New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-15
pEFBNDINe THE CONSTITUTION.

Massachusetts is wrestling with a great con-
stitutional problem. According 10 lls leaI
Attorney General, the Bay States sovereignty Is
assailed and its ''integrity and responsibility as
a member Of the federal Union are ruoely chai-
lenged. 'Adassachusetts Is asked TO surrender
its brthright," Numbered this patlouc o1nclal
at meeting on Thursday of the joint Commit
tee of WAYS and Means of the State Legislat-
IRE. and that Infamous surrender, be assured
the BAY State lawmakers, would never be con-
summated 80 long as voice and strength are
left me-
The present crisis IS due to the unsuccessful
effort of the State authorities TO collect ana
cash a United States Treasury warrant 1or
81, Gil, 74O IS payable to the Governor of Massa-
chusetts, The sum named represents claim
against the national government allowed year
ago by the Controller of the Treasury; but the
warrant has not yet come into the possession OF
the State Treasurer 1t is held in Washington
by the lawyer who prosecuted the case on con-
tract allowing him 10 per cent of the sum finally
secured. The present State administration hav-
ing shown decided disposition to question the
validity of this contract, the attorney tactfully
secured possession of the warrant, and now re-
fuses to turn it over to the Governor until he
receives assurances that the 10 per cent COM
mission agreement will be carried out.
1t seems that Governor WolCott and his At
torDey General, Mr.. Knowlton, engaged some
seven or eight years ago the services Of a well
known Washington lawyer to push certain
claims Of the State, under the impression that
an act passed by the legislature justified them
in offering him hard and fast commission. Re-
Gently, after the allowance of ST. 611, 740 So was
made, some question was raised as to the legal
fly Of the original agreement, and the present
Attorney General, Mr.. Parker, convinced him.
self, after a careful examination of the text Of
the act that the Governor, IN making It, had exer-
ciSed an extra-legal authority. The proceedings
in Washington having been taken in the law
yers name, the Treasury in May, 1904, turned
the warrant over to him. But, on interviewing
the State authorities he discovered that they In
tended to settle with him on a new and wholly
different basis. He therefore refused to part
with the warrant until what he considered his
full contract rights were guaranteed.
Little progress toward a settlement has been
made since, though the issue has been carried
into the courts of the District Of Columbia and
into the United States Supreme Court The
lawyer still has possession Of the warrant and
Massachusetts is losing in interestat least 100000
year. Governor Douglas is anxious to effect
a compromise, and has urged the legislature to
pass bill allowing the agent an acceptable fee
The Attorney General, however, seems to think
that the agents Withholding Of the warrant for
over year has constituted a breach of faith
and has relieved the State Of any obligation to
observe either the letter the spirit of the VOL
colt contract He wants to have the States dig
nity integrity and responsibility indicated, and
the heretcal contention repudiated that the
government Of the United States can deal with
"a sovereign State and cancel just debt, duly
"adtudicated, only through the medium of a
claim agent" Shall Massachusetts, to save a
few thousand dollars and satisfy a supposed
financial need" abandon "a great constitutional
principle" and admit that a mere go-between
may stop 1.-THE payment of a debt by the United
States to sovereign State? No wonder that
Massachusetts is in ferment The country will
watch with interest It's struggle to adjust this
delicate and complicated problem in State rights