Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-10
THE OPTION DEALER, TRUST PRO-
MOTER
And the Kindred Commercial Fungi Of
the last Decade.

| To the Editor OF the Eagle.
In what way shall we rid the agricul-
ture of the country of the ''pests' that
are more destructive than the combined
evils of chinch bugs, grasshoppers, wea-
vel, ''foot-rot," scab, lice, murrain, Tex
as fever and hog cholera, We believe
that the disease that threatens agricul-
ture demands constitutional treatment,
rather than local applications OF political
salve, or quacks, specific remedies.
The grievances of the agriculturists
are aggravated by insults to senators In
in which every honest man should be
interested, and which should arouse and
engage the attention of every citizen
and move him to exert his abilities in
their behalf.
The growth of public opinion like foli-
age is in regular order. We note the
fact accomplished without marking the
gradual transition; we indulge in retro
spection and discover that we have I'M
consciously drifted from dogmas, tenets,
opinions which once believed axioms,
we realize that we have become propa-
gandists of thought, champions of radi-
cal innovations on established customs,
and laws, and we are reconciled to revo-
| buttons in governmental problems which
once we believed would lead to insurrec-
ton.
The old governmental maxim, which
came to us from England "Never to
suffer an invasion of the fundamental
law of nation, without a resistance,
| however minute the instance, because it
established precedent, and the accumu
lation of precedents, becomes established
law, and opened the door for other inno-
vations and led to contempt for the con-
sttution,' is meaningless, if we read the
history of the United States correctly,
and trace the various expositions of the
constitution.
The liberty. under law, which is our
heritage is measurably traceable to i'm
pairment of the federal fundamental
law; gradual clippings from it and addi-
tons to it haye made US freer; rents in
it, in the interest of liberty and enlarged
governmental (requireD power, like the
holes in Caesars mantle enabled us to
maintain government by the people,
for the people," and Stewards "higher
law than the constitution" commends
itself to the American people because IN
that "higher law" government asserted,
protected and perpetuated itself; the
fundamental law being inadequate
to meet emergencies was, in the
interest of government and freedom, for
gotten. Did we suffer by it or become
revolutionary or inSurrectiOnary by rea-
son of it!
We arrived at period where the
theory that governments were straight
jackets, procrustian beds in which must
fit was not American. We became edu-
Gated to the political doctrinal truth, that
governments, as customs, laws, must
bend to the desires, needs. and demands
of a majority of the people. and that the
final opinion, or judgment, of the SUI
prene bench is at best but the distilled
filtered through the court and drawn off
alter fermentation, robbed of its lees
and backed up by reasons satisfactory to
the court and agreeable TO the people.
We think the growth of gov
bud, is normal, uniform and regular.
First the oppressor, next the cry of the
oppressed, followed by the demagogue,
succeeded by the politician 'who is
taught and trained and bid go forth to
feed on object Orts and mutations
whose persiStency rOuses statesmen to
study the problem and seek a remedy
which results in law, sustained by the
courts and approved by the people. The
result of government may be likened to
the keystone in the arch. We note not
the labor proceeding it, but the COM
pleted work.
"'Tis the last keystone
That makes the arch: the rest that there
were put,
Are nothing till that comes to bind and
shut:
There stands it triumphal mark There
men
Observe the strength, the height, the why
and when
1t was erected and still walking under,
Meet some new matter to look up and
wonder"
Thus has it seemed to us in the
study of the formation and maintenance
of our American form of government.
There has been from the beginning a
seeming conflict between the federal and
state authority, a desire for mastery, a
struggle for supremacy. Esau and
Jacob struggling in the womb and the
result must be concessions that we may
prosper as we deserve.
We are now met face to face with |
problem In commerce, wherein the fed |
eral government is our refuge-the state |
government powerless to act. Jurists |
say that 'option dealing" is beyond the |
power of the state to control, except at |
home, and that the power is not granted |
in the federal constitution to congress-. |
hence we have arrived at "a commercial |
point where conservatism winks at |
federal usurpation, and strict construc- |
tionsists cease to cavil, and yet in the |
interim between delay and action the |
agricultural interests of the country |
stagnate and the 'option dealer" fat
tens, promoters of trusts insult, defy and |
laugh at a committee of the United |
States senate and the general govern
ment and state governments are power |
less
The trainers of the federal constitution |
had difficult problem to solve III con-
ferring general governmental power on |
congress, Vet at the same time quiet the |
apprehensions of state delegates. who de- !
manded reserved power which should |
be beyond the control or interference of |
the general government.
They (the framers) had, in imitation of |
the worlds Creator, to create govern |
mental planets. each of which should re-
yolve in its determined orbit without |
disturbing any other, and all save one 1
shArIld ravIlve round that ora and in Il