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The U. S. has not had a constitutional convention since 1787, a recurring grievance to iconoclasts who do not believe that the founding fathers wrought better than they knew. Most States, on the other hand, overhaul their constitutions fairly frequently. Three--Maryland, Missouri, New York--now put the question of calling a constitutional convention on the ballot every 20 years. New York voters said No in 1916, Yes in 1936. Last week after four and one-half months' debate and spending $1,116,191, 168 convention delegates produced a new 50,000-word constitution.

New York's present constitution was adopted in 1894 (the voters turned down a constitution submitted by a convention in 1915). Because the chief achievement of a Republican-dominated convention then was to cut down the legislative representation of New York City in favor of upstate Republican districts, Democrats called it the Crime of 1894, and Governor Al Smith used to complain that his Senate was "constitutionally Republican." When the delegates to the 1938 convention were elected last year, 15 at large and three from each of the 51 old Senatorial districts, the Crime of 1894 lived again. Of the delegates, 75 were Democrats, one an American Laborite, 92 Republicans. So the convention went to work last April and the Republicans stood united to preserve their electoral advantages. The Democrats were divided on most issues into a New Deal faction headed by junior U. S. Senator Robert F. Wagner and an anti-New Deal group under the direction of Al Smith who was promptly elected honorary president. With this tug-of-war enlivened by the atmosphere of an election year, most of the delegates did enough horse-trading and log-rolling to earn their $2,500 salary.

Of stock proposals which turn up at such meetings--unicameral legislature, non-political auditing of accounts, non-partisan election of judges--the 1938 convention entertained all, adopted none. It refused to legalize pari-mutuel racetrack betting rather than put the politically powerful bookies out of business. The Republican majority pared Manhattan's legislative representation from nine Senators to six, from 23 Assemblymen to 17. Among its other accomplishments:

P: A Harlem senatorial district was gerrymandered to give Negroes their first seat in the upper house and put the local Democratic machine at a disadvantage.

P: An anti-wiretapping provision (except on legal warrant) proposed by New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Poletti (representative of Governor Herbert Lehman and the American Labor Party) was inserted in the constitution's new Bill of Rights.

P: Public bus service to parochial schools, which the New York State Court of Appeals this spring held contrary to the present constitution, was authorized for the benefit of Roman Catholics.

P: The old, sick and unemployed got a broad Social Security charter authorizing the legislature to provide for them "by insurance or otherwise."

P: New York City's Fusionist Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia was given: 1) permission to exempt from the city's constitutional debt limit a new bond issue up to $315,000,000 for a unified city-owned subway system; 2) a Home Rule provision restricting the power of the legislature to interfere in city affairs by passing "emergency laws."

P: A provision was written into the new constitution requiring New York City to give up its system of election by proportional representation which, since its adoption last year, has proved a grave disadvantage to political machines.

As the convention moved toward adjournment last week, its outstanding leader was Alfred Emanuel Smith, four times New York's Governor. Red of nose, nasal of voice, quick of wit as ever, Al Smith had early distinguished himself as the best political infighter at the show. Almost singlehanded he wrecked a proposal for large-scale public housing, by inserting a clause forbidding the State to finance any housing program from real-estate taxes except in emergencies. With some Democratic and more Republican support, he tacked onto the judiciary article a section empowering the courts to review facts as well as law in appeals from decisions of State administrative agencies--which would give State courts more control over State wage-&-hour and labor administrators than the U. S. Supreme Court exercises over their national counterparts. When admiring Republican Hamilton Fish Jr. proposed Mr. Smith for the Republican nomination for U. S. Senator, many a Republican cheered. Al Smith smiled.

Proud of his handiwork and mindful that the constitution he helped draft in 1915 was submitted and turned down mostly in one big lump, Mr. Smith last week urged his fellow delegates to split up the 1938 edition for submission to the people. Result: at next fall's election, voters will have a chance to accept or reject eight main sections, and a ninth catchall containing all the rest of the convention's handiwork.

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