COMMITTEE ON ELECTION OF PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, AND REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS CHARLES L. GIFFORD, Massachusetts, Chairman RANDOLPH PERKINS, New Jersey. W. I. NOLAN, Minnesota. II LAMAR JEFFERS, Alabama. Proposed Constitutional Amendments Relating to the Fixing of the Time for the Commencement of the Terms of President, Vice President, and Members of Congress, and Fixing the Time of the Assembling of Congress; and to the Presi dential Succession; and to the Electoral College System TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1930 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, VICE PRESIDENT AND REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Charles L. Gifford (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, the committee will come to order. It seems almost impossible to get the membership of this committee together at one time. I am extremely anxious that there appear in the record as many arguments as possible, particularly relative to necessary changes in the Constitution, relating to the matter of the succession of the President and Vice President and other technicalities, to which we ought to give our attention. I think that the title "lame-duck" amendment, so called, should be supplanted by something that might be regarded as more dignified in its characterization. We have a valuable document relating to that matter as appears in the printed debates of 1928. The amendment received in the House of Representatives a very substantial majority but failed to get the necessary two-thirds. I think practically only a dozen newspapers in the country failed to favor it, so I feel that the amendment has the support of the country, and that we ought to continue to keep the resolution before the Congress. I have invited Mr. Page, who has before this time presented to this committee his ideas of the many things in the Constitution which need to be clarified or corrected. I will ask him to present his views to the committee. Mr. Page. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM TYLER PAGE, CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. PAGE. Mr. Chairman, I am not quite sure in my own mind just how far you desire me to go in this matter. You will remember, sir, that in 1925, following the presidential election of 1924, I appeared before this committee, the personnel of which at that time was somewhat different from its present personnel, and presented in extenso a review of the electoral system. It will also be remembered that in the campaign of 1924 the question was very prominently brought to the front that there was a possibility of a stalemate in the electoral college, in which event the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives. There was a great deal of speculation in that campaign as to what might happen. Fortunately, the election was decided by the electoral college. Had it been thrown into the House, many questions might have confronted the House, and it would have been apparent at once that there are many omissions in the Constitution, which would have been deplorable, because the House at that time was so constituted that it would have been impossible, it was thought, to elect a President, and we would have come to the 4th of March, the day for the inauguration without having elected a President; and the same conditions that prevailed to prevent the election of a President by the House would also have obtained in the Senate, perhaps, in respect to the election of a Vice President; so it presented a very serious matter. Staring us in the face was a possible hiatus in government which, according to the framers, was unthinkable. They avoided the use of the word "vacancy" in respect to the office of President, except in those particulars that are mentioned in the Constitution, not having in mind an actual hiatus in government by failure to elect a President and by failure to elect a Vice President. Now, those conditions at that time gave rise to a great deal of speculation and also to study of the situation. I went into it in a layman's way, rather thoroughly, and I broadcast an address in this city during the campaign, entirely nonpartisan in character, which address was published in the hearings before this committee. Summing up, I pointed out a number of questions that had actually arisen and been asked in the campaign, hypothetical questions, which I put into form and placed in the record of this committee. It seemed to me that in order to meet the situation, and meet it at a time when party feeling was absent, the whole thing should be gone over, carefully studied, impartially, disinterestedly-I mean politically disinterestedly-by perhaps a commission or a joint committee of Congress composed of lawyers, possibly having among its membership eminent members of the American Bar Association, and I drew a bill which, at the request of Representative Leavitt, I gave to him. Mr. Leavitt introduced the bill in the last Congress, following the debate in the House on the so-called Norris amendment. This bill was referred to the Committee on Rules. It was referred to that committee for the reason that it sought to set up an instrumentality, and under the practice such bills are referred to that committee, whereas it would be supposed that a bill of this character, because of its chief subject matter, would be referred either to this committee or to the Committee on the Judiciary. Mr. LOZIER. What is the number of that bill? Mr. PAGE. It is H. R. 11853. I will hand you this copy. If I may, I will read this bill, Mr. Chairman. [Reading:] Be it enacted in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a commission on the electoral system of the United States is hereby created, which shall consist of three members of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, to be appointed by the President of the Senate, and three members of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the Sepaker. |