The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1906-12-22
FUTURE OF STATES
SECRETARY ROOT DISCUSSES SUB.
JECT AT BANQUET.
Declares Trend of Sentiment Il
Toward Capitalization of Au-
thority---Legislative Duties Of
Federal Government Steadily
Growing.

Federal Government Steadily
Growing.
New York, Dec. 15.-Secretary of
State Root was the guest Of honor at
the eighth annual dinner Of the Penn
sylvania Society Of New York.
Secretary Root responded to the
toast "The United States" and said:
what is to be the future of the
states of the Union under our dual
system of constitutional government?
1.-THE conditions under which the
clauses of the constitution distributing
bowers to the national and state gov
ernments are now and henceforth to
be applied are widely different from
the conditions which were or could
have been within the contemplation
of the trainers of the constitution.
had widely different from those which
obtained during the early years Of
the republic. Few of tie men of 1878
would have deemed it possible that
the Union they were forming could
be maintained among $4,000, 900
people spread over the vast expanse
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
from the lakes to the gulf.
Growth of National Sentiment !
Three principal causes have made
this possible. The first has been the
growth of a national sentiment, which
was at first almost imperceptible, but
which was kept continually before
the minds of the people by the early
struggles of the nation and which was
sanctiied and made enduring by the
sacrifice of the Civil war. The second
great influence has been the working
of free trade between the states. To
this We owe an internal trade which
already exceeds the entire foreign
trade of the rest of the world, and to
it we owe in high degree the con-
slant drawing together of all parts of
our country in the bonds of common
interest.
1.-The third great cause is the mar
velous development of facilities for
travel and communication which have
broken down the barriers between the
separate communities and led to re-
organization of business and social
life along lines which for the most
part altogether ignore the boundaries
Of the states.
Changing Sentiment
Such changes in the life of the
people cannot fail to produce CORES
ponding political 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
laws of the separate states, which were
adequate for the due and just regula-
ton and control of the business which
was transacted, and the activity
which began and ended within the
limits of the several states, are made
quate for the due and just control of
the business and activities which ex-
tend through all the states, and more
power to regulate and control is grad
ually passing into the hands of the
national government Sometimes by
the absorption of the interstte com.
MERGE power, sometimes by the asser-
ton of the taxing power, the national
government is taking up the perform
ance of duties which, under the chang
ed conditions, the separate states are
no longer capable Of adequately per-
forming. The federal antitrust law,
the anti-rebate law, the railroad rate
law, the meat inspection law, the oleo-
margarine law and the pure food law
are examples of the purpose Of the
United States to do through the agen-
cy of the national governmt Mt the
thing which the separate state govern
ments formerly did adequately, but no
longer can do adequately.
Obliteration of State Lines
''The end is not yet. The process
that interweaves the life and action
of the people in every section Of our
country with the people of every other
section of the country continues and
will continue with increasing force
and effect. We are racing forward
in development Of business and So
cial life which tends more and more
to the obliteration of state lines, and
the decrease of state power as COM
pared with national power. The re-
lations of the business over which the
federal government is assuming con-
troll, of interstate transportation, with
state transportation of Interstate COM
MERGE and with state commerce, are 50
Intimate and the separation Of the
two is 80 impracticable that the tend
ency is plainly toward practical con-
rol Of the national government over
both. New projects of national con-
srol are mooted. Control of insurance.
Uniform divorce laws, child-labor laws,
and many others affecting matters
formerly entirely within the cogniz-
ance of the state are proposed.
State Responsibility
i submit to your Judgment and l
uesire TO impress upon you, with all
Tue earnestness feel, that there is but
one way in which the states of the