St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-26
1884,.
THE STATE ELEVATOR CASE

Judge Willis decides the case brought
to enjoin the railway and warehouse
commission from building the elevator
provided for by the last session of the
legislature against the plaintiff. He
holds that this is legitimate exercise
OF the police power of the state, whose
exercise is left to the discretion of the
legislature. The police power is getting
to be very elastic term, and, if it con-
tInues to give such proofs of its elias
ITCHY. it will in time stretch to cover
any invasion OF the rights of the citizen
which may seem desirable to that i'm
perial and autocratic body, the legis-
lature.
As far as we could gather from the
reports of the argument, the plaintiffs
attorneys were true to the training that
makes it the second nature of the pro-
fession, Immediately any question is pro-
pounded, to start off On hunt among the
records of what courts have thought
was the law in search of some decision
whose blanket can be made to stretch
over and cover the case in hand. There
was some severe straining to snag the
stitution. and show that it contravened
the inhibltions of that instrument
There was no attempt made to place the
case where it belongs, on the broad
gound that this use of legislative
power was outside the purpose for
which states are organized, limit
which legislature is bound to recog-
niZe and respect.
The attorneys for the state seem to
have anticipated that this ground would
be taken, and addressed portion of
their argument to 1t. They cited from the
speeches of Clay and Webster and from
John Marshall to show that the states
power was unlimited save as the state
constitution restricted it, and that the
acts of the legislature within that il
strument could not be questioned in
any court.
They might have gone farther, and
have quoted from the more advanced
school, graduates in a postgraduate
course in the same school of state So
cialism in which Clay and Marshall and
Webster had their education. They
might have cited from any of the emil
is not only no limit to the power of the
state, but that it should be used OH every
occasion where its power may even seem
! 10 be capable of advantageous use for the
| people.
But, whatever may be said of their
| argument, the states attorneys recog-
| niZed that the vital, underlying, funda-
| mental question in this case was
whether it is legitimate function of
state to engage in a purely private bus
mess i'll competition with its citizens
engaged in the same vocation. Are
| there no restrictions on the power of
| the legislature save those written in the
constitution? Are there no rights of
the citizen safe from legislative inva-
sion save those specified in the constitu-
| ton? Does the bill of rights embrace
them all? Can the legislature oblige
| the state to enter into a business en-
gagged in by its citizens and compete
with them? These are the questions
involved in this case, and which the
decision answers in the affirmative. 1t
opens up lane without end or turn,
down which the industrial activities of
the state may travel. Ii the state can
engage in warehousing grain, there is
no vocation in which any of the people
of this state are engaged that the state
cannot enter into and compete with
them.
1t is on this ground that the GLOBE
| opposed this law, when a bill, land which
causes it now to regret that the court
refused to consider this aspect of the
case. We earnestly believe that no
more serious question confronts the
people of this nation and the states
thereof than what are the legitimate
functions of the nation and the state.
| We believe that the liberties of the
people are involved IN the answer made
to this question. We believe it to be as
true today as it was in 1887. when Presi-
| dent Van Buren,, whose craftsmanship
Is at last coming to be fifty recognized,
said to congress that government was
established to give security to us all in
our lawful and honorable pursuits
under the lasting safeguard of repub-
lican institutions. 1t was not intended
to confer special favors on individuals,
or on any classes of them; to create
systems of agriculture. manufactures or
trade: or to engage in them. either sep
| arately or in connection with individual
citizens or separate organizations. a
The less government interferes with
| private pursuits. the better for the gen.
eral prosperity"