New-York tribune., 1907-10-03


dustrial. and therefore our social. future as
nation depends upon settling Alright this urgent
question.
ADAPTED TO CHANGED CONDITIONS.
The Constitution is unchanged and unchange-
able save by amendment in due form. But the
conditions TO which il is 10 be applied have uh-
deT5One a change which is almost transforna-
ton. with the result that many subjects lor-
merIy under the control of the states have come
uhder the control of the nation. AS one OF me
justices of the Supreme Court has recenty
SAID The growth of national powers undet
our Constitution. which marks merely the great
outlines and designates only the great objects
OF national concern. is to be compared 10 'lT
growth Of country not by the geography u
enlargement of its boundaries, but ny the III
crease of its population" hundred years ago
there was. except the commerce when crt"ieu
along our Seacoast or up and down our interior
waterways, practically no interstate coli'illelI iI
Now, by the railroad. the mails, the telegraph
and the telephone an immense part OF our com!
merce is interstate BY the TRANSFORMATION -
has escaped from the power of the state ana
come under the power of the nation. IhereloIe
there has been a great practical change III 1 Itie
exercise Of the national power, under the acI9
of Congress- over interstate commerce. wiz wiz
on the other hand there has been no noti'9aple
change in the exercise Of the national power 10
regulate commerce with foreign nations al5u
with the Indian tribes" The change as REGARDS
interstate commerce has been not in the con
stitution. but in the business of the people -
which it is TO be applied. our economic anu
social future depends in a very large part upon
how the interstate commerce power or 'He Hd-
tion is interpreted
EXTENT OF FEDERAL POWER
believe thai the nation has the whole gov,
/ ernnental power over interstate commerce ana
the widest discretion in dealing with that SUP
scribed in the Constitution for the exercise OF
all powers, such, for instance, as the condltioh
that "due process of law" shall not be denied
The nation has TO direct power over purely
intrastate commerce. even where il is conducted
by the same agencies which conduct interstate
commerce The courts must determine what is
ar,d T-baT iS st
same reasoning which sustained the power OF
Congress 10 incorporate the United States BANK
tends TO sustain the power TO incorporate an
interstate railroad or any other corporation
conducting interstate business.
There are difficulties arising from our dual
form of government. If they prove to be in
superabe resort must be had to the power OF
amendment. Let first try to meet them by
exercise of all the powers OF the natonai
government which in the Marshall spirit of
broad interpre alton be found in the Con-
stitution as it is. They are of vast extent.
THE RAILROAD QUESTION.
The chief economic question of the day in
this country is to provide a sovereign for the
great corporations engaged in interstate husl-
ness: that is, for the railroads and the inter
state industrial corporations. At the moment
our prime concern is with the railroads. When
railroads were first built they purely
local in character. Their boundaries were not
coextensive even with the boundaries Of one
state. They usually covered but two or three
counties. All this has now changed. At pres
ent five great systems embody nearly four hfths
Of the total mileage Of the country. All the most
important railroads are longer state roads
but instruments Of interstate commerce. Prob
ably IS per cent Of their business is interstate
business. II is the nation alone which can with
wisdom, justice and effectiveness exercise over
these interstate railroads the thorough and
complete supervision which should be exercised
One of the chief and probably the chief. OF the
domestic causes for the adoption Of the Constl-
tuition was the need 10 confer upon the nation
exclusive control over interstate commerce. But
this grant power is worthless uusess it is held
TO confer thoroughgoirg and complete control
over practically he sole trumenJalties Of IN
terstate cOnmerCe-the interstate railroads. l ne
railroads themselves have been exceedingly
shortsghted in the rancOrous bitterness which
they have shown against the resumption by the
nation of this long neglected power. Great
capitalists who pride themselves upon theis ex-
treme conservatism often believe they are act
ing in The interests of property when Following
a course so shortsighted as to be really an as
sault upon property. They have shown extreme
unwisdom in their violent opposition 20 the as
sumption of complete control over the ran
roads by the federal government. The Amer-
can people will not tolerate the happy -go-lucky
system Of no control over the great interstate
railroads with the iusClent and manifold abuses
which have generally accompanied 1t. The
control must exist somewhere and unless IL
Is by thoroughgOing and radical law placed upon
the statute books OF the nation Il viii be ex-
ercised in ever increasing measure by the sew
made the founders Of the Constitution deem II
imperative that the nation should have COM
plete control of interstate commerce apply with
peculiar force 20 the control Of interstate rail
roads at the present day. and the arguments or
Madison of Virginia: Pinckney, of south Caro-
lima, and Hamilton and Jay, Of New YORK. in
their essence apply now as they applied one
hundred and twenty years ago.
The national convention which framed the
Constitution, and in which almost all the most
eminent of the first generation OF American
statesmen sat embodied the theory of the IN
strument in a resolution TO the effect that the
national government should have power in
cases where the separate states were incom-
petent TO act with full efficiency and where the
harmony Of the United States would be inter
rupted by the exercise of such individual Iegls-
lation. The interstate railroad situation is eX-
actly a case in point. There Will Of course. be
local matters affecting railroads which can best
be dealt with by local authority, but as national
commercial agents the big interstate railroads
ought to be completely subject to national au-
thority Only thus can we secure their com
pete subjection and control by single SOW
ereign, representing the whole people and capa-
BILE both of protecting the public and of seeing
that the railroads neither inlict nor endure in
justice.
REMEDY FOR ABUSES.
Personally 1 firmly believe that there should
he national legislation TO control all industrial
corporations doing an interstate business, in
Guiding the control of the output OF their Secu-
rites, but 10 these the necessity for federal
control is less urgent and immediate than is the
case with the railroads. Many of the abuses
connected with these corporations will probably
tend to disappear that the government
the public-is gradually getting the upper hand
regards putting stop to the rebates ana
special privileges which some of these corpora
carriers But ultimately it will be found that
the complete remedy for these abuses lies i'll
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 three gener-
atiOnS ago there lust much hostility