Journal of the House of Representatives of the Regular Session of the Thirty-Eighth Legislature of the State of Texas Page: 66
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66 HOUSE JOURNAL.
larger than all these States combined,
rapidly developing with different and
diversified interests, and yet the peo-
ple of Texas have had no opportunity
to pass on the fundamentals of their
government for nearly half a century.
Other States Have New Constitutions.
A large majority of the States have
adopted new constitutions since .we
wrote ours in 1876. Our neighboring
States, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New
Mexico, have constitutions in keeping
with modern civilization. Virginia,
South Carolina, Michigan, New York
and other States have written new con-
stitutions long since we adopted ours.
Constitutional Amendments.
For forty years conservative thinkers
have registered their dissatisfaction
with our present Constitution. Richard
Coke, while Governor, declared it was
a hindrance to our growth. Business
men have found in its limitations, bar-
riers to our material development. Dur-
ing all these years into every Legisla-
ture has been poured, as into a hopper,
suggested constitutional amendments.
Every Legislature, except two, for forty-
two years has submitted to the people
constitutional amendments varying from
one to thirteen, aggregating in all
ninety-one amendments. Thirty-eight of
this number were accepted. This was
patchwork. The increased demand for
change in our constitutional thou-shalt-
nots is evidenced by the ever-increasing
number of amendments each year intro-
duced. Three years ago the Legislature
submitted thirteen amendments, only
three of which were ratified by the
voters. The voters of Texas have spent
about half a million dollars holding
elections to pass on constitutional
amendments. At some of the elections
not more than ten per cent of the voters
cast their ballots. It is difficult to get
the people to take an interest in the
patchwork constitutional making. Whep
these constitutional amendments are
submitted the people do not know their
relation to the other parts of the Con-
stitution, and, there being no infornma-
tion at hand concerning same. vote
against them. Let big, brave, busy men
rewrite the entire fundamental law of
the State and give the people an oppor-
tunity to pass their judgment on it as
a whole. If the convention does not
write a good Constitution, the people
will not ratify it. You can't fool the
people about a big proposition.Texas Progress Hobbled and Ham-
strung.
We need a new constitution in order
that we may gridiron Texas with good
roads. The biggest question of this
hour is the question of transportation.
The building and maintenance of endur-
ing highways constitute the only solu-
tion to this vexing question. Constitu-
tional stumbling-blocks now seriously
hamper the construction in Texas of
road building in a big, broad, enduring
way.
Our entire judiciary, civil and crim-
inal, mapped out a half century ago to
meet a condition when we had little
litigation, is now tardy, cumbersome,
expensive and inefficient. Learned at-
torneys declare that no efficient change
can be made in the work of our courts
under the provisions of our present
Constitution. In an effort to improve
our courts, seven amendments have been
submitted, of which two were adopted,
the last being adopted more than thirty
years ago.
We need a new constitution in order
to perfect our educational system.
When the present Constitution was
written Texas was spending annually
less than half a million dollars, while
last year this State spent for this pur-
pose over twenty-four million dollars.
The year the Constitution was adopted
we had in our public schools only one
hundred and sixty thousand students,
while now a million and three hundred
thousand boys and girls answer to the
roll call of the school house. At that
time we had no 'University of Texas, no
A. & M. College, no State normals, no
College of Industrial Arts, with twenty
thousand students thronging their halls.
No set of men in 1876 could possibly
have written a constitution forecasting
and providing for in the best and most
efficient manner this vast and varied
educational growth. While we are feed-
ing this educational child expensive food
it is not growing as fast or becoming
as strong as it ought to on account of
a fossilized constitution that has been
hung around its neck. In a vain effort
to better our educational life, thirteen
worthy amendments have, during re-
cent years, been submitted, of which
but seven were adopted.
In the preservation of our flood wa-
ters, in the irrigation of our arid lands,
in the protection of our overflow lands,
in the preservation of our natural re-
sources, in the handling of our public66
HOUSE JOURNAL.
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Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Journal of the House of Representatives of the Regular Session of the Thirty-Eighth Legislature of the State of Texas, legislative document, 1923; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193832/m1/70/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.