At the opening of the election campaign this year the Democrats had a great deal to say about the Constitution and the flag. They are less loud-voiced concerning the matter now, but their viewpoint remains the same.

They resurrected Mr. Calhoun's doctrine that the Constitution automatically becomes valid in every respect in any new territory which is added to our country. The Republicans maintained the doctrine presented in the first platform announced by the party, that the Constitution does not become effective in new territory before the Congress has passed a resolution to that effect.

This does not mean that new territories may be governed in ways contradictory to the rules laid down by the Constitution; it merely means that the Constitution cannot become fully operative until the Congress has passed the necessary laws.

Common sense and an unbroken constitutional practice are on the side of the Republicans in this matter. If the Constitution were to become operative automatically in the Philippines, e. g., it would be necessary to introduce, among other things, trial by jury even among the most backward tribes on the Islands. Anybody will realize that to do so would be insane.

Since 1803 the United States has acquired enormous areas of new land. Not in a single case was the doctrine followed that the Constitution automatically becomes effective in annexed areas. Thus, the Puerto Rico law is in full harmony with our constitutional practice. Not even in the old states does the Constitution become effective automatically; only through the adoption of appropriate laws does it become effective; except for such laws, the Constitution is but a dead script.

The doctrine of the self-expansion of the Constitution was first expounded by Mr. Calhoun in support of the policy of the slave owners. If his doctrine had 3been accepted, the slave owners would have had the right to extend slavery into all new territories even though the majority of the people and the Congress, too, opposed such extension. The doctrine was appealed to in support of the plan to make Nebraska a slave territory. It is interesting to note that the foremost expositor of the Calhoun doctrine nowadays is a citizen of Nebraska. If those men who risked their lives and blood to make Nebraska a free territory could hear the Nebraska man, Mr. Bryan, preach the Calhoun doctrine, they would turn in their graves in disgust.

The Supreme Court of New York recently gave a decision which overthrows the Democratic teachings in this matter. The decision declares that a citizen of Puerto Rico is not thereby also a citizen of the United States. In other words, the Court declares that the Constitution did not automatically become effective in Puerto Rico.