Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-18
MR.. ROOT SURPRISED
Declares That His Recent
Speech Was Misunderstood.
WAS HISTORICAL REVIEW
Not an Attack on the Rights of the
States.
TENDENCY OF THE PEOPLE
Will Insist on the Federal Govern
ment Doing Things if the States
Neglect Their Obligations.
ENDENcY OF THE PEOPLE

Neglect Their Obligations.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
speech made by Secretary Root at the
annual dinner of the Pennsylvania Society
in New York last Wednesday night has Gre
ated an almost universal sensation through
out the country and has been favorably or
unfavorably commented upon by almost
every newspaper Statesmen and semi
statesmen have been interviewed about it
and have expressed opinions of more or less
Importance. Several wise gentlemen have
discovered that the genial Secretary, acting
as the oracle of the republican adminstra-
tion, has filled long-felt want by furnish
ing the democratic party with an issue. Sew
eral members of the Senate and House of
Representatives have declared that the next
campaign would be fought on the lines laid
down in Secretary Roots speech. He is ac-
cused of having ripped the Constitution up
the back" of having committed the admin
is.ra ton and the republican party to the
doctrine of. Capitalization; and it is said
that plutocrat who heard him, one Of the
most powerful representatives of the
money DEVIL was pleased with the
Secretary'S utterdnceS that he mashed the
glassware and the crockery of the Waldorf
Hotel in the fervor of his applause. 1t has
also been published from one end of the ma
ton to the other that Justice Brown of the
supreme court of Pennsylvania rebuked the
Secretary of State for his assault upon the
Constitution of his country and declared
that as long as there were honest courts in
America the pernicious doctrines he advo-
Gated would not be allowed to, prevail.
1t is difficult to conceive how all this COM
motion has been created and the gentlemen
most interested are bewildered in their
search for an explanation. The only foun-
dation for it is, that Mr.. Root did make
speech at the dinner of the Pennsylvania
Society. but it is clear that the people who
have become so much excited over his ut
terances have never read it, indeed, in the
interviews published in the Washington
papers with members of Congress and
others and in many newspaper editorials
that fact is admitted. Most of the comment
and criticism is based upon what pre-
tended to be abstracts of the address pub
hshed in the New York papers the morn
ing after it was delivered.
Historical Review of Tendencies.
Secretary Root said yesterday in reply
to question: "Of course. 1 am surprised
at the outcry. l have received a large
number of letters and have read a large
number of interviews with people who evil
deTtly have not seen my speech and do not
have the slightest comprehension of what /
said Most of the letters. however, are of
approval. The speech written the
day before it was delivered and was pre-
pared with the haste that is absolutely
unavoidable in the busy life of a member
of the cabinet. The day before the dinner
l received a telegram from Secretary Fer
rec of the PENNSYLVANIA Society asking
for the subject of my address that it
could be printed in the. program. l re-
piled that / had not yet decided what |
would talk about. so he put down The
United States my topic, saying that it
would cover everything or anything l might
say $500
1T was not a constitutional speech. I
discussed no questions of constitutional law
or constitutional rights | certainly did not
rip the Constitution up the back, as has
been asserted. IL was a historical review
followed by certain differences as to what
will be the future of the United States
under our dual form of government:
Il The changed conditions since the
writing of our Constitution. to which the
provisions of that document have to be APP
Piled and the causes of those changes.
.'2. The grow of national sentiment
which Is due to the ntermingling of
people and our material development.
so. People of distant communities are
more intimately acquainted today than
those of adjoining communities were in the
days of the Fathers, and have become knit
together. by bonds mutual interests and
social connections.
T.
lines in travel and communication arising
from the extension of railroads, mail ia
cilties telegraph and telephone wires.
"Al these causes nave resulted in
change of habits of thought. in a rear
rangement of business methods and social
customs, as distinct as the departure from
the post-cha!se and stage-coach period, to
the limited express ana the automobile. Our
producers no longer provide food and
clothing for their own neighborhood. but
for consumers thousands of miles away.
The manufacturer no longer sells his wares
to the people of the town in which they are
made but ships them to centers of trade,
sometimes thousands of miles away Some
of our merchants have customers in forty
states; when get up in the morning, we
dress ourselves in clothing that was manu-
featured in distant places and eat for
breakfast food which came many miles.
Only a part of it was produced in the I'M
mediate neighborhood
1.-THE process that interweaves the life
and action of the people in every section
of our country with the people IN every
other section continues and Will continue
with increasing force and effect. We are
urging forward in a development of busl-
ness and social life that tends more and
more to the obliteration of state lines and
the decrease of state power as compared
with national power. The relations OF the
business over which the federal govern
ment is assuming control; OF interstate
TRANSFORMATION with state transportation, OF
interstate commerce with state commerce,
are so intimate, and the separation of the
two is so impract1cable, that the tendency
is plainly toward the practical control of
the national government over both
Tendency to Federal Control.
'"The changed conditions in the sentiments
and business and social habits of the
country l said," continued the Secretary,
could not fail to produce corresponding
changes in our politics and system of gov
eminent, and those changes are plainly to
be seen. The people of the United States
are tending steadily to do, through notional
agencies, many things which were formerly
done through state agencies; and to do for
the entire country what the states formerly
did for separate communities. I iIus-
trated this tendency by referring to the
antitrust act. the railroad act the anti
rebate law, the oleomargarine law, the law
for meat inspection, the pure food act and
other legislation.
IAN such safeguards and legal protection
for the rights of the people, the public
health and the public welfare generally
were formerly provided by the state legis-
Iatures, but they are now provided by Con-
gress sometimes under the commerce
power. the police power the taxing
power granted to the national government
by the Constitution. And I said that we
had not reached the end. We are urging