The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-05

!, on what it's Legislature. upon what it's
government, has accomplished during this
present year. II il n remarkable record
of achievement.
Through your Legislature you have
abolished passes; you have placed the offices
Of the Secretary 81 tho Commonwealth
and the Insurance Commissioners upon an
honorable and honest basis of salary only
by abollshing the foe system; YOU nave
passed IA Law compelling the officers and
employees of great cities TO attend to the
duties for which they are paid by all the
taxpayers and to refrain from using the
power conferred by their offices to inhu-
eHce political campaigns; you have pro-
hiiited the solicitation or receiving ~
political assessments nv CITY employees;
YOU have by law protected the State treas
ury from depreciation and conserved the
public moneys for use oply in the plblic
interest; you have by Il law for the protec-
ton OF the elective franchise made tanper-
ing with the ballot boxes and the casting
Of illegal votes so difficult as in all prob
! ability to he Improbable: you have pro-
! Vidod a primary election law which guar
anteeS TO the voters free expression in the
selection of candidates for office: you have
by law regulated and improved the civil
service systems of your greatest cities,
and. finally. you have passed n law con-
; tanning a provision which | most earnestly
hope will in Substance he embodied likewise
in n law NV the Congress NJ the coming
! SeSsion-a provision prohibiting the officers
of any corporation from making a cOntri-
; button Of the money of that corporation
TO any candidate or anv political commit
tee for the payment Of any election ex-
! penses whatever.
! II 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 conditions. not
merely for your State. but for all our
! States. do not recall anv other State
/ Legislature which, in a similar length OF
time. has to it's credit Such a body Of ad-
mirable legislation. Let me, however,
most earnestly urge that your Legislature
J continue this record of public service by
eracting one or two additional laws. One
subject which every good citizen should
have ut heart above almost all others IL
the matter of child labor. Everywhere the
great growth If modern industrialism has
been accompanied hy abuses in connection
with the employment Of b which have
! necessitated a complete change in the
attitude of the State toward labor.
SO much for the State. Now for the
! nation; and here | cannot do better than
7 base my theory Of governmental action
upon the words and deeds Of one Of Penn
sylvania's greatest sons, Justice james
Wilson.
In a remarkable letter in which he adj
I vocated setting forth in early and clear
fashion the powers Of the national Govern
ment he laid down the proposition that 1t
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 comprehen-
sive system of government and laws. that
is, whenever the States cannot act, be-
cause the need to be met is not one OF
merely a single locality, then the national
| Government, representing all the people.
should have complete power to act.
Certain judicial decisions have done just
what Wilson feared; thev have left vacan-
cies, lef. blanks between the limits OF posi-
Die State jurisdiction and the limits OF
actual national jurisdiction over the control
Of the great business corporations.
Many legislative actions and many
judicial decisions which | am confident time
will show to have been erroneous and a
de mage TO the country would have been
avoided if our legislators and jurists had
approached the matter OF enaCtlng and
constructing the laws Of the land in the
spirit Of your great Pennsylvania, Justice
Wilson. in the spirit OF Marshall and OF
Washington.
The legislative or judicial actions and
I decisions of which ! complain, be it re-
mcmbered. do not really leave TO the States
power to deal with corporate wealth in bust
ness. Actual experience has shown that
the States are wholly powerless TO deal with
this subject, and any action or decision
that d%eprives the nation of the power TO
deal with it simply results in leaving the
corporations absolutely free to work with
out any effective supervision whatever;
and such a course is fralght with untold
/ danger to the rJture Of our whole system Of
government and, indeed, to our whole
civilization.
All honest men must abhor and repro
bate any effort to excite hostility to men
Of wealth az such. We should do all we
can to encourage thrift and business en-
ergy, TO put n premium upon the conduct
Of the man who honestly earns his liveli-
hood and more than his livelihood, and
who honestly uSeS the money he has earned.
But il is our clear duty to see. in the interest
[ of the people. that there is adequate super
vision and control over the business Use OF
the swollen fortunes Of to-day, and also
wisely to determine the conditions upon
which these fortunes are to be transmitted
and the percentage that they shall pay to
the GOvernme o whose protecting arm alone
enables them to exist. Only the nation can
do this work. To relegate il to the States
il a farce. and is simply another way OF
saving that it shall not he done at all.
Under a wise and far seeing i~nterprcJa-
ton Of the interstate m clause Of
the Constitution | maintain that the ma
tional Government shOul have COM
plete power TO deal with all Of this wealth
which in any way goes into the
between the S~tatcs-and practically all Of IL
that is employed in the great corporations
does thus go in. The national legisla-
tors should most ~scrupulously avoid any
demagogic legislation about the business
use Of his wealth, and should realize that
il would he better to have no legislation
at all than legislation couched either in a
vindictive spirit of hatred toward men Of
wealth or else drawn with the recklessness
of impracticable Missionaries. But, on the
other hand. it shall and must ultimately be
understood that tho United States Govern
ment. on behalf Of the people of the United
States, has and is to exercise the power Of
supervision and control over the business
use Of this wealth--in the first place, over
all the work Of the common ca rriers Of the
nation. and in the next place over the work
Of all the great corporations which directly
or indirectly do any interstate business