The record-union., 1894-06-20


but the lives and property OF others.
They are organized into armies" when
proiessedly there are no battles to be
fought except moral ones. They ter
rify communities into feeding them by
the mere weight of their numbers; Tor
when they invade community the first
and most eager effort OF that commu-
nifty is to get rid Of them, and that can
only be done by furnishing them with
new supply of provisions, procuring new
transportation for them, and showing
them forward upon some other COM
munity. Their progress through the
country illustrates in a striking degree
the weak ness of our federal system of
government.
AT one place a United States Marshal
and a large posse OF deputies endeav-
ored to arrest them, but the officers
were disarmed, driven of and maltreated
by the citizens. Finally the trespassers
were captured by Federal troops. They
took very poor course TO secure the
sympathy of their country, as almost at
the outset they began by a seizure of its
property; for property in the hands OF a
Federal Court Receiver being i9l c1tStOdtd
IegiS, is in a sense in the custody OF the
law and is, in qualified sense, the prop
erty OF the United States. The Supreme
Court of the United States has held that
the contents of the mail bags of the
United States are property Of the United
States for the purpose of their legal pro-
lection, although they consist of letters
and papers belonging to private individ-
uals and merely committed to the United
States as bailee for their t. transportation;
and railroad in the hands OF a Federal
Court Receiver is undoubtedly property
of the United States in a similar sense,
and as such is to be protected by the
whole power of tue United States if neces-
fHhnCp In al-nr
arrested by a battalion of the real army of
the United States. AT the time of this
writing they are under arrest and the
question is what To 90 with them. The
Federal military authorities wanted to
turn them over to the authorities OF the
State of Montana. but the State authorl-
ties do not want them. Strange
as it may seem they are in sympathy
with them. Ii they are retained by the
Federal authorities there is no Federal
law for their punishment except the
common law principle which allows
their punishment for contempt OF court
that Is, for contempt OF the United
States Circuit Court which has appointed
the receiver, in interfering with the GUS
tody Of property. The Act of Congress
of 1881 and 1882 restrains the power OF the
Circuit Court of the United States TO pun
ish for contempt, TO direct cOntempts,
within which class the seizure of prop
erty in the custody of a receiver is un-
doubtedly; but, fortunately for such cases,
il leaves the quantum OF punishment dis
cretionary with the court.
The most disgraceful part of this buSi-
ness is the unconcealed sympathy of the
State authorities of some OF the States
with the law breakers, from the Governor
down. Some five hundred of them hav-
ing seized train Of the Missouri Pacific
Railway Company in Colorado, were
hurrying with it into Kansas, when the
railway officials applied to the State au-
thorities of Kansas for assistance in ar
resting the marauders, and where every
where refused, and were Obliged to resort
to writ Of replevin sued out of the Fed
eral Court at Topeka to recover their
property, and the granting of the writ
was denounced by portion of the press
of the State as IAN outrage" A Sheriff,
who evidently had some conception of
his official duty, having applied to the
caricature who disgraced the Office of
Governor of Kansas for troops to assist
him in arresting the stolen train as it
flew through his county, received the fol-
lowing infamous reply:
James Hurt, ,Sheri1, Horace, Kansas: Tele-
gram asking for troops TO arrest 500 men
who have stolen Missouri Pacific train re-
ceived. Was train stolen in Kansas? Have
any depredations been committed in your
county? Have warrants been issued and pro-
ceSSSS Deen resisted. Are The men SIlu In
your county? l.. ID. LEwELLING, Governor.
The moral of this lesson seems to be
that we have no laws, State or Federal,
capable of dealing adequately with this
new terror. The States are incapable of
dealing with it, because of its interstate
character. They have no other motive
than to dump the collective vagrants
upon some other community, and that is
what they have been doing In every case.
In hn OIL l,oN
for all, and represents all in matters OF
interstate concern. Nor is there any
question about the power OF Congress in
the premises. When the trainers of the
Constitution conferred upon that body
the power to regulate commerce between
the States, they did not OF course foresee
all the eXigencies which might call it into
exercise; but they did foresee some of
them. They wrought in a sad SINGER
lty, and builded wiser than they knew"
They granted the power and they left it
without limits. 1t is the settled rule in
the construction of that clause of the Con-
stitution that interstate transportation,
whether Of goods or of passengers, is in
terstate commerce. Interstate travel is
therefore interstate commerce; and inter-
state tramping is interstate commerce,
and the interstate tramp is an inter-
state commercial traveller, and as such
Is subject to the regulation of Congress.
This regulation may take the form OF
remedial or of penal statutes.
Unless this industrial army movement
collapses OF its own weight 1t Will there
fore be the duty of Congress, in the exer-
else Of its unduestioned power, TO take
hold OF it and regulate il for the protec-
ton OF the people of the United States
IL has not this power, under the interstate
commerce clause, then we maintain tha
ii has it under that other vast, unde
fined, but absolutely necessary grant o
power, the power of providing for the
general welfare of the United States
Moreover, it has 1t as a mere impliec
power-a part OF the power which every
sovereign Government has of proteetins
itself. Whenever armies pour in upoi
Congress for the avowed intention of in
timidating its members and forcing leg
islation under duress, then Congress
necessarily has the power TO pass law
dealing with such fellows. Moreover
as il has plenary Jurisdiction over tn
District of Column bla-they are within it
JdEtceS te1T6, so to speak. Wheneve
they get into that district and keep there
Congress has the amplest power to dea
with them while there; and so far as it i
concerned with them as legislativ
body, it is not so much concerned w itl
them after they get out of that distric
and into the limits of "a sovereign State.
And here it is useful to say that the las
great Indian war having undou btedl,
been fought and the question having seri
ousiy arisen what TO do with our idle anC