The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-22
AUTHORITY
 IS LACKING Congress Cannot Control
 Insurance. REPORT OF HOVs COMMITTEE Federal con 4tiOn Stands in Way
 Regulation. Jenkins Says That Hamilton Himseh Never Claimed That the National Government Could Invade Po-
 lice Powers of States.

Washington, March 21.-That there IS no constitutional authority for federal control of insura nee or other State cor norations other than railroads, is to be tha conclusion reported to the House by the judiciary committee. The re- mort has been drafted by Chairman Jenkins of the committee and is now in the hands of the members Of the committee for their perusaL An official poll of the members or the committee indicates that with prac- tfcaIIy ID executions they concur in the correctness of this conclusion. The report of MT. Jenkins may therefore pc taken as the basis of the answer the committee is to make to the House Tn compliance with the instructions or that body.
 The report collates all of che impor- tant court decisions on the question in- yolved. treats each exhaustively ana reduces the whole problem to these two principles:
 .~rhe Supreme Court of the United states has declared and has never been shaken or weakening in maintaining first that insurance is not commerce and. second. that Congress cannot im- pair the police powers of the States. As to the latter principle MT. Jen- kins says: Let it be said kindly ana not extensively that 1t Is monstrouA doctrine, subversive of our dual system of government, to even suggest after a distribution of these great powers between the federal government and the States, that the federal govern ment, created by the States, can take | from the States the power they nave always enjoyed and expressly reserVeu ] to them by the constitution exclusively | in the States. Hamilton himselS never made such q claim.
 Insurance Not Commerce.
 The advocates of federal regulation concede, according to the report. that insurance is not commerce.
 Answering the argument that the | Supreme Court would reverse itselr IT | the question were again presented, MT.
 Jenkins says: If thisJts correct, taen
 there Is no necessity for any action ny [ Congress The question can again De 1 presented to the Supreme Court as it has been many times in the past. "Commerce,t' Mir. Jenkins says, IS
 more than traffic. It includes naviga- | tion. intercourse. transportation of pas
 sengers, interchange and transportation of commodities or visible and tangible | things, transmission by telegraph, elec- | trically transmitting or articulate i speech by telephone.
 'Insurance," says MT. Jenkins, was
 well known long before the constitu- 1 tion was adopted and insurance com | panies were In active operation in this | country long before the adoption of the
 constitution and ever since lthe adop-
 ton of the constitution has not been recognized as an article of commerce..
 The report predicts direful results If 1 Congress takes a hand in the matter. l Mir Jenkins says;
 'Assuming that Congress declares that insurance is commerce and the i Supreme Court holds the Legislation !, constitutional, how much could Con- gress regulate, and what effect would such legislation have? It would dis
 turb the very substructure of govern n1ent by precipitating a violent conflict between the police power for the States and the power of Congress to regulate | interstate commerce. In other words, | Congress would admit corporations into i the respective States and had the entire regulating power.
 "A corporation created by the laws
 of the State of New York Is denied ad-
 mission into any other State. There is l no pretense that Congress can in- wade the State of New York and regu- late that corporation in It's business. The power of the State is exclusive and | the corporation would be beyond the
 regulating power of Congress even if | Congress declared insurance to be com
 merce and the Supreme Court held the
 act constitutional
 Optional With the state. | 'The advocates of Federal super vision admit and concede that 1t Is en- | tirely optional with the States to ad- l nit or exclude insurance corporations, | Hence it follows that the State has en- | fire power to regulate The busint ss | can be carried out without commercial | transit and it is only during commer- cial transit that Federal power can be | exercised.
 'The only thing in commercial tran sit would be money shipped from time l to time and this would not give Con ! gress any control over the corpora | ton of it's business" The difitculty of administering fed l eral regulations is emphasized as fol- | lows; | its power to regulate interstate com | rnerce? Congress cannot prevent the
 making of a contract of insurance be- | tween a company in New York and l resident of Oregon. After the contract | ia made, when will the power Of Com
 Rress attach, and to what? The policy | and rremium are not merchandise. As | the mower of Congress does not attach
 until the merchandise Is in commercial | transit, it could not become active un-
 ti the policy and premium start on
 when the place of desrination Is reach
 ed and the duty and power of Congress
 would be to protect both in transit anG | that is the limit Of Congressional pow
 CT.
 This act of transportation does not
 a,abIe the federal power to reach the
 cornorations. and as the federal power
 wo,I1d not know when or how the poll
 iry or premium were to be transrort-
 nd and as 1t cannot annul the con-
 tract. 1t would have to be made
 crininal offense, and an American citi-
 zen would have to be convicted of
 family
 AFFIDAVIT BY DUKE.
 says TeIegr.lm Signed John Aroused