Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1906-10-05

complete change in the attitude or
the state toward labor.
This is above all true in connection
with the employment of child labor.
In Pennsylvania you have made a be-
ginning in proper legislation and ad-
ministratlon on this subject the law
must IL necessary be strengthened,
and it must be vigorously enforced.
The national government can do but
little in the matter of child labor.
though | earnestly hope that that lit
tie will be permitted to be done by
congress. The great bulk of the work.
however. must be left to the state
legislatures; and If our state legisla-
ture would act as drastically and yet
as wisely on this subject of child labor
as Pennsylvania has acted within the
present year as regards the subjects |
have enumerated above. the gain
would be literally incalculable; and
one of the most vital needs of mod
ern American life would at last be ad-
equately met.
So much for the state. Now for the
nation; and here | cannot do better
than base my theory of governmental
action upon the words and deeds of
one of Pennsylvania's greatest sons,
Justice James Wilson. Wilson'S ca
reer has been singularly overlooked
W. many years, Uul L DelleNe tIldt
more and more ii is now being ade-
quately appreciated; and l congratu-
late 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 il should, i'm Pennsyl-
Vanian soil. He was a signer of the
Declaration of Independence. He was
one of the men who saw that the rev.
oiution, In which he had served as
soldier, unless it was followed By
close and permanent union of the
states; and in the constitutional con-
Nention, and in securig the adoption
of the constitution and eXpounding
what 1t meant. he rendered services
even greater than he rendered as a
member of the continental congress,
which declared our independence: for
II was the success of the makers and
preSerVers of the Union which lust
flied our independence.
Tie 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
ms generation 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
representatives of the people assem-
bled together in national government
were given, full and complete power
to work on behalf of the people. He
developed even before Marshal! the
doctrine absolutely essential not
merely to the efficiency but to the
existence of this nation) that an in
herent power rested in the nation.
otuside of the enumerated powers CON
ferred upon 1t by the constitution, in
all cases where the object involved
was beyond the power of the several
states and was a power ordinarily ex.
erclsed by sovereign nations.
In q remarkable letter in which he
advocated setting forth In early and
clear fashion the powers of the ma
uonal government, he laid down the
proposition that II should be made
clear that there were neither vacan-
cies nor interferences between the
limits of state and national iurisdic-
ton, and that both jurisdictions to-
gether composed only one uniform
ana comprehensive system of govern
metn and laws; that is, whenever the
states can not act, because the need
TO be met is not one of merely a sin
gle locality, then the national govern
ment, representing all the people,
should have complete power to act, II
was i'm the spirit of Wilson that Wash
lngton, and Washington's lieutenant,
! Hamilton, acted and it was i'm the
same spirit that Marshall construed
the law.
1t is only by acting in this spirit
that the national judges, legislators
and executives can give satisfactory
solution of the great question of the
! present day-the question of provid-
| Ing on behalf of the sovereign people
the means which will enable the peo-
| pie in effective form to assert their
sovereignty over the immense corp0-
rations of the day. Certain judicial
decisions have done just what Wilson
| feared; they have, as matter of fact,
left vacancies. left blanks between 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 i'm our democracy
has provided the chief means of limit
ing the national power to cut out
abuses, and which is now the chief
bulwark of those great moneyed in
terests which oppose and dread any
attempt to place them under efficient
governmental control.
Many legislative actions and many
| judicial decisions which / am conf
J dent time will show to have been err
roneous and a damage to the coun-
try would have been avoided If our
legislators and jurists had approach
| ed the matter of enacting and cO1-
STRUNG the laws of the land i'm the
spirit of your great Pennsylvania,
Justice Wilson--in the spirit of Mar
shall and of Washington Such decl-
sions puts us at a great disadvantage
in the battle for industrial order as
against the present industrial chaos
! II we interpret the constitution IN
narrow instead of broad fashion. If we
forsake the principles of Washington,
Marshall, Wilson and Hamilton. we as
a people will render ourselves impo-
! tent to deal with any abuses which
may be committed by the men who
have accumulated the enormous for
tunes of today. and who use these fo"-
tunes in still vaster corporate form
In business.
The legislative or judicial actions
and decisions of which ! complain, be
1t remembered, do not really leave to
the states power to deal with corp =
rate wealth in business. Actual eX-
perlence 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 1t, simply results In leaV-
ing the corporations absolutely free 70
work without any effective supervision
whatever; and such course IL
fraught with untold danger to the fu-
ture of our whole system of govern
ment. and, indeed, to our whole civil
lZatiOn.
All honest men must abhor and re-
probate any effort to excite hostility
to men of wealth as such. We should
do all we can to encourage thrift and
business energy, to put premium un-
on the conduct of the man who hOn-
| estlv earns his livelihood and more