New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-04-26
/ STATE POWER DEFINED
WoodrOs0 Wilson analytical and
CauStic an Lecture.

DR.. Woodrow Wilson, president Of Princeton
University. continued his series of lectures on
party government in the United States at Column
bia University yesterday. His subject was The
Relations Of the States to the Federal Govern
ment." DR.. Wilson referred to Elihu Roots re-
marks, and said that all recent opinions had been
touched with political feeling The question" he
said "of the legal relations between the states and
the federal power has sprung once again into de-
bate though it were be a party question. 1t
is best when approaching it in search Of truth to
dismiss recent controversies from our minds"
DIR. Wilson said that the pressure of political life
was constantly exerting change In the tissue or
the Constitution. This was particularly true In
times OF violent excitement, when there was
tendency to put into the Constitution what was not
there These changes found expression not IN
actual alterations of the document but in the ways
in which it interpreted.
DR.. Wilson said that all historians who dlsre-
garded the results Of the Civil War were united in
the feeling that the Constitution 1t was orlgi-
naly conceived did not convey to the statesmen
made It the idea that secession of any one Of
the separate states was impossible or even improo-
able. He said that so far the newspapers.
pamphlets and public documents showed, there was
disagreement with the powers Of the states 10
withdraw from the arrangement prior to the war
OF 1872. 1t was this with the national spirit
that It created which responsible for the ideas
that have grown into the present conception Of the
nation. After that it easier to break the let
ter Of the Constitution jefferson who had always
been strict conStituConalst. had been one OF ne
first to this and by the acquisition OF Louslr
ana had accepted the principle that questions OF
policy sometimes made 1t necessary To do Things
whether they were constitutional or unconsttN-
DR. Wilson thought that there would be no diff
Guilty now in determining just what the powers OF
the and what those or me Ie0erdt govern
ment were He said:
with new states. as with old. it has been the
privilege OF separate development which has given
speed facility and vigor 10 the whole process of our
economic and political growth. 1t would be wise
and necessary TO invent the division OF functions
between the states and the genera! government II
IL had not naturally existed already and had not
imperatively arisen out OF political circumstances
already established. 1t has adapted political
processes to tho changing conditions OF new coun-
try and a vast and various area In q way no other
arrangement could have equalled, and was unQueS-
success In spreading free institutions over all the
spaces of the continent"
DR. Wilson characterized the Union as a nation
without national opinton about majority OF SUD
tectS that affect the daily life of the people. IN
stead, it was nation made up OF variety OF local
impressions and impulses. This he said, was an
evidence that, nation the United States was
still in the process and that only the parts are
complete and mad not yet been united into one
out the present relation of the states to the Con-
stituton.
Undoubtedly the powers OF the federal govern
ment have grown, he said have even grown enor-
mously since the creation OF tho government: and
amendments of the text OF the Constitution; but
they have grown. IN almost every instance. by
process which must be regarded as perfectly nor
The Constitution cannot be treated as a mere
legal document, to be read will contract
would be- he said. II must, OF the necessity of the
case. be n vehicle Of life, and as life changes so
must the Interpretation OF the document change by
a nice adjustment determined not by the original
necessities OF the life itself.
- Dr: Wilson then went on TO point out that It was
the interpretations that were made by the Supreme
Court that determined Just what the constitutions
should mean in any period.