The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-04
President Roosevelt's Speech
Fine Address Delivered Today Dedication of Pennsyva
las New State Capitol

elective franchise made tamperine
with the ballot boxes and the casting
of illegal votes so difficult as in all
probability to be Improbable: you
have provided a primary election law
which guarantees to the voters free
expression in the selection of candi-
dates for office: you have by law
regulated and improved the civil SER
vice systems of your greatest cities
and. finally. YOU have past law con-
tanning a provision which | most ear
nestly hope will in substance be em-
bodied likewise in law by the con-
gress at the coming session-a pro-
vision prohibiting the officers Of any
! corporation from making a contribu-
| ton of the money of that corporation
to any candidate or any political COM
mittee for the payment OF any election
expenses whatever.
1t is surely not too much to say that
this body of substantive legislation
marks an epoch in the history of the
practical betterment OF political con-
ditions, not merely for your state. but
for all our states. do not recall any
other state legislature which. in Il
similar length of time. has to its
credit such body of admirable leg
islation. Let me, however. most earn
estly urge that your legislature con-
tinue this record of public service by
enacting one or two additional laws.
One subject which every good citizen
should have at heart above almost all
others is the matter of child labor.
Everywhere the great growth of mod
ern industrialism has been accom-
panied by abuses in connection with
the employment Of labor which have
necessitated complete change in the
attitude of the state toward labor.
This is above all true in connection
with the employment of child labor.
In Pennsylvania you have made be-
ginning. but only beginning. i'll pro-
per legislation and administration on
this subject: the law must if neces-
sary be strengthened. and it must be
vigorously enforced. The national
government can do but little in the
matter of child labor. tho earnestly
hope that that little will be permitted
to be done by congress. The great
bulk of the work. however. must be
left to the state legislatures; and if
our state legislatures would act as
drastically and yet as wisely on this
subject of child labor as Pennsylvania
has acted within the present year as
regards the subjects l have enumer-
ated above. the gain would be literally
incalculable: and one of the most vital
needs of modern American life would
at last be adequately met.
So much for the state Now for the
nation; and here l can not do better
than base my theory of governmental
action upon the words and deeds of
one of Pennsylvania greatest sons,
Justice James Wilson. Wilson's
career has been singularly overlooked
for many years, but l believe that
more and more it is now being ade-
quately appreciated; and 1 congratu-
late your state upon the fact that Will
sons body is to be taken away from
where it now rests and brought back
to lie, as it should. in Pennsylvania
soil. He was signer of the Declara-
ton of independence. He was one of
the men who saw that the revolution,
in which he had served as soldier,
was followed by a close and perman-
| ent union of the states: and in the
constitutional convention. and in Sc
and eXpounding what it meant, he
! rendered services even greater than
| he rendered as a member of the con-
tinental congress. which declared our
! independence; for it was the success
union which justified our independ
ence.
| He believed in the people with the
faith of Abraham Lincoln; and coupled
with his faith in the people he had
what most of the men who in his gen.
GRAFTON believed in the people did not
have; that is, the courage to recog-
nize the fact that faith in the people
amounted to nothing unless the repre-
sentatives of the people assembled to-
gether in the national government
were given full and complete power to
work on behalf of the people. He de-
veloped even before Marshall the doc
trine absolutely essential not merely
to the efficiency but to the existence
of this nation) that an inherent power
rested in the nation. outside of the
enumerated powers conferred upon it
by the constitution, in all cases where
the object involved was beyond the
power of the several states and was a
power ordinarily exercised by sover-
eign nations.
In a remarkable letter in which he
advocated setting forth in early and
clear fashion the powers of the ma
tional government, he laid down the
proposition that it should be made
clear that there were neither vacancies
nor interferences between the limits
of state and national jurisdiction. and
that both Jurisdictions together COM
posed only one uniform and compre-
hensive system of government and
laws; that is, whenever the states can
not act, because the need to be met is
not one of merely single locality,
then the national government, repre-
senting all the people, should have
complete power to act. 1t was in the
spirit of Wilson that Washington, and
Washington's lieutenant, Hamilton,
acted land it was in the same spirit
that Marshall construed the law.
1t is only by acting in this spirit
that the national judges, legislators
and executives can give satisfactory
solution OF the great question OF the
present day-the question OF provid-
ing on behalf of the sovereign people
the means which will enable the peo-
pie in effective form to assert Their
sovereignty over the immense corpor,
ations of the day. Certain Judicial
decisions have done just what Wilson
feared; they have, as a matter of fact
left vacancies, left blanks between
the limits OF possible jurisdiction ant
the limits OF actual national juris
diction over the control of the grea