The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-03

 ereasing measure by the several states. The same considerations which made the founders of the constitution deem 1t i'm peratlve that the nation should have complete control of interstate commerce apply with peculiar force to the control of interstate railroads at the present day; and the arguments of Madison of Vir- gina, Pinekney of South Carolina, and Hamilton and Jay of New York, in their essence apply now as they applied l2o years ago.
 Federal State Aid.
 The national convention which framed the constitution, and in which almost all the most eminent of the first generation of American statesmen sat, embodied the theory of the instrument In a resolution. to the effect that the national government should have power In cases where the separate states were incompetent to act with full efficiency. and where the har- mony of the United States would be in terrupted by the exercise of such indi vidual legislation. The interstate rail road situation Is exactly a case in point. There will, of course, be local matters affecting railroads which can best be dealt with by local authority. but as national commercial agents the big inter state railroad ought to be completely subject to national authority Only thus can we secure their complete subjection to. and control by, a single sovereign, representing the whole people, and cap able both of protecting the public and of seeing that the railroads neither infiict nor endure injustice.
 Personally l firmly believe that there should be national Legislation to control all industrial corporations doing an inter state business, including tho control of the output of their securities. but as to these tho necessity for federal control Is less urgent and immediate than Is the case with the railroads. 1Aany of the abuses connected with these corporations will probably tend to disappear now that the government-the public-is gradually getting the upper hand as regards putting a stop to the rebates and special privi- leges which some of these corporations have enjoyed at the hands of the com mon carlrers. But ultimately 1t will be found that the complete remedy for these abuses lies in direct and affirmative ton by the national government. That | there is constitutional power for the na- tional regulation of these corporations have myself no question. Two or three | generatons ago there was just as much | hostility to national control of banks as | there is now to national control of rail roads or of industrial corporations doing an interstate business That hostility now seems to us ludicrous in its lack of war
 
 descendants will regard with wonder the present opposition to giving the national government adequate power to control those great corporations, which 1t alone can fully, and yet wisely. safely and justly control. Remember also that to regulate the formation of these corpora ton offers one of the most direct and efficient methods of regulating their &C., tlvities.
 Extension of Power.
 I am not pleading for an extension of constitutional power. I am pleading that constitutional power which already ex- sts shall be applied to new conditions which did not exist when the constitu tlon went into being. l ask that the national powers already conferred upon the national government by the consu- tution shall be so used as to bring na- tional commerce and industry effectively under the authority of the federal gov ernment and thereby avert industrial chaos My plea is not to bring about a condition of standardization. It is that the government shall recognize a condl- ton of centralization in a field where 1t already exists When tho national banking law was passed It represented in reality not eentralization, but recognition of the fact that the country had so far advanced Nh hat the currency was already A. matter of national concern and must be dealt with by the central authority at Washington So 1t is with interstate in- dustralism and especially with the mat ter of interstate railroad operation to- day Generalization has already taken place in the world of commerce and in 1ustry. All I ask is that the national government look this fact in the face accept it as q fact, and fit Itself accord l ingly for a policy of supervision and con- trol over this centralized commerce and industry.