The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-25
RRNINICC
ernnent.
CONGRESS ENJOYS
 ENOUGH OF POWER
Safety Lies in Limitations Written Into State and National Consti-
 tutions.

The speech at the dinner of the Bos- ton Economic club in that city Satur- day evening by Henry Wade Rogers, dean of the Yale Law school. made profound impression. His defense of the constitution as the founders wrote 1t and great judges have construed it was regarded as masterly. Dean Rogers said in part:
 We are threatened with a revival of Federalism and with a Federalsn which is more extreme and radical than the leaders of the old Federal party ever countenanced. The argument pro ceeds on the assumption that the states have failed to perform their du- ty properly so that great evils have grown up which the states cannot or will not remedy and from which we should have been free if only the Fed eral government had exercised the au- thority and not the states
 That the evils exist is conceded. That the states have not done their full duty also is conceded. But that the Federai government would have done better is a mere assumption and one I am not prepared to accept. Congress now has in the territories and District of Co., luinbia all the powers which the state governments possess, yet the legisla- ton respecting the corporations which congress has enacted has not been bet ter than the legislation of the states on of gress have not secured publicity of ac- counts, nor prevented over-capitaliza- tion and stock-watering, and no system Of Inspection has been established over ' federal corporations.
 That in times past state legislatures have been under the control of special interests is too true. But unfortu- nately so has the congress. One evil dence of it is seen in the tariffs estab- lished from time to time. Under the pretence of protecting labor tariffs have been fixed not merely high enough to cover the difference in the cost of labor here and abroad but far in ex- cess thereof and so high that the great mass of the people of this country have been exploited that the privileged few might build up enormous fortunes. The legislation has not been in the interest of the workingman nor for the benefit of the people as a whole, but quite the reverse. Those who have been bene- fitted from such legislation have been certain privileged classes, the coal barons and beef barons, the steel barons and the lumber barons of the country, who have been permitted by congress to write the tariff laws of the United States.
 The tendency to take their domestic affairs from the control of the states Is shown by the agitation in favor of national incorporation law It is assumed that the power to regulate commerce includes the right to regu- late the corporation which is engaged in commerce. But if under it's power to regulate commerce, congress can as- sume control over all corporations which engage in interstate commerce, 1t is difficult to see why it has not an equal right to assume a like control over all partnerships that do any in- oto WCll aS WI ali individuals whose business Is of sim liar nature. Tn this way congress can take to itself jurisdiction over a very large part of the business of the coun- try, withdrawing from the control of the states what always has been sup posed to be within their peculiar prov ince and working a fundamental change in the character of the gov ernment itself. It may be very seriously questioned whether the mere fact that a corporation or partner ship is engaged in interstate com merce affords any sound, legal reason for assuming that congress has the right to exercise an exclusive jurisdic. tion over every such corporation r;nd partnership. The interstate commerce