold-over Senators," who sit in two consecutive legislatures. The eligible age of the Senators is usually higher than that of the Representatives. The State Senators and Representatives are usually apportioned among the several counties of the State according to population, and the electoral districts are expected to be equal as to the number One of the chief abuses of the Apportion ment of Senators and Representatives. of inhabitants. "gerrymander" is the making of unequal districts for partisan purposes. In the apportionment the counties are generally recognized as the electoral units, and many State constitutions forbid that counties should be divided in making up electoral districts. In the New England States the towns or townships were generally recognized as the electoral units. In Connecticut and in other of the older States provision was made for the representation of towns rather than of numbers of people. New Haven, with one hundred thousand population, had no more representation in the Legislature of Connecticut than a country town of five hundred people.' Required. It Representatives and Senators are usually required to live in the districts which they represent. This restriction tends to prevent the securing of the best ability District Resiin the State for service in the legislature. The dence is restriction rests on custom rather than on law, but it is all the harder to overcome for that reason. has been suggested, as a means of meeting this difficulty, that fifteen or twenty Senators be elected from the State at large, to be voted for by all the voters of the State. This, it is thought, would lead to the choice of men of ability and State reputation. The members in the State legislatures vary from fifty-two in the whole Legislature of Delaware (seventeen of these A recent attempt to remedy this defect failed. See Municipal Affairs, for June, 1902, G. S. Ford on "Rural Domination of Cities in Connecticut." being in the Senate), to 321 in the House of Representatives in New Hampshire. The pay of members varies from one dollar per day in Rhode Island to fifteen hundred dollars a year in New York. The pay is usually a per diem of from four dollars to eight dollars a day and mileage. Suffrage is a subject for State regulation. Who may vote for President or Congressman depends upon the laws of the State. Whoever is entitled by the Suffrage is Regulated by constitution and laws of the State to vote for State Laws. members of the most numerous branch of the State legislature may vote in national elections.' Voting is not a right of citizenship. It is a privilege conferred by the State on those whom it considers fit. Voters and citizens are not identical. Many citizens are not voters; many voters are not citizens. Women are usually not voters; they are, of course, citizens. While the States cannot make aliens into citizens, they may, and in some cases do, make voters out of them. In Indiana a foreigner is required to live but one year in the State to become a voter; he must live five years in the United States in order to become a naturalized citizen. Educational Though the regulation of suffrage is left to the States the qualifications are generally uniform. Manhood suffrage prevails, as a rule, throughout all the States, and in twelve States womanhood suffrage (see Woodburn's Political Parties and Party Problems, p. 344). Some restrictions have been imposed lately in the Southern States by requiring certain educational and taxpaying tests. This is done for the purpose of excluding colored voters. The State constitution may require that before one may vote he must be able to read the Constitution or understand a section of it when it is read to him. Election boards composed of white men may decide that illiterate whites understand the Constitution I United States Constitution, Art. i., Sec. 2. while illiterate blacks do not. A "grandfather clause" also may admit illiterate whites while excluding illiterate blacks, by providing that any one whose father The "Grandor grandfather was a citizen of the State prior father Clause." to 1867 (the date of the Reconstruction Acts) may be relieved from the suffrage tests. Twelve of the States' admit women to the general suffrage, while several other States allow women to vote on several local matters pertaining to taxation and education. Formerly, property qualifications were common in most of the States. The growth of the democratic spirit has led to the abandonment of all such qualifications. The small poll-tax, or nominal property tax now required in some of the States does not deter any man of twenty-one, however poor, from casting his ballot. The tax is easily taken care of by friends or interested party managers. Amendment. The uniformity in suffrage qualifications in the States is due to the general democratic spirit of equality prevailing throughout the Union, and partly to the Suffrage and requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Fourteenth the Constitution of the United States. This provides that representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State. But when the right to vote at any election for President or Vice-President or Representatives in Congress is "denied to any of the male inhabitants in any State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State." I Wyoming (1869), Colorado (1893), Utah (1895), Idaho (1896), Washington (1910), California (1911), Kansas, Arizona, Oregon (1912), Illinois (1913), Nevada and Montana (1914), granted by statute national suffrage to women. This is mandatory and requires that the State's representation at Washington "shall be reduced" if its male voters are disfranchised for other reasons than crime. This holds out an inducement to the State to preserve a wide suffrage. The executive department of a State consists of the Governor and minor administrative officers, such as the Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of State, The State the Auditor of State, the Treasurer of State, the Attorney-General, the Superintendent of Public Instruction or the Commissioner of Education, Tax and Benevolent Boards, and other administrative agencies provided for by law and appointed by the Governor, or elected by the legislature. The Minor Officers are ble to the Governor. a Cabinet. The subordinate State officers, like the Secretary and Treasurer of State, are elected and hold their offices independent of the Governor. They are in no way related to him like a Cabinet or council of Not Responsi- advisers. Their work is not political and their offices do not enable them to determine the They are Not public policy of the State. The legislature determines the policy of the State, while each executive officer has his duties defined by law and each is directly responsible to the people. The governors are now elected by a direct vote of the people, while formerly they were frequently elected by the legislature. They hold office from one to four years and receive salaries ranging from two thousand dollars in some States to ten thousand dollars in New York. It is the Governor's duty to see that the laws of the State are faithfully executed; to convene the legislature Duties of the when occasion requires; to recommend desirGovernor. able legislation; to make such appointments as the constitution and the laws allow him; to act as commander of the State militia, and in this capacity to repel invasion and suppress riot, rebellion, and insurrec tion; to grant reprieves and pardons; to issue writs for the election of Congressmen, and to secure by extradition criminals escaping to other States. Executive The Governors in all the States but three have the veto power. In some of the States this may be overridden by a bare majority of the legislature, but even in such States the Governor's veto may cause the delay and public exposure of a bad measure and may even defeat it entirely upon its reconsideration. The Governor's reputation depends upon his use of the veto. The Governor is not a figure of great political importance, by no means as important as in former days. John Jay resigned the Chief Justiceship of the United States to become Governor of the State of New Political Im portance of York, and frequently the governors of the old the Governor. commonwealths looked upon their office as equal in rank to that of the President. The Governor represents the official dignity of the State on state occasions, and graces public assemblies by his presence and by a suitable address. His patronage is not extensive and his office reprepresents prestige rather than power. This holds good in ordinary times when the Governor's duties are not important, but in times of strikes and riots the character of the Governor becomes of vital concern, and his firmness, wisdom, and executive energy may be most effective in defending and promoting the welfare of the State. To be the governor of one of the leading States sometimes places a man in line for political promotion and may lead to his selection for a Cabinet portfolio or to his nomination for the Presidency or Vice-Presidency. Lieutenant The Lieutenant-Governor corresponds to the VicePresident. In most of the States he is ex officio the presiding officer of the State Senate and in case of the death or disability of the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor succeeds to the governorship. Otherwise the Lieutenant-Governor has no functions to perform. Governor. |