The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-29
AMENDMENT IMPOSSIBLE
THE REDUCTION OF SHIELD.
 ING TARIFFS
Quicker Way to Check the
 Trusts.


 Trusts.
 President Roosevelt in his speech at Providence declared it to be his belief and judgment that the Federal Govern ment must assume the power to con- trol the trusts and corporations, and if Congress has not that power already under the Constitution the power must be conferred upon it by constitutional amendment. The Providence speech has no meaning at all if it were not intend ed to announce an Administration pol icy. There is reason to believe that President Roosevelt will urge upon Congress the submission to the States of a constitutional amendment confer ring upon the Federal Government the full power" of control over corpora tions which he believes to be necessary.
 In urging this policy upon Congress President Roosevelt will suffer defeat, just as he suffered defeat in his Cuban reciprocity policy. The leaders of his party are beyond his control and they dissent altogether from many of his opinions upon public questions, notably his opinions in regard to trusts and corporations. His party is not pre- pared to adopt the strenuous measures he advocates.
 But even if the President should pre- vail upon Congress to submit to the States of the Union a constitutional amendment granting and surrendering to the National Government so consid- erable part of their sovereign powers the amendment would be defeated. for the reason that it would fail to receive the assent of three-rourths of the States. The reason why the failure of the amendment may be confidently predicted will be brought clearly into the view of any intelligent person who examines the nature and scope of the change proposed.
 There are 45 States in the Union Constitutional amendments fail if not ratified by a vote of three-fourths of the States. The adverse vote of F States would defeat the President s amendment, It is as certain as any future political event can be that the amendment would be rejected by the Legislature of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Ohio Indiana and Illi- ! nois. Here are 12, enough to defeat the amendment. Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and certainly Dela- ware, might be added to the list. But 12 are enough.
 The Legislatures of the Conventions nf tI1aca rra,Id fba a,,,a,,I ment because they are great rnanufac- turing States. Countless millions, yes, veritable billions, of their capital are invested in the securities of their cor porations, and millions of their citizens depend for ther salaries and daily bread upon the prosperity of the industries in which these, corN'rations are en- gagged. The people of these States, in their present disposition, will not con- sent that the power to control their corporations shall pass from the Gov ernment of their States, always respon- sibe to themselves, to the Congress and Executive of the Federal Government which at any given time may have been placed in power by and be respon- sible to a political majority resident in other States far less intimately in- terested in corporations and maintain ing toward them a very different atti- tude. States come to know each others tmeper and disposition as men come to know the temper and disposition of their business associates. Massachu- setts and Connecticut cannot be per- suaded to turn over to Texas and Me- braska the power to regulate and con- trol their corporations; and this is equally true of other States in which industrial development has reached an advanced stage.
 But the fatal defect in the Presi- | dents Providence speech is his failure to make the slightest reference to the tariff as the proper field in which to begin operations against the trusts It is there notoriously that the trusts are intrenched, it is to the Republican pol icy of protection that scores of them, and some of the worst, are indebted for their power to practice extortion upon the domestic consumer. Every intelli- gent American knows this. This is the thought that is running in the minds of the people. They will smile at the Presi- dents choice of the most remote and cumbersome of all possible remedies against the trusts, remedy which it would require years to compound and administer, while here, under the very hand of Congress and the Executive ready for immediate use if they were minded to use it, lies an effective cure for a great part of the abuses of the trust.
 A general who sounds the calls to arms and leaps into the saddle to lead the charge against the enemy by a | long and impracticable route when the short cut lies straight in front of him., runs the gravest risk of being taken 1 for a soldier who is not really panting 1 to imbrue his hands in the gore of the enemy.-From the New York Times. nNnmI n rEUVnyN DETfJT M YJNN