The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-10-08
NO POWER TO ACT.

ministration in the matter of the
coal strike is that the government
has no power to act Hardly ever,
even in time of war, has an emergen-
cy arisen involving to so great an ex-
tent the varied interests of the coun-
try, its prosperity, and particularly
the welfare of the poor and the great
middle classes. The rich can always
take care of themselves They will
not suffer-except in their feelings,
when they pay out of Jheir abundant
means high price for coal. They
will have the coal, they will be
fed and will keep warm. The poor
will shiver with cold, they will go
without the commonest necessaries of
bare existence to provide themselves
with sufficient fuel to cook their
meagre food or keep their bodies in
a semi torpid condition.
If ever there was a time for the SUI
preme political power to act for the
commonest good of millions of the
governed it is now, on the very thresh-
old of pinching winter with its
bitter cold.
What is government for if not, as
one of it's supreme functions, to act,
and act promptly and decisively, in
the fuel crisis already existent, with
tenfold rigors impending?
But the government says it has no
power to act. This plea has been
made in other desperate crises of the
national existence, when some states
man with the resources and boldness
of great and saving craftsmanship has
found the power to act, and with the
supreme power and energy of persua-
sive genius has breathed life and ac-
ton into inertia, shamed cavil, over
ridden objection and opposition and
saved his country.
In the time of the civil war, when
the government was seeking the finan-
cial means to pay its great armies,
buy arms and munitions of war and
provide it's soldiers sustenance, and
the proposition was made to issue the
paper currency which became known
to fame as the "greenback partisan
opposition and timid craftsmanship
assailed the scheme, visiting upon it
that "ne plus ultra of objection, its
unconstitutionality- power to
act " Thad. Stevens, the bold COM
moner, found the power to act in the
war powers of the Constitution. The
government acted, the greenback was
issued, the Union preserved-and the
"nuconstitutional" instrument that
was in war mightier than the sword
abides today, mighty agency in in
dustrial and commercial warfare.
In the first years of the Federal
government, Hamilton, financial sec
rotary of President Washington
cabinet, was wrestling with the
mighty problems that confronted the
young republic and which threatened
it's overthrow. The national treasury
was empty, its resources were few,
debt in many threatening forms OPP
pressed the government and the
D6ODlC. LllC OCOpo AluoO Nv puANs al
the different classes of Indebtedness,
one which was producing great dis
tress throughout the country, breeding
outbreaks like Shays's rebellion in
Massachusetts, were the debts the
State owed private individuals, The
States were unable to pay, or would
not pay, or the people would not en-
dure the taxation that would enable
the States to pay.
These debts were fruitful source
of peril. Hamilton saw and under
stood this, and proposed that the ma
tional government should assume and
pay them. There was no question
that the government should pay, dol
lar for dollar, the debt involved in
loans from foreign powers only a
slight questioning as to the rightful-
ness of the claims of the States upon
the general government for debts in
CURED in prosecuting the war for in
dependence, but bitter hostility was
aroused when Hamilton went furth-
er and proposed, also, to pay this
third class of obligations. The propo-
sition was met by the last objection
brought up when all others fail-thC
unconstitutionality Of the measure
The measure, it was maintained
was far outside the constitutions
powers of the government. But Ham
ilton found in the implied powers o
the Constitution authority to pay tn
State debts-in the provision of tina