The Washington times., 1907-10-02
Views of the President
On Affairs of the Nation
lcontlnned from EIghth 20

CONTINUED from Eighth Page
the name OF our Nation and of our nag.
for the services TO which these men be-
long.
Control of Corporations.
In conclusion wish to say word
TO this body, containing, as It does.
so many business men, upon what
is pre-eminentIy a business pTOpO-
sitiOn, and that is the proper ma
tlOnaI supervision and control OF
corporations. At the meeting Of the
American Bar Association in this
last August, Judge Charles +. Ami
don, of North Dakota, read a paper
on the nation and the Constitution
so 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, n cOntri-
button TO constructive Jurisprudence
only by judges, but by legislators,
not only by those who interpret and
decide the law, but by those who
make it, and who administer or
execute 1t. He quoted from the
late Justice Miller, of the Supreme
Court, to show that even in the in
depreciation of the Constitution 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 life; the court adding TO
its thought and study the results of
experience and observation until the
true solution is evolved by a pro-
cess both of inclusion and exclu-
sion.
Said Justice Miller: The meaning Of
the Constitution is to be sought as much
IN the national life as in the dictionary"
for, as has been well said, government
purely out Of a law library can never
be really good government.
Constitution Not Changed.
Now that the questions Of government
are becoming so largely economic. the
majority of our so-called constitutional
cases really turn not upon the inter
upon the construction. the right appre-
hension of the living conditions to which
Il is TO be applied. The Constitution is
now and must remain what it always
has tsen; but II can only be interpreted
as the interests of the whole people
demG nd. If interpreted as a living or
sdnism, designed to meet the conditions
OF life and not Of death. IN other words
IL Interpreted as Marshall interpreted
II. as wilson declared It should be in
terprcted
The Marshall theory. the theory Of
life and not OF death. allows 20 the
nation, that is 10 the people as a whole.
when once Il finds a subject within the
national cOgnizance. the widest and
ireest choice Of methods for national
tontrol. and sustains every exercise Of
rational power which has any reason
able relation 20 national objects.
The negatiOn OF this theory
means, for instance. that the ma
tiOn-that we, the ninety millions
OF people of this cOuntry-wiT be
lett helpless to control the huge
corporations which now dOmineer
In our Industrial life, and that they
viii have the authority of the
courts to work their desires I'M
checked; and such a decision would
in the end be as disastrous for
them as for us.
II the theory Of the Marshall school
prevails, then an immense field OF ma
uohal power, now unused. will be de-
Neioped, which will be ADEQUATE for
dealing with many, II not al. Of the
ECONOMIC problems which VeX us: and
We shall be saved from the ominous
threat of a constant OsclllaCi dion between
economic tyranny and economic chaos
Oar industrial, and therefore our social.
future as nation depends upOn settling,
Alright this urgent question.
Conditions Changed.