St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-08-13
TO SECURE HOME RULE.


TO SECURE HOME RULE.
The constitutional convention now sit
ting in the state of New York is conSd-
ering measures which, migrated in the
constitution, will secure to the cities of
that state the right of lf-government.
The number and the variety Of the eXped-
tents suggested and discussed show the
| Importance attached to the subject and
he imperative need of removing from
i, the Legislature the power of legiSlatin g
| for great city. This grows out of the
abuses which have made the Interests
of the city of New York, as we'll as the
cities of Brooklyn and Buffalo. the
| football of parties and politicians and
| the trading stock of party managers
| Indifferent to the welfare Of the public
! and solieitous only for their personal
| advantage.
The difficulty lies not so much in de-
vsing some uniform system of city
| government as In the fundamental con-
| ception of the nature and power of the
! state. All the devices suggested rest
| OH the doctrine which came to us from
| the mother country and has been
| accepted as being an essential part OF
The social order, that the state is the
! source of all power. 1t is the trans
| planted doctrine of all monarchieS to
| republican soil, and the stunted and
| distorted growthS here are but the
| Inevitable results of attempting to
| grow an exotic in an uncongenial soil
and climate. In the early days Of New
I'm i 4 trun IN if.an
| concept obtained and found its express
| sion in the town meetings, where the
| voters met and transacted the business
| or the town, finding their warrant and
| authority III the inherent right OF men
| to regulate their own affairs applied to
the community.
When the colonies formed the Union
| they reserved to themselves the right
/ of home rule by declaring that all power
not expressly delegated to the federal
congress in and by the constitution
was expressly reserved to the states.
| There have been serious inroadS made
on these reserved powers by judicial
! construction i'll the conflicts which i'm
| mediateiy arose aud have ever since
| continued between those antagonistic
| concepts of government which lie at the
! base of party divisions, however vaguely
| they are generally SenSed, the one con-
| tending for loose and the other for a
strict construction of the grant of power
to congress. But the Declaration clearly
marked the division of federal from
| state government. and contains in it the
! germ of the right of home rule.
The idea of the absolute sovereignty
| of the state is the obstruction which
| stands i'll the way of all efforts to secure
to communities the privilege of con-
| Quoting their own affairs as they wish.
| The states deny to their citizens the
| concept Of government they imposed on
! the Union. While the federal cOnStitu-
ton is statement of the powers granted
by the states, the constitutions of the
states are but the limitations placed on
the state by the people, and where
power is not therein denied or withheld
| he state IS as supreme as the most alb
solute monarchy in the world. That
this power is exercised by representa-
tives chosen by the people makes it
none the less arbitrary or dangerous.
Everywhere in recent years we see the
evidence OF this in the constantly in-
creasing enroachment of legislation on
the freedom of the citizen, for every
law reg ulating his conduct is simply SO
much liberty taken from him.
The results of this conception of the
state are many, and all bad. If it is
bad for a man to be made too dependent
on another, it is as bad for the COM
| munity of which he is an integer to be
made to feel that it has no independ-
ence of action with its accompanying,
SOLDERING, Steadying responsibility. The
doctrine is sustained by the courts that
the political subdivisions of the state
have no inherent and original power,
but that. as they are the creations of the
state, their powers must be sought in the
gracious act of creation. If not there
plainly stated, for nothing is to be taken
from the sovereign by implication. the
power is not in them, and any act as
Stunning it is void and of no effect So
we have it occur that whenever it is
proposed by town or village or city or
county to undertake something for the
common welfare or advantage, the first
and primal necessity is to look In the
statute or in the charter to see il the
sovereign has deigned to confer on its
subject the power to do the thing wished
to be done.
The relation of the states to the Union
is logical and republican. 1t is based
on the democratic principle that all
power comes from the people in grants
to the successive departments charged
with increasingly broader Jurisdiction.
This forms pyramidal structure of
government. But the pyramid is set on
its apex when we come to the state,
Save as the people in their constitu-
ton have set limits, the state is abso :
lutte. Power descends, instead of as.
cends. The legislature becomes the
monarch, but none the less one that
it wears no crown, while 1t has nothing
Of that sense of responsibility which
controls action where power is CEN
tered.
| Under such conditions home rule is
impossible. There can be no self-goy.
eminent in community where its right
of action must be found in printed
statutes of the state. These considera-
tons point the sole and simple remedy.
and that is to extend to the states the
doctrine of the relation Of the states 10
the Union; recognizing the theory of a
republic that the source of all power Is
In the people themselves. and none can
be exercised save such as they bestow.
Man preceded the commune or town.
and the town preceded the county, and
the county preceded the state in the
natural course of governmental develop.
ment.
Recognizing the town OF village and