3. How were representatives originally chosen? How elected now?

4. What rights have territorial delegates?

5. How is a vacancy in the House filled?

6. How is a speaker of the House chosen? What are his duties and powers?

7. Who are the other officers of the House?

Give duties.

8. How are senators chosen? Term? How is the Seventeenth Amendment an improvement over the old method of electing senators?

9. Why have equal representation in the Senate from all states? What are the advantages of this system? How is this method unfair? IO. How are vacancies in the Senate filled? II. What are the qualifications of a senator? 12. What are the duties of a Vice President? office so lightly regarded?

Why is this high

13. What other officers has the Senate? Duties of?

14. What is impeachment? Define the duties of the House and Senate in impeachment proceedings. What is the penalty?

15. When are congressmen regularly elected? When does Congress regularly meet?

16. Would it be better to have a new Congress meet at once after an election?

17. What right has each house concerning election returns? 18. What is meant by a quorum?

19. Why should little secrecy obtain ordinarily in sessions of committees of Congress? Of Congress itself?

20. May the Senate sit when the House is not in session? Why? May the House sit without the Senate? Why?

21. Why are members privileged from arrest? Why are they only subject to questioning in the body to which they belong concerning remarks made there?

22. Why are members of Congress prevented from aspiring to certain offices?

QUESTION FOR DEBATE

Resolved, That the Vice President should be an advisor to the President in a capacity similar to that of a cabinet officer.

CHAPTER VII

HOW LAWS ARE MADE

The People. Before going further in an analysis of the Constitution it will be well to study the way in which laws are passed by Congress. Indeed, in tracing the steps by which national laws are made we shall see that the method relates as well to the manner of making all local and state laws. The people are, or should be, behind every law or proposed law. If they fail to secure the legislation which they desire, it will be, in the main, for the want of an aggressive action in making themselves a part of the public voice. From the sovereign individual an idea may enter the home, the neighborhood, the legislative district, the county, the congressional district, the state, the nation, and finally become a law.

A law begins by first passing the congresses of minds; then it passes the congresses of the government. A bill introduced into Congress begins as an idea of one person, a committee, or a political convention, or as a combination of ideas of several persons, committees, or political conventions. Every bill begins merely as an idea, and this idea afterwards becomes a public issue, then a plank in a political platform, and finally a law.

The idea originates, let us

The Home and the Idea. suppose, as a current topic in the home. From here it gets into the newspapers and periodicals which are always found in the enlightened American home, and coming thus promi

nently before the people, it becomes a public issue. Soon public gatherings begin to discuss it; the school takes it as a topic for debate; a general local interest is aroused, and the people begin to desire that it be enacted into a law. Now the people have learned that whatever they want in the way of legislation, they can get by working for it. Accordingly they meet in assemblies throughout the district where this idea has taken hold, and draw up petitions that it be incorporated as a part of the political platform. Delegates are sent to the county convention to speak, work, and vote for the idea, and see to it if possible, that it is accepted by that body. Thus what was at first merely a local idea may become of general interest and concern.

County Conventions and the Idea. The majority of the members of the county conventions, let us say, favor the proposed measure. Accordingly, they send delegates to the congressional district convention pledged to vote for the nomination of a candidate for Congress who is also in sympathy with the idea, and will do everything in his power to secure its passage through the national Congress. Other counties in the different congressional districts of the different states pursue the same course, and, as a result, the different congressional district conventions are largely in favor of the measure.

The Congressional District and the Idea. When the congressional district conventions convene to nominate candidates for Congress, they will be found to be in favor of the proposed law. This is only natural as these conventions are simply the reflections of the desires, the petitions, and the instructions of the individual, the home, the community, and the county convention. Congressional candidates who believe as the district conventions do, have

expressed themselves concerning the idea, and who promise to use every effort in their power to secure the passage of the proposed law, are nominated. Thus the members of the House of Representatives will be in favor of the idea. and will pass a bill that embodies it.

State Conventions and the Idea. The idea, as has been seen, that originated in the home becomes a public issue, then a leading principle of one of the great political parties. The state convention exercises the natural powers delegated to it in fostering the principle, in nominating a friendly candidate for senator, and in sending delegates to the national convention who are in favor of the issue. It also names presidential electors at large pledged to vote for a President who will use his influence in securing the passage of the proposed bill. Also the delegates from each congressional district named one elector and selected delegates to the national convention or nominated these delegates by direct primaries. The electors and delegates chosen, indorsed the new political thought. In other states, a similar course was followed by conventions, or the same result was secured by the people voting in direct primaries.

The National Convention and the Idea. The national convention next meets to nominate a candidate for the presidency of the United States. The convention is largely in favor of the proposed law and makes it a plank in the national platform. The President is elected on this platform, and, on beginning his duties as President of the United States, recommends the passage of the law in his message. Finally, the proposed measure is introduced in the House of Representatives in the form of a bill, and passes the House and the Senate. The bill is sent to the President, who affixes his signature, and it becomes a law.

Artificial Laws.

Any law that does not take its origin

directly or indirectly from the expressed opinion and desire

The people of a re

There is no question

of the majority, is an artificial law. public are the natural law makers. but that a few of our laws began as ideas born in the souls of selfish men who put the dollar and personal profit above the government and the general welfare. Usually such measures are known only to the lobby and lobbyist prior to their final enactment into laws. It is to be regretted that every law that reaches the statute books does not spring from an expressed desire of the people. But this is becoming more and more the case.

Political Parties. - Political parties have their origin in a difference of opinion among the people concerning public questions, and in the rights and duties of a citizen under the Constitution. We shall have political parties as long as men use their own minds and think for themselves. The political party is the child of a representative system of government. It is the product of a government by public opinion. Without political organizations, through which to express the public will and choice, it would be almost impossible for the people to govern and shape the policy and character of our nation and control the making of laws. Political questions must be decided by majorities, and the political party is the agent through which majorities are obtained. There is no other force in our government that does so much to create public opinion and to set people to thinking about public questions as does a political party. Mr. James Bryce, in speaking of this, said: “But the spirit and force of party has in America been as essential to the action of the machinery of government as steam is to the locomotive engines; or, to vary the simile, party associa