The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-31


that neither Maryland nor any other state
can interfere with, cripple or impede Its
lawful operations as a government
AT the same term the celebrated Dart
mouth College case was decided
Gibbons VS.. Ogden. decided in 1924. is
the great source to which all must go
who would understand the scope aud i'm
port of the commerce clause of the con-
stitution. Again. the great Chief Justice
he'd TO face the professions of a sover-
eign state, and to strike down one Of its
statutes.
The court there upheld the exclusive
power of Congress to regulate commerce
among the states. wherever it has legis-
lated upon the subject. The argument
in the case dealt largely with the ques-
ton whether navigation is commerce, but
Marshall answering that question in the
affirmative. added in that conclusive way
which no other judge ever equaed OF
approached: Commerce undoubtedly is
traffic, but ii is something more; it is in
tercourse." 1t would almost seem that
he was a prophet as well as judge. for
in that sentence he unconsciously foretod
the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone
and all the wonderful appliances by which
science compels nature to be the servant
and minister of man.
Roger B. fancy, who succeeded Mar
shall, was a man eminently fitted for that
exalted position. Learned able, patient
honest, he filed the ideal of great
judge. But, like Marshall, he had a tern
permanent; like Marshall, he belonged to
a school. Strict construction was as dear
L" him as 1t was odious to his predecessor
After referring with regret to the Dred
scott case. the speaker said: Let us be
just Judge fancy was sustained by the
entire court save two, Mclean and Cur
It's. 1t matters little now who was right
and who was wrong; for the issue went 20
a higher court and was settled forever.
Througho our constitutional history We
have carried on the most complex system
of government known TO man-and to-day
l venture to assert that, notwithstand-
ing It's compleXity, it has been so admin
i"tered as to combine more of liberty to
the citizen with more of power in the ma
ton than any other constitutional gov
err ment. The states. unimpaired in their
Just powers carry on the due operations
OF local administration unfettered-and the
union-which is a union both of people
ana states-has long since passed the time
When any court or any statesman may re-
new Justice Wilson's inquiry: DO n,
ticn?"
Reports Adopted.
AT the afternoon session the report OF
the committees were presented The one
on Jurisprudence and law reform and on
commercial law was adopted. The report
on commercial law says in part:
The present "acts of bankrup.cv' give
the creditor no remedy whatever unless
the debtor deliberately seeks to defraud
his creditors or to prefer one creditor over
another, or suffers or permits such a pref
erehce' or commits an overt act in the
way of making an assignment for tho
benefit of his creditors or admits in writ
ing his inability to pay his debts and is
willing to be adjudged bankrupt on that
ground.
Ihere is nothing in the present law or
IN the law as amended by the Ray bill
that gives a creditor any remedy what
ever against a reckless or improvtdent
de btor.
The debtor, instead of using his money
TO pay his debts, may gamble with ID
may speculate with it, may use IL as
"astefully or improvidently as he chooses
and the creditor has no remedy exceot
that when his debt becomes due he NAV
sue upon ia and collect il if he can.
A man may have thousand dollars ir
an" 1--WE uepts OF a thousand dollars
which he ought to pay with that cash
instead, he may go into gambling hons,
and bet 1t on the turn of wheel. anc
the creditor has no remedy He NAV ~
INTO a worse than gambling house on Wal
street, or State street, or Chestnut street
ana bet 1t upon the turn of something
more uncertain than wheel and the
creditor has no remedy He NAV indulge
IN wild recklessness in the business ven
lures, or wild extravaganza in his per
sonal OUTLAWS, and the creditor has nc
remedy.
1t is the object of our proposed amend
ments to furnish the creditor with a rem
edy under such circumstances. When a
man is in debt he has no moral-and we
believe he should have no legal-right to
use the money or the property with which
alone he can pay that debt, in such a Way
that the creditor takes all the chances
in case of failure, and the debtor reans
ell the profit in case of SUCCESS.
We are not at all unmindfuI of the diff.
culties in the way of enforcing such q
provision in the statute as we seek "a
have enacted 1t may be that in MANY
cases, perhaps most cases, the creditor
would not discover the wrong that was
being done him until ii is too late "a
apply the remedy. The stable door might
De locked only after the horse was stolen
But the difficulty of enforcing a right
Is no reason why il should be withheld
The least that the Legislature can do
is to put it in the power of the creditor
to protect himself and leave II to his dilI-
gence to apply the remedy Let the Leg
islature do its part, and the creditor can
not then complain If by any want of dill
sence or alertness he fails to do this.