It was also provided that if twenty per cent of the population should
petition the President to remove any official from office the question
of such removal should be submitted to the popular vote at the next
annual election, and a majority vote was sufficient to retain or remove
such official. In case such officer was removed by popular vote the
Governor was to appoint a successor to hold until the next annual
election, but the person removed could not hold the office again until
one full term had intervened. The Legislature had power to delegate its
judicial functions in such manner as it saw fit.
When it was desired to remove the Governor the petition must be
submitted to the Great Council and in case of his removal the vacancy
was filled by that body.
When the convention adjourned its labors had produced the briefest
written constitution in force in any of the states of the American
Union. In my opinion it was the best. It not only made the legislative
body the most prominent of the people’s servants, but it provided a
plain and simple method for the exercise of such control. It provided a
strong executive to execute the laws and made him the commander-in-chief
of the militia of the state, both industrial and military, but it gave
him no veto or pardoning power. It was, however, his province to
recommend to the Great Council the pardon of persons sentenced by the
judiciary to punishment, and few instances are known to our history
where such recommendations were not acted upon favorably. It contained
one brief provision which expresses all that is best in modern civilized
government in a few words. That provision, under the head of
Co-operation, is as follows:
“The Council shall provide for the government ownership of all the
sources and machinery of production and the operation of the same, to
the end that no person within the state shall be idle or needy. It shall
cause all railroads, water rights, mines and cultivated or uncultivated
lands to be purchased by the state as speedily as practicable and shall
levy an army, to be known as the Industrial Army, to work the same. The
state shall never sell, grant or alienate any of its property so
acquired. No property shall be taken from any person or persons by the
state without paying just compensation therefor.”
All the laws in force at the time of the adoption of the new
constitution, except such as were inconsistent with it, were to be
continued in force until amended or repealed. All officials, except
those whose offices were abolished by the new constitution, or should be
abolished by the Great Council, continued in office until the next
general election.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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