The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-10
KEEP YOUR EYE ON IT.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON IT.
The Minneapolis Tribune says: ''The
Parker view is that the great corpora
tons must be left to control of the
states''
The constitution of the United
States says: 1.-The congress shall have
power to regulate commerce with for
eign nations, and among the several
states, and with the Indian tribes"
Great as is our respect for the Trib-
une, we are compelled to think that
where two so eminent authorities
collide, the constitution would prevail
and the Tribune go to the wall.
1t is not the Democratic party but
the Republican that proposed to change
the constitution. The former holds
that the powers of congress are now
ample. Under them interstate COM
merce can be, has been and will be
regulated 1t is necessary to do no
more than refer to the interstate conn
rnefce act, the work of the interstate
commission, the EIkins law, and the
holdings of the supreme court both
in the Northern Securities case and in
cases where industrial combinations
have been brought before it to see
how complete is the federal control of
all business having an interstate char
acter or affected with any public use.
For such transactions, then, existing
authority is sufficient. For business
that is done wholly within a state, the
authority of the state also suffices.
Witness the work of legislatures, rail-
road commissions and state courts in
host of cases. Believing that the
line drawn by the constitution between
the powers Of the nation and those of
the state should be preserved, the
Democratic party finds no need to over
ride and destroy the latter for the sake
of a gigantic scheme of Capitalization.
Not SO the Republican. 1t has it's
mind fixed upon the enactment of a
law, or rather upon change in the
constitution that would permit con-
gress to be the arbiter Of all business
interests, great and small, in the coun-
try. The political advantage to a par
ty like the Republican, which goes
hand in glove with the trusts, and
could make terms with them for Ieav-
ing them unmolested, is obvious. The
revolutionary quality of the proposal
to any student of the constitution is
quite as obvious. But the whole Re
publican campaign is shaping itself ON
this basis.
This is the single reason for the
preposterous claim set up by different
Republican newspapers an a precon-
certed signal that the New York plat
form proposed some exemption from
control for corporations 1t is exactly
like the campaign recently waged In
this city, where Republican leaders be-
gan with the assertion of known false
hoods to which they adhered consistent
- AAO1Al III ~ " 1dotS Will the nOCl0n
that they could fool the public. we
fancy that the result of this method
will not differ greatly in the large
field from the fate that befeH it in the
small one.
But the most important thing is that
this tented attack should not be per-
nitted to distract public attention
from the plan of Republicans; which
is to turn over all private business to
federal control; to make over the coun-
try after the model Of the machine that
Boss Platt has established in New
York and Boss Quay in Pennsylvania:
to make every corporation pay a big
contribution annually to the treasury
of the Republican party as condition
Of being allowed. to continue in bust
ness; and to destroy the fundamental
rights and the freedom of the people
more completely than George III. would
have dreamed of attempting. Keep
your eye on the Rooseveltian pro-
gramme OF the naturalization of all
corporations and the complete control
by comrnercialism of all governmental
functions that must necessarily fol-
low it,