Arizona republican., 1907-10-03

for federal control is less urgent and immediate than is the case with the railroads. Many or the abuses con nected with these corporations will probably tend to disappear now that the government-the public-is grad ually getting the upper hand as re- gards putting a step to the rebates and special privileges which some of these Corporations have enjoyed at the hands of the common carriers. But ultimately it will be found that the Complete remedy for these abuses lies in direct and affirmative action by the national government. That there is Constitutional power for the national regulation of these corporations I have myself no question. Two or three generations ago there was just as much hostility to national control of banks as there is now to national control of railroads or of industrial corporations doing an interstate bus mess. That hostility now seems to us ludicrOus in its lack of warrant: in like manner, gentlemen, our descend ants will regard with wonder the pres ent opposition to giving the national
 
 those great corporations. which it alone can fully. and yet wisely, safely, and justly control. Remember also, that to regulate the formation of these corporations offers one of the most di- rect and efficient methods of regulat- ing their activities.
 T am not pleading for an extension of constitutional power I am plead ' ft,cr hot .s,t. already exists shall be applied to new conditions which did net exist when the constitution went into\ being I ask that the national powers already conferred upon the national govern ment by the constitution shall be so used as to bring national commerce and industry effectively under the au- thoritS of the federal government and thereby avert industrial chaos. My plea is not to bring about a condition of centralization. It is that the govern ment shall recognize condition of centralization in a field where it al- ready exists"
 1 The president spoke of the decadencs of inland water transportation with the growth of the railroads and ex- pressed a hope that with national aid . the importance of the Mississippi as Q line of transportation would be re- stored. He urged the importance of a greater fighting navy to support the | position taken by the United States as a world power. He pointed out the ' advantage which would accrue to the interior as well as to the gulf and Pacific states with the completion of the Panama canal.
 1 He then addressed himself to ths subject of enlarged federal powers as follows:
 T wish to say word upon Elz4V preeminently d business proposit. on and that is the proper national super v4sion and control Of corporations At the meeting of the American Bar asso- ciation in this last August, Judge Charles F. Amidon, of North Dakota, read a paper on the nation and the constitution so admirable that it is deserving of very wide study; for what ! he said was, as all studies of law in its highest form ought to be, a con- tribution to constructive jurisprudence as 1t should be understood not only by ! judges but by legislators, not only by those who interpret and decide the
 
 who administer or execute it. He quoted from the late Justice Miller, of { the supreme court, to show that even in the interpretation of the constitu- tion by this, the highest authority of ! the land, the courts successive deci- sions must be tested by the way they work in actual application to the na- tional life; the court adding to its thought and study the results of eX- per!ence and observation until the true solution is evolved by a process both of inclusion and exclusion. Said Jus ' tice Miller: The meaning of the con- l sutution is to be sought as much in the national life as in the dictionary; for. as has been well sIid, government purely out of law library can never be really good government.
 Now that the questions of govern ment are becoming so largely economic i the majority of our sO-called consti- ! tutiOnal cases really turn out upon the interpretation of the instrument itself. ! but upon the construction, the right i apprehension of the living conditions to which it is applied. The constitu- |, tion is now and must remain what it always has been; but il can only be in | terpreted as the interests of the whole people demand, if interpreted as a liv- : ing organism. designed to meet the conditions of life and not of death; in other words, if interprted as Marshall Continued on page 3)