Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-wgjn4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-13T20:16:17.484Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Attempted Revision of the State Constitution of New York

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Gilbert Giddings Benjamin
Affiliation:
State University of Iowa

Extract

The American people, especially in the eastern portion of the United States, are averse to political and social change particularly in institutions that have existed for a long period of time. A recent critic of American life has the following to say as a reason for this attitude of the American people:

“Among the many characteristics which foreign observers have ascribed to Americans are two about which there has been little difference of opinion. We are good-natured and we are individualists. Sermons have been preached against our good nature, so we need not dwell upon it. Much more important is our individualism—our absorption in individual interests and our reluctance to undertake things in combination with our neighbors or through the government. That individualism is an American characteristic is proved by a number of familiar facts. Thus the phrase ‘social reform,’ which in other countries suggests comprehensive plans of state action, is still usually associated in the United States with the welfare work of private corporations, private endowed schools of philanthropy…. Again, the coöperative movement which has made such signal progress in Europe, is in its infancy here.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1916

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Seager, H. R., Social Insurance, pp. 1 ff.Google Scholar

2 See article by Tanner, Frederick C., chairman Committee on Governor and other State Officials, N. Y. Times, October 17, 1915.Google Scholar

3 “The Revised Constitution.”

4 N. Y. Times, October 24, 1915.

5 For discussion of this article see paper by Mr.Marshall, Louis, chairman of the Committee on Conservation, N.Y. Times, October 31, 1915.Google Scholar

6 See pamphlet published by New York State Federation of Labor, “Reasons for Voting ‘No’ on the Revised Constitution.”

7 See Brief of the Committee of the Allied Boards of Trade of Brooklyn, prepared by Cornelius M. Sheehan.

Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.