The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-26
KNOX IND 1HE ooNsr1rUrIox.

Oedu HO8eIS or Inc 1al6 Law SCHOOL and his associates are to be congratu- lated upon having secured this year as ths speaker to the graduating class Sem ator Knox of Pennsylvania. His ad- drsaa which was printed in full in Tuesdays issue of The Journal and Courier had to do with that forgotten instrument of government, the consti- tuition. During the past half-dozen years it has dropped out of sight, and In It's place We have had for contem- plation political tool shaped rather for individual purposes than for the purposes of sovereign people. It is well that Senator Knox consented to appear before @ body of young men about to enter upon the practice of the law and remind them that though ob- scured the constitution yet lives.
 The State of Connecticut is one of the strict constructionist states of the un- ion. It was Uncle Bill Eaton of the city of Hartford, when he represented Connecticut in the senate of the United States, who never let the opportunity slip to interpret the constitution as it related to proposed legislative under takings and executive enterprises. There are still living in this city men, not such old men either, who distinct fly remember his speeches as they were delivered from the bandstand on the Green and who will never forget his familiar expression, in considering some improper legislation: "The constitution sets it's seal of disapproval upon such mistaken legislative undertakings, ]" The Connecticut of to-day Is strict constructionist when 1t comes to talk ing it's power over the public service corporations it has created and giving 1t to the federal government. It is a strict eonstructionist of the constitu- tion when 1t is proposed to have fed eral charters substituted for State charters. It goes even so far in these days of ready and quick reasoning to assert that if new method is to be devised for the control of the great corporations 1t shall not be enforced until the people have passed upon it as provided for in the federal constitution. It is not that they fear the method ma ture and patriotic men might suggest as better for all concerned. What they fear is the usurpatlon of power and it's enforcement before the people have given their assent.
 This we understand to be Senator Kroxs position and attitude though he phrases in the language of the trained lawyer. He told the young men of the Yale Law School that "the way to make real progress to needful legislation, and to permanently retain each ad- vance, is to move wisely along Legitimate lines. ThIs,' he told the students, "is land of law as well as of liberty and the liberty of the lawmaker is subject to restraints as well as the liberty of the individual. Congress can only do what 1t Is pos sible to do under the powers delegat- ed to 1t by the body polite which Is the people" These are not only wise lwords because they are old words, lthey are wise words because they are timely words. More and more neces- sary has 1t become for defenders of the constitution to come forward and offer it as a defense against all threat ened disorder and restlessness. ''It is beside the question" said Senator Knox, ito urge the desirability and popularity of measures If Congress has no power to enact them. Our hearti- est sympathy may be enlisted in many movements and yet our judgment may be compelled to reject the means proposed for their accomplishment. In other words, Senator Knox would have the budding lawyers who may enter public life, many of them, re- member that though popular measures of relief from given embarrassment Imay appeal to their emotions and their sympathies, as lawyers they must first consider the authority there Is in the fundamental law for their enactment.
 We count it great gain that man of Senator Knox's experience and po- sition should thus warn the graduates of the Yale Law School against the evident tendencies of the times, for if there were not attempt being made to modify by popular and nasty approval the domination of the constitution, there would be little warrant for his coming to New Haven With the words of Washington, Lincoln and Marshall on his lips, to warn us to keep invio- Hate the rights of the States. Senator Knox's address is not one that will bs read by either President Roosevelt or Secretary of State Root with as much pleasure as it will be read by the Stu preme Court of the United States