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CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 130 CONSUMERS' LEAGUE tion of United States Senators. Effec- tive May 31, 1913. XVIII. An amendment providing for national prohibition submitted to the States for ratification was passed in De- cember, 1917. In January, 1919, 36 States having ratified, the amendment was declared in force Jan. 1, 1920. XIX. The Woman Suffrage amend- ment passed both Houses in May and June, 1919, for ratification of the States, Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee, the 36th State, ratified the amendment for inclusion in the Federal Constitution. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, in the United States, an assembly of delegates elected by popular vote to pre- pare or revise the constitution of a State. The 13 original States were admitted into the Union by the act of ratifying the Federal Constitution of 1787; the others have been received after the pas- sage of enabling acts by Congress, and the approval by it of drafts of proposed constitutions. The first duty of a terri- torial candidate for statehood after the adoption of its enabling act is to call a Constitutional Convention and prepare a constitution, which must conform to the provisions of the Federal Constitution and amendments, and to the spirit of subsequent legislation by Congress. On the filing in Washington of a certificate of adoption of a constitution by the pop- ular vote of the people in the territory, the President of the United States issues a proclamation announcing the ad- mission of the territory into the Union as a State. Subsequently, if deemed necessary or advantageous, the Legisla- ture may authorize a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of revising the Constitution. At the close of the Civil War each of the States formerly in the Confederacy was obliged to hold a Constitutional Convention to prepare a new constitution, recognizing the amendments to the Federal Constitution that had been adopted by the Northern States as a consequence of the war, with those portions of national legislation which were designed to be general in their application. CONSUL, two supreme magistrates, with equal authority, elected annually in ancient Rome from the time of the ex- pulsion of the Kings and the commence- ment of the Republic (A. U. C. 244; 509 B. C.) They were called at first praetors (praetors), imperatores (commanders), and indices (judges) ; but ultimately the name consules (consuls) prevailed over these designations. The annual meeting or assembly of the Roman citizens for their election was called by the plural term comitia, from the comitium, a place in or near the forum, where the elections were held. They continued, with a few exceptional elections, during the whole period of the republic, and were so im- portant in the State that the successive years were distinguished by the consuls who had held office during each of them. At first none but patricians could hold the dignity, but 366 B. C. a plebeian was elected one of the consuls, and in 172 B. c. two. The consulate nominally continued under the empire, but was little more than a titular dignity. Tiberius trans- ferred the power of electing consuls from the people to the Senate. Afterward their number was augmented. The last consul at Rome was Decimus Theodorus Paulinus in 536 A. D.; the last at Con- stantinople, Basilius junior in 541 A. D. In French history, a consul was one of three supreme magistrates designated first, second, and third consul, who held office between 1799 and 1804. Napoleon Bonaparte was the first consul, and his power soon absorbed that of the rest. In commerce, a consul is an officer ap- pointed by the government of his coun- try to reside in a specified foreign land, with the view of promoting the mercan- tile interests of the nation in whose service he is engaged. He annually or more frequently reports to his govern- ment the state of commerce in the region where his opportunities of observation lie. The office of consul in this sense seems to have arisen in Italy about the middle of the 12th century, and by the 16th had spread over Europe. CONSUMERS' LEAGUE, an organiza- tion of American housewives whose pur- pose is to exercise their joint purchasing power on merchants and manufacturers in favor of labor conditions, especially for women and children. The idea orig- inated in England, where the Women's Co-operative Guild, composed of the women members of the co-operative store societies, play a very significant part in influencing legislation in favor of women and children workers. In 1890 the Working Women's Society, of New York City, which was interested specially in conditions of employment for women, was conducting a thorough investigation into such conditions. It then called on the consumers for support, so effectively that in January, 1891, the Consumers' League of New York was organized. The new organization immediately took up the work of the Working Women's So- ciety, though on a much more extensive scale. It also conducted investigations into labor conditions for women and children, more especially in department stores, but instead of merely publishing