The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-28
THURSDAY, APRIL %. 1904.
"US REPUBLICANS" AND SOME
FOOLS.

The esteemed Pioneer Press re-
marks, concerning the platform adopt
ed by the Democratic state convention
in New York, "the Democratic press
ans haven't had a college education"
We do, we do. In view of that felici-
tous "us Republicans haven't" we
shall try to remember that the educa-
tional defect extends even to the ele-
ments of English grammar. The es-
teemed Minneapolis Tribune, on the
same subject, says, IF T he G1ob
really thinks that it is read only by
fools, it becomes no one to contradict
it." We do not think so: but we are
forced to fear that it is read by some
persons of that description. At least
there is a defect in cerebral equipment
or in common honesty, and it hardly
becomes us to decide which. But
diligent reading of T h e Clio b e may
improve even those most stability
The happy remarks by our contem-
poraries to which we have referred, In
dicating their apparently frenzied
state, are probably due to their natural
rage at having been found out in crib
bling an absurdity from the partisan
Republican papers of the East. The
New York Tribune discovered the
mares nest in the Democratic plat
form to begin with. It's criticism was
not for a moment intended to be Sc
riOus, but was meant for consumption
by radicals who could be influenced
against Judge Parker. The Republican
press Of Minnesota swallowed it as
actually meaning something, and are
not little put out at the joke.
The plank referred to reads as fol-
lows: Corporations chartered by the
state must be subject to just regula-
ton by the state" Not even Jus Re-
publicans who haven't been to college,"
or those who are naturally slow of
understanding, could imagine that this
meant to exclude or deny the power of
congress to regulate interstate COM
merce. For it happens that the term
used is so selected as to prevent ex-
Dressly that misunderstanding. If the
platform had meant "a state" it would
have said so. If it meant to make the
same general assertion in another
form, it would have said Corporations
chartered by the states must be sub
ject to just regulation by the States"
But it uses the one term that cannot
possibly be misunderstood or mean
other than it says. ''The state" means,
naturally and by the exclusion of all
other possible Interpretation, the civil
power.
We may point out one further fact,
for the benefit of the rudimentary un-
Outstanding. The constitution of the
United States confers upon congress
the power TO regulate commerce be-
tween the states. That power has been
reiterated, amplifed, extended, inter-
preted, in numerous decisions of the
supreme court. However the judges
may differ on other issues, not a mem
Der of that body could be got to deny,
question or impair this regulative au-
thority Of "the state" It would be
conceivable only by the blind or the
foolish that great political party in
the greatest state of the Union should
declare in its platform against the ex-
pressed mandate Of the constitution
and the courts, and the entire system
on which commerce is dealt with by
the legislative power.
The New York platform declares
that the creatures of the civil power
must be amenable to the civil power.
1t puts into words of admirable brevity