The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-07

And all this extraordinary, fundamental,
HnmltaDle power exercised without title OF
warrant or authority in the constitution which
tney pretend to interpret!
Here is all that is Said on the subject In
1ne constitution san II the United States Article
Sec. 1.-THE judicial power shall extend
10 all cases in law and equity, arising under
TINS constitution, the Jaws of the United
states ana treaties made, or which shall be
made, under their authority; to all cases af-
Iectlng ambassadors, other public ministers
ana tconsuls; to all seases of admiralty, and
maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to
which the United States shall be party; to
| controversies -betweenI two or more states,
between state AID citizens of another state,
| ci5izens OF the same Estate claiming lands
under grants of different states, and between
state or the citizens thereof and foreign
states, citizens, subjects
surely there is not a word here that con-
templates the right, on the part OF court to
wipe OUT laws of the United States. But the
patriots or that day thought it might not be
eHpilcit enough; and SO seven years after
tne ADOPTION of the constitution, in 1894, they
a added the eleventh amendment which is as
follows:
THE judicial power of the United States
shail not be construed to extend to any suit
III law or equity, commenced or prosecuted
against one of the United States by citizens
OF any foreign state"
BY this amendment the supreme court is pro-
nlpIted from trying any suit instituted against
Sto'o NY cltlZenS or anOtner state, or OF a
foreign state. And yet the court which could
not BRING state to its bar, in such contro-
tersie 93 mas. we are told the right and power
to call the Congress of the United States
and all the people thereof, into it's presence
ana repeal every law which it has passed or
"nlc1 II may pass in the future.
an ana Under under this power they have taken
away from congress the right to impose an
income tax on the wealth of the country;
s snus aeprlvlng the government of a great
w iypd
ment on earth. And this in the face of the
| oIrect authorization by the constitution to
congress (Artlcle /, section 81.
TO levy and collect taxes, Duties mposts,
ana excuses, to pay the debts and provide for
me common defense and general welfare of
the United States but all duties, mposts
ana excuses shall be uniform throughout the
United States.''
There was 10 pretense that the proposed
income tax was not to apply uniformly through
ali the stateS-the citizens in Maine was to
pay as much tax on his income as the citizen
or Texas, and no more. There inhibi-
ton In the constitution-against congress levy
ing tax on income; England has used the
system for century, and every nation in
Europe has adopted 1t. And yet, on a wise
OF the judges, having. under peculiar circum-
stances, changed his mind; and in the midst
OF quarrel in which part of the court de-
nounced the othercpart as being controlled by
corrupt motives-the judges almost coming
to blows-this great usurpation was COM
pleted, an act of congress nullifed, and the
Gus and necessary prerogatives-the power of
taxation.
But the courts have not paused here.
But 1T may be said that If the court does
not restrain the congress it may violate the
constitution. We reply that it is better that
| that instrument should be infringed upon than
that the people should be reduced to bondage
Liberty is more than any document; the peo-
pie are more than a form of words. The con-
sensus of opinion of few millions who lived
one hundred years ago, and are now all dead
has no right to tie the hands of hundred
millions or a thousand millions of the living.
We know of no attempt by congress to violate
the express terms of the constitution but II
1T does so, let the people correct the error at
the ballot box.
We have seen them. enjoining hundreds of
thousands of men from performing acts which
were not in themselves public offences; We
have seen them forbidding men to hold public
meetings, although the first of the amend
ments to the constitution of the United States
| drawn by the hand Of Thomas Jefferson (the
same hand that wrote the Declaration of In
dependency, says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
! of speech or the press, or the right of the
i people peaceably assemble, or to petition
| the government for a redress of grievances"
| We have even seen them denying to citizens
roads, the ownership Of which is not vested
in any individual, but belongs to the whole
people.
There are those who may read this who will
"How does all this concern me? These men
are poor toilers, with their hands; am not.
| l am something better" 80
| To these reply:
''How far you trace back your ancestry
| and not find a carpenter blacksmith, or
a shoemaker tailor. or, perhaps day
! laborer among your ancestors? And how far
will your posterity go before your wealth is
scattered, and your descendants reduced to
the level of that manual labor which you
now so much despise?'
The present panic is a great schoolmaster.
I firloy 1rTi0ol
! data the other day, to be published in book
form to demonstrate that his blood was al
ways blue and his clay always porcelain, when
! the deluge struck him, and he is now hard
at work making shoes in the Illinois pene-
| tertiary.
| The last of the royal line of the Plantagents
| is now running butcher shop in a little viii
| lage in England. There are thousands of peo-
pie in these United States of noble and even
| royal blood, and some of them tramps,
| and others pickpockets.
If you consent that any man may be rob-
bed Of his rights now Gng W read be
| satisfied. Aggression never turns back. To-
| day it is the mechanics turn. Tomorrow 1t
will be the bridesmaids; the next day the
| farmers and the next the small capitalist.
In England it is a common observation that
there is nothing left but the wretched toilers
| and the aristocracy. The middle class is
! s.soueezed out" Goodwin Smith laments that
i the class of English yeomanry, the small
farmers who fought at Naseby and Marston
/ Moor.
Their posterity, he says, are to he found to-
| day in the valley Of the Mississippi. But here
they are being subjected to the operation of
the same causes, with the same results: The
! United States have today more tenant farm
ers than England, Ireland, Scotland and
Wales Texas alone has S0,245. while the
whole nation contains 6,929, 755-about three
! times many as the entlre popuiatlon OF the
country in 1916
The wealth of the country must either be in
! the hands of the millions who produce it, or
| IN, ~ bopd Of the thousands who aDDrODriate
| it If in the former those millions will have
| millions OF wants; and to supply those wants
| employment will be furnished to other
millions, of mechanics, and merchants and
! manufacturers, and to the employees of hun
! dreds of transportation companies. And from
| the overfowings, the abundance and the gen.
eral prosperity of the multitude, vast numbers
| of artists, authors, doctors, dentists, lawyers,
! newspaper employees and clergymen main
! tain themselves and families To impoverish
| the producers is therefore TO starve those
| who live off them.
If man is worth a million he does not eat
| and wear as much as the million men from
whom he derived his wealth.
! There are millionaires, like Russell Sage,
! who do not spend much an average
| coal-heaver. Hence, when the middle Class
| permits the wealth of the producing class TO
| be concentrated in the hands of the appropriat-
| ing class it is destroying its customers, and
| starting Itself on down-hill journey to the
| poor house.
The fl .rst feeling to be incu,cated, there
| fore at such meetings this, is that we
must not treat the great questions involved
| from class standpoint. HE made of one
blood all the races of men that dwell on the
face of the earth There is no anatom st
| from the skeleton of a beggar. There is no
| chemist that could have identified the flesh
| of Alexander T. Stewart, when it was stolen
| and carried off in bag, and probably fed to
| the dogs from the flesh of the poorest pauper
| that ever lived and died.
We are all citizens of a common country
1