Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-02
Control of Corporations.

ConCrol OF corporations.
In conclusion 1 wish to say a word to this
body, containing as it does SO many busi-
ness men, upon what Is pre-eminently a
business proposition, and that is the proper
national supervision and control of corpo-
rat1ons At the meeting of the American
Bar Association in this last August Judge
Charles F. Amidon of North Dakota read a
paper on the nation and the Constitution
80 admirable that 1t is deserving Of very
wide study; for what he said was. as all
studies of law in Its highest form ought to
be, contribution to constructive jurispru-
dence as it should be understood not only
by judges, but by legislators not only by
those who interpret and decide the law but
by those who make 1t and who administer
or execute it. He quoted from the late JUS
tice Miller of the Supreme Court to show
that even in the Interpretation of the Con-
stitution by this. the highest authority of
the land, the courts successive decisions
must be tested by the way they work in
actual application to the national ife the
court adding to its thought and study the
results Of" experience and observation until
the true solution is evolved by a process
both of inclusion and exclusion. Said JUS
tice Miller: The meaning of the Constitu-
ton is to be sought as much in the national
life as In the dictionary for, as has been
well said, the government purely out of a
law library can never be really good gov
eminent.
Now that the questions Of government are
of our so-called constitutional cases really
turn not upon the Interpretation of the in
strument itself. but upon the construction
the right apprehension of the living condi-
lions to which 1t is to be applied. The Con-
stltutton Is now and must remain what It
always has been; but 1t can only be inter-
preted as the interests of the whole people
demand, If interpreted as a living organism.
designed to meet the conditions Of life and
not. of death; In other words. If interpreted
as Marshall interpreted It, as Wilson de-
clared 1t should be interpreted. The Mar
shall theory, the theory of life and not Of
death. allows to the nation, that Is to the
people as a whole, when once it finds a sub
ject within the national cognizance the wild
est and freest choice of methods for ma.
tional control. and sustans every exercise
of national power which has any reasona-
BILE relation to national objects The mega
ton of this theory means. for instance, that
the nation-that we. the ninety millions Of
people of this country-will be left helpless
to control the huge corporations which now
domineer in our Industrial life and that
they will have the authority Of the courts
to work their desires unchecked: and such a
decision would in the end be as disastrous
for them for us. If the theory of the
Marshall school prevails then an immense
field of national power, now unused. will be
developed. which will be adequate for deal
ing with many. If not all, Of the economic
problems which vex us; and we shall be
saved from the ominous threat OF con-
slant oscillation between economic tyranny
and economic chaoS. Our Industrial. and
therefore our social. future as a nation de-
ponds upon settling Alright this urgent ques-
ton
The Constitution is unchanged and I'M
changeable save by amendment in due
form. But the conditions to which 1t Is to
be applied have undergone a change which
is almost a transformation. with the re-
suit that many subjects formerly under the
control OF the states have come under the
control of the nation. As one Of the JUS
tees of the Supreme Court has recently
said: THE growth of national powers
under our Constitution. which marks mere
ly the great outlines and designates only
the great objects Of national concern, Is to
be compared to the growth of a country
not by the geographical enlargement Of its
boundaries. but by the increase of it's popu-
lation.' A hundred years ago there was,
except the commerce which crawled along
our seacoast or up and down our interior
waterways, practically no interstate COM
merce. Now by the railroad. the mails. the
telegraph and the telephone an immense
part of our commerce Is interstate. By
the transformation it has escaped from the
power of the state and come under the
power Of the nation. Therefore there has