Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09
WHAT WOULD JEFFERSON
STAND FOR TODAY?

SSheFSOu VIII assemble AGAIN 10 ctlSpTdte
his birthday. and the praise of the great
democrat will ascend from a hundred ia
bles. Professors of every variety Of politi-
cal opinion will join In the acclaim. for In
these times it would seem everybody is a
Jeffersonian. At their national convention
the republicans laid claim to a share of
Jeffersonian doctrine. The convention at
st. Louis was proclaimed as a grand Jeffer-
sonian rally.
All the political parties claim Jefferson,
but what party would Jefferson claim II he
were now among men? What would be his
attitude toward the great questions of the
day-the trusts the negro problem the tar
III. the army and navy?
It Is quite certain that on
Not Win the trust question Jefferson
Roosevelt. would not agree with the
Presidents suggestion of
placing industrial concerns under the con-
troll of the federal government. for he
would see in such policy the complete
and rapid extinction of the principle of
state autonomy. AS for the incorporation
of Industrial concerns by Congress- we
know that he would not listen for a mo-
ment to that. for he contended that the
power of Incorporation belonged exclusively
to the states In 1900 Nicholas Roosevelt
whose father, by the by. was a lineal an
cestor of President Roosevelt. applied to
Congress for charter to operate copper
mines in New Jersey. The act of incorpo-
ration passed the House, and when it came
to the Senate it evoked from Jefferson the
following comment:
1--WE are engaged in improving our Consti-
tuition by construction so as to make 1t
what the majority think 1t should have
been. The Senate received yesterday
bill from the representatives Incorporating
a company for Roosevelt's copper mines In
New Jersey. This is under the sweeping
al, = ho ion md q
by the following pedigree of necessities:
Congress are authorized to defend the coun-
try; ships are necessary for that defense;
copper is necessary for ships; mines are
necessary to produce copper; companies are
necessary to work mines: and this is the
house that Jack built.
Nor could Jefferson ac-
MOI WIFI quiesce In Judge Parker's
Judge Parker. notions Of dealing with the
trusts. Parker asserted
that the federal courts, by applying the
common law, could give complete legal
remedy against monopoly. The republican
candidate replied that there is no common
law of the United States, and declared that
If anything is done with the trusts 1t must
be done through statutory law. II Jefferson
had engaged in the controversy he would
have been squarely against Judge Parker
and squarely with Mr.. Roosevelt. In 1913
he wrote:
"Of all the doctrines which have ever
been preached by the federal government,
the novel one Of the common law being In
force and cognizable as an existing law IN
their courts is to me the most formidable.
All their other assumptions OF ung1ven
power have been in the detail. The BANK
law, the treaty doctrine, the sedition act
alien act = have zen solitary, incon-
seauential, timid things in comparison with
the audacious barefaced and sweeping pre-
tension to system of law for the United
States without the adoption of their leg1s-
n.-t%@ ~, I~n fhafY
to adopt. If this assumption be yielded to
the state courts may be shut up.
How, then. would JEFF
for Decen- ferson approach the trust
tralization. problem? We can only
think Of him as acting in
harmony with the principles of decentral-
lied government. He would have each
state deal with the question in its own
way If for the effective control of cor
porations the state should need more
power than it now possesses he would con-
fer that power by amending the Constitu-
ton.
ut is not" said Jefferson, by the CONSOLE
dalton or concentration of powers, but by
their distribution that good government is
effected. *"+ Were we directed from
Washington when to sow and when to reap
we should soon want bread" IF ever this
vast country-is brought under single gov
eminent it will be one of the most extern
sive corruption, Indifferent and Incapable
of a wholesome care over so wide spread
of surface.
A policy of decentraliza-
Ureat Jules ton might mean for state
and Fortunes. stunted commercial and
industrial development, a
less luxurious civilization, smaller pop
ulation and a smaller wealth, but these
things would have no terrors for Jeffer-
son. When the yellow fever was depopu-
lating the land he found consolation in
the thought that it would discourage the
growth of great cities in our nation. and
view great cities as residential to the
morals, the health and the liberties of
man" AS for wealth, he rejoiced that in
America in his time there were no rich
men, and it was his settled conviction that
a rich country cannot long be free one.
So Jefferson would view the trust ques-
ton not from the standpoint Of natural
wealth and greatness, but from the stand
point of human liberty, and II the economic
price of the destruction of monopoly and
preservation of industrial freedom among
individuals should be less wealthy and
less populous country he would be willing
to pay the price.
Where would Jefferson be
Ph1npplne found on the Philippine
o,,estion. question? He was ex-
pansionist, if there ever was
one. "Who can limit" he asked of Con-
gress, 1.-THE extent to which the federatlve
principle may operate effectively" 1T
seems" he said in 1907, that the smaLer
the society the bitterer the dissensions into
which it breaks. 1 believe ours is to owe
it's permanence to it's great extent
lust before he doubled the area OF the
United States by the purchase ol Louisiaia
he wrote to Monroe:
However our present interest may re-
strain us within our own limits, 1t is i'm
possible not to look forward to distant
mir
axnand itself beyond these limits and cover
the whole northern, if not the southern con-
tinent with a people speaking the same
language, governed in similar forms ana py
similar laws"
To say that Jefferson was
JeHerson1an an expansionist, however.
Expansion. is not to say ,hat ne Wou a'
a., pb,,innine question. There is expansion
- Of oil that