The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-02-18

tends to the Capitalization of power.
| think those who urge that objection
have not carefully considered the form
Of the amendment. It does not take
away the power Of the States to legis-
late on the subjects embraced in it. 1t
simply confers concurrent power on
| Congress, so that the lack of uniform
ity in State legislation on these subjects
may be supplemented by the action of
Congress.
The dignity, the just rights, and the
useful powers of the States would not
be invaded or impaired by the adop-
ton of tdis amendment. While the
powers Of Congress, as the representa-
tive of the interests of the whole peo-
pie, would be broadened so as to sup
plement and aid the States in the pro,
lection of producers and consumers
against the leeches and harpies who
are preying upon them in defiance of
State power and State authority, yet
the grant of authority, being oncur
rent with the States, would be con
ducive to the welfare Of the States as
a whole, and would strengthen rather
than impair administration of the do
mestic affairs of their people. Thomas
Jefferson, in the widest flights Of his
imagination, never dreamed of an In
ter State Commerce Commission regu-
lating the transportation of the vast
commerce of sixty millions of people,
carried by steam engines over l5O,OO
miles Of railway, traversing every
section of the Union, and riveting the
States together with rails of steel. 1t
never entered his mind that electricity
would send a message around the
earth in less time than it would take
him to ride from the White House to
the Capitol.
The man who in those days would
have advanced the idea that he could
sit in Washington and hold a CONVEX
sation with another in Baltimore,
Philadelphia, or New York, would
have been in danger of an inquisition
of lunacy. If a statesman had been
seen in those days talking to the
photograph or graphophone, he would
have been considered hopelessly mad;
and if a woman had been caught
grinding out speeches and letters and
messages from such an instrument in
some parts of this country she would
have been in danger of burning at the
stake for holding communion with the
devil and p~racticing the black arts Of
witchcraft. The world will not let
the fame of Jefferson die. l yield to
no man in my admiration for his wis
dom, his patriotism, and his states
manship, and in my respect and VEN
Grafton for the Constitution, to which
his mind gave shape, and it is no i'm
parchment of his wisdom, and no evil
dence of a want of veneration for the
Constitution to suggest that it might
be amended with benefit to the people
who live under it to-day.
1t never occurred to Mr. Jefferson
that our c~iIization would develop to a
point where men in New York and
Chicago would become millionaires by
selling all the crops of this country
before the seeds were even so much
as planted in the ground; selling
property which they never owned,
selling the property Of other people
without their consent, selling many
millions of dollars worth more than
the whole country produces annually,
selling the productions of the people
of all the States without the consent
and in defiance of the authority of the
States. 1t never occurred to Mr.. JEFF
ferson that favoritism in legislation
would concentrate capital in the
hands of the favored classes until the
transportation, the manufacture, and
the sale OF production would become
the subject of combinations and trusts
whereby competition might be de-
stroyed, the sources of supply seized
upon, produ ;tions limited, markets
controlled, the prices of labor and the
prices of products arbitrarily fixed by
the law of human selfshness and hu.
man greed.
If Mr.. Jefferson could have pro-
jected himself into the second century
of constitutional government in the
United States he would have lodged
power Yer these questions in the in
terstate commerce clause or elsewhere
in the Constitution. If l have under
stood his political teaching Alright, he
would amend his W work in this
and some other respects if he could
come forth from Monticello, where he
sleeps con fame's eternal camping
ground" and again take his place at
the head of the nation. l have so
much respect for Mr.. Jefferson's idea
of government, embodying the idea
of "the greatest good to the greatest
number" that l would not only
amend the Constitution in this regard,
but I would further amend it by pro-
viding for the election of the members
| nE H. ILn:EnL C-nEoa Ga-.AA L.