Negro
Suffrage.

Enforcement Clause.

Income

Tax.

AMENDMENT XV

The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The Congress shall have power to enforce the provisions of this article by appropriate legislation.

This is the last of the group of amendments giving the negro equal rights. He was freed by the thirteenth (1865), made a citizen by the fourteenth (1868), and in the fifteenth (1869) given the right to vote. Some states require literacy tests, or tests other than "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" as a qualification for voting.

AMENDMENT XVI

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or enumeration.

It is generally conceded that taxing incomes is the only way to reach real property values. In 1895 the Supreme Court declared an Income Tax Law unconstitutional in accordance with Article I, Section 9 (4), because it was apportioned according to wealth rather than census. For that reason the last clause is specific. More recently the Supreme Court has ruled that an income tax is a tax on the use of property and therefore a type of excise tax. Income taxes must be uniform; i.e., the same on incomes of the same size, but this does not prohibit higher rates on larger incomes.

AMENDMENT XVII

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Popular Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six Elecyears; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in tion of each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of Senators. the most numerous branch of the State Legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in Filling the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue Vacancies. writs of election to fill such vacancies, provided that the Legislature of any State may empower the Executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct.

[This amendment shall not be construed as to affect the Effect on election or term of any senator chosen before it becomes valid Incumas part of the Constitution.]

This Amendment supersedes Article I, Section 3 (1), covering the election of Senators by direct vote of the people. This was thought necessary in order to avoid the possibilities of fraud that might attend selection through state legislatures and to hold Senators directly responsible to the people.

bents.

AMENDMENT XVIII

[After one year from the ratification of this article], the manu- Prohibifacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, tion. the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Enforcement.

Ratifica tion Limitation.

Woman
Suffrage.

Enforce

ment Clause.

[This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.]

Although the time limit was set as one year, the Food Production Act passed by Congress as a war measure forbade the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors after July 1, 1919, so it became & law fully six months before the one year had elapsed, By a strict enforcement act ruled as constitutional one half of one per cent alcoholic content in any beverage classifies it as intoxicating. No doubt the enforcement of this amendment has injected a new note in the Constitution. Undoubtedly concurrent power as here used refers to joining forces of State and Federal Government in the enforcement, just how far this can be carried out remains for the Supreme Court to decide.

AMENDMENT XIX

but

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of sex.

Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article.

This amendment is popularly known as the "Woman Suffrage Amendment." Only the question of sex is involved in it. This does not remove from the states the power to determine the qualifications of its voters, but forbids the states to make any distinction on account of sex.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FULL HONORS TO OUR FLAG

Realizing the need for an authentic code of flag etiquette, representatives of sixty-eight patriotic organizations met in Washington, D.C., at the request of the American Legion. The code drafted by that conference is printed here through courtesy of the American Legion Weekly. While the rules adopted by the conference have no official government sanction, nevertheless they represent the authoritative opinion of the principal patriotic bodies of the United States and of Army and Navy experts, and are binding on all of the organizations which took part in the gathering. They are being followed now by 113 patriotic organizations. The rules as given below are from the final corrected draft of the code as brought out of the conference. The Flag of the United States of America has Descripthirteen horizontal stripes-seven red and six white, the Flag. the red and white stripes alternating-and a union which consists of white stars of five points on a blue field placed in the upper quarter next the staff and extending to the lower edge of the fourth red stripe from the top. The number of stars is the same as

tion of

Code

of the Flag.

the number of states in the Union. The canton or union now contains forty-eight stars arranged in six horizontal and eight vertical rows, each star with one point upward. On the admission of a state into the Union a star will be added to the union of the Flag, and such addition will take effect on the July fourth next succeeding such admission.

The proportions of the Flag as prescribed by Executive Order of President Taft, October 29, 1912, are as follows:

There are certain fundamental rules of heraldry which, if understood generally, would indicate the proper method of displaying the flag. The matter becomes a very simple one if it is kept in mind that the National Flag represents the living country and is itself considered as a living thing. The union of the flag is the honor point; the right arm is the sword arm, and therefore the point of danger and hence the place of honor.

1. The Flag should be displayed only from sunrise to sunset, or between such hours as may be designated by proper authority. It should be hoisted briskly but should be lowered slowly and