The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-08-17
FEDERAL SUPREMACY.

cago would never have arisen hac
it not been for the sympathy with
the strikers which was felt by the
State authorities in Illinois. The
authority of the President was de.
rived from Section 5299 of the Re.
vised Statutes of the United States
The section is as follows:
"Whenever instruction, domestic
violence, unlawful combinations, OF
cOnspiracies in any State so obstructs
or hinders the execution of the laws
thereof, and If the United States, as
to deprive any portion or class of the
people of such State of any of the
rights, privileges, or immunities, or
protection, named in the Constitution
and secured by the laws for the pro-
lection of such rights, privileges, or
immunities, and the constituted au-
thorities of such State are unable to
protect, or, from any cause, fail in or
refuse protection of the people in such
rights, such facts shall be deemed a
denial by such State of the equal pro-
lection of the laws to which they are
entitled under the Constitution of the
United States; and in all such cases,
or whenever any such instruction,
violence, unlawful combination, or
| conspiracy, opposes or obstructs the
laws of the United States, or the due
execution thereof, or impedes or OBJ
structs the due course of justice under
the same, it shall be lawful for the
President, and it shall be his duty, to
take such measures, by the employ
ment of the militia or the land and
naval forces of the United States, or
of either, or by other means, as he
may deem necessary, for the suppress
sion of such instruction, domestic
violence, or combination"
The contingency contemplated
in this section had certainly hap
pened. The officers of the State
were conspicuously failing to sup
press violence and prevent the de-
struction of property. The militia
was showing itself poor weapon
against mobs, not because of any
want of spirit in that body, but be-
cause it was honeycombed with a
more or less active sympathy with
the strikers. The United States
mails were INSTRUCTED and the
writs and orders of the Federal
Courts could not be enforced.
There was certainly nothing in the
law to hinder the President from
setting the power of the general
government in motion, but on the
contrary, it was his duty so to do.
The old line of demarcation in
the United States used to run east
and west. There are indications
that this sectionalism is disappear
ing, in spite of the fact that the
South is still politically solid,
and is giving place to sharpening
anthithesis between the East and
the West. This fact is freshly il
Illustrated by the contrasting
attitude Of the press in the
two sections anl toward the
great strike, and the violence
which resulted from it. This atti-
tude was one of strong condemna-
ton in the East, of active or dis
guised sympathy in the West.
No doubt the most distinctively
life is in the West, and
not in the East. 1t is in the West
that the ideas of social equality,
and the manners of democracy
most widely prevail. The older
society of the East has already
begun to suffer. Its eyes are
turned too much across the At
lantic, too little upon the promise
and spirit of America herself.
Nonetheless, in these days of poll
teal unrest, discomfort and sup
pressed revolution, the conserva-
ism which insists upon the main
.enance of law and order first, and
-eform afterwards, is invaluable.
It rests upon an instinct which
Derceives that chaos and disorder,
he impotence of legal restraint do
lot furnish the conditions for true
'eform. The structure in which
society is housed may be leaky
md uncomfortable, but it is better
han nothing and should not be
orn down until there is better
me to move into.