The San Francisco call., 1906-10-05

Of the money of that corporation TO
any candidate or any political commit
tee for the payment of any election eX-
penses whatever.
It 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
similar length of time, has TO its
credit such a body 0f admirable legis-
lation. 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 accompanied
by abuses in connection with the en-
ployment of labor which have necessi-
tated a complete change in the attitude
of the State toward labor.
ASKS CHILD LABOR LAW.
This is above all true in connection
with the employment Of child labor. In
Pennsylvania you have made a begin
legislation and administration on this
subject; the law must if necessary be
strengthened and i must be rigorous.
can do but little in the matter of child
labor tho | earnestly hope that that
little will be permitted to be done by
-
however, must be left to the state
Legislatures; and if our State Legisla-
lures would act as drasucally and yet
as wisely on this subject of child labor
as Pennsylvania has acted within the
present year as regards the subjects
l have enumerated above, the gam
would be literally incalculable; and one
of the most vital needs Of modern
American life would at last be ade-
quately met.
So much for the state Now for the
NJ ion, md +
than base my theory of governmental
action upon the words and deeds Of
Justice James Wilson. Wilson's ca
reer has been singularly overlooked for
many years. but l believe that more
and more it is now being adequately
appreciated; and l congratulate your
State upon the fact that WILSON'S body
is TO be taken away from where II now
rests and brought back to lie. as II
should in PENNSYLVANIA soil. He was
a signer of the Declaration OF lndepend-
enc. He was one of the men who saw
that the revolution, in which ne hsta
fruitless unless 1t was followed by
close and permanent union of the
States; and in the Gonstttutional con
Vention, and in securing the adoption
of the Constitution and eXpoundlng
what it meant. he rendered services
even greater than he rendered as
member of the Continental Congress,
which declared our Independence; for 1t
was the success of the makers and pre-
servers of the Union which justified
our independence.
FAITH IN THE PEOPLE.
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 recognize
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 to the ex
istence of this nation) that an inhe-
rent power rested in the nation, out
side of the enumerated powers con-
all cases where the subject involved
was beyond the power of the several
States and was a power ordinarily ex
ercised by sovereign nations :.
In remarkable letter in which he
advocated setting forth in early and
clear fashion the powers of the Nation
al Government, he laid down the propo
sition that II should be made clear
that there were neither vacancies nor
interferences between the limits of
State and national jurisdiction, and
posed only one uniform and compre-
hensive system of government and
not act, because the need to be met is
not one of merely a single locality,
then the National Government, repre-
senting all the people, should have
spirit of Wilson that Washington. and
Washingtons lieutenant, Hamilton,
acted; and 1t was in the same spirit
that Marshall construed the law.
1t is only by acting I'm this spirit that
the national judges, Legislators and
executives can give satisfactory solu-
ent day-the question of providing on
behalf of the sovereign people the
means which will enable the people In
effective form to assert their soyer-
eighty over the immense corporations
of the day. Certain judicial decisions
have done lust what Wilson feared;
vacancies, left blanks between the linn
its OF possible state Jurisdiction and
the limits of actual national jurisdiction
over the control of the great business
corporations. 1t is the narrow con-
struction of the powers of the National
Government which in orr democracy
ing the national power to cut out
abuses, and which ~ now the chief bull
warfk of those great mOneyed interests
which oppose and dread any attempt
TO place them under efficient govern
mental control.
TRIBUTE TO WILSON.
Many legislative actions and many
judicial decisions which | am confident
time will show to have been erroneous
and damage to the country would
have been avoided if our legislators and
jurists had approached the matter of
enacting and constructing the laws of
the land in the spirit of your great
Pennsylvania, Justice Wilson--in the
spirit of Marshall and of Washington.
Such decisions put us at great dis
advantage in the battle for Industrial
order as against the present industrial
chaos. If we interpret the Constitu-
tion in narrow instead of broad fash
ion, If we forsake the principles of
Washington, Marshall, Wilson and
Hamilton, we as a people will render
ourselves impotent to deal with any
abuses which may be committed by the
men who have accumulated the enor-
nous fortunes of today, and who use
these fortunes in still vaster corporate
form in business.
The legislative or judicial actions and
decisions of which | complain, be it
remembered, do not really leave to the
States power to deal with corporate
wealth in business. Actual experience
has shown that the States are wholly
powerless to deal with this subject;
and any action or decision that deprives
the nation of the power to deal with ii
simply results in leaving the corpora
tions absolutely free to work without
any effective supervision whatever; and
such a course is fraught with untold
danger to the future of our whole sys-
tenn of government, and, indeed, to our
WhOla civiliZafiOn