The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-13
Future of States.


days.
Future of States.
What is to be the future of the states
of the United States under our dual sys-
tenn of constitutional government?
"rhe conditions under which the clauses
of the constitution, distributing powers
to the national and state government are
now and henceforth to be applied, are
widely different from the conditions which
We're or could have been within the con-
temptation of the trainers of the consti-
tuition, and widely different from those
which obtained during the early years of
the republic. When the authors of the
'Federalist' argued and expounded the
reasons for union and the utility of the
provisions contained in the constitution,
each separate colonly transformed into
a state was complete in itself, and suf-
1icient to itself, except as to a few ex
ceedingly simple external relations of
state to state and to foreign nations;
from the origin of production to the final
consumption of the product from the
birth of citizen to his death the bus
mess, the social and the political life of
each separate community began and ended
for the most part within the limits of
the state itself; the long time required
for travel and communication between the
different centers of population, the diff
culties and hardships of long and labori-
Gus journeys, the slowness of the mails,
and the enormous cost of transporting
goods, kept the people of each state trbu-
tary to their own separate colonial CEN
ter of trade and influence, and kept their
activities within the ample and sufficient
jurisdiction of the local laws of their
states. The fear of the fathers of the re-
public was that these separate and self
fa11 nj
and the union would resolve into it's con-
stituent elements as it grew in popula-
tion and area, thinking it would split up
into number of separate confederacles.
National Sentiment.
Few of the men of 1887 would have
deemed it possible that the union they
were forming could be maintained among
those S7000,0O0 of people spread over the
vast expanse from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and from the lakes to the gulf.
Three principal causes have made this
possible. The first has been the growth of
a national sentiment which was at first
almost imperceptble. The very difficult
ties and hardships to which our nation
was subjected in its early years, the in
jures to our commerce, and the insults
and indignites TO our flag on the part
of both the contestants in the great
Napoleonc wars served to keep the
nation and national interests and natl
onal dignity constantly before the minds
and in the feelings of the people. AS the
tide of emigration swept westward new
states were formed of citizens who looked
back to the older states as the homes of
their childhood and their affection, and
the origin of their laws and customs, and
who never had the peculiar and special
separate political life of the colonies. The
Civil war settled the supremacy of the
. .ttr tI,a
union, and it's sacrifices sanctifed and
made enduring that national sentiment.
THE second great influence has been
the knitting together in ties of common
interest the people forming the once sep
arate communities through the working
of free trade among the states. Never
was a concession dictated by enlightened
Judgment for the common beenfit more
richly repaid than that by which the
states surrendered in the federal con-
stitution the right to lay imposts or duties
ON exports and imports without the con-
sent of Congress. To it we owe the do
nestle market for the products of our
farms, and forests and mines and fac
tories without a parallel in history, and
international trade of all the rest of the
world.
1.-The third great cause of change is the
marvellous development of facilities for
travel and communication caused by the
inventions and discoveries of the past CEN
tury. Our whole life was swung away
from the old state centers and is crystal
lizing about national centers.
THE growth of national habits in the
daily life of a homogeneous people keeps
pace with the growth of national senti-
ment.
Changes in Life of People.
'Such changes in the life of the people
cannot fail to produce corresponding poll
tical changes. Some of these changes
can be plainly seen now in progress. 1t
is plainly to be seen that the people of
the country are coming to the conclusion
that in certain important respects the
local news of the separate states, which
We're adequate for the due and just regu-
lation and control of business which was
transacted and the activity which began
and ended within the limits of several
states, are Inadequate for the due and
Just control of the business activities
which extended throughout all the states
and more power of regulation and control
is gradually passing into the hands of
the national government.
Sometimes by an assertion of the in
terstate commerce power sometimes by
an assertion of the taxing power, the
national government is taking up the
performance of duties which, under the
changed conditions, the separate states