New-York tribune., 1907-06-25

morals the power to govern. men and things hing
naiiy and always belonging the states, not sur
! rendered by them 20 the general government. nor
| United States. and essentially exclusive.
! That the Congress Of the United States has no
general legislative powers, but only such as are
granted TO 1t by the Constitution. is not an old
! fashioned and exploded notion.
RULING BY JUSTICE BREWER.
| It has been reaffrmed with emphasis by the
! Supreme Court within the last sixty days in a
great opinion by Mr.. Justice Brewer in the case
OF Colorado agt Kansas.
| The learned justice said: That this such a gov
ernment zone Of delegated powers clearly appears
from the Constitution, independently of the amend
ments for otherwise there would be an instrument
granting certain specified things made operative
| TO grant other and distinct things. This natural
construction of the original body of the Constitu-
i ton is made absolutely certain by the Tenth
Amendment. This amendment. which was seemingly
adopted with prescence Of Just such contention as
the present, disclosed the widespread fear that the
| national government might, under the pressure OF
| 4 supposed general welfare, attempt to exercise
| powers which had not been granted With equal
| determination the trainers intended that no such
| assumption should ever find justification in the
organic act, ana that if In the future further pow
! erS seemed necessary they should be granted by
| the people in the manner they had provided tol
| amending that act''
! We cannot make progress In developing body OF
| substantive remedial law without accurate ap-
probation of the restrictions upon both the state
and federal powers
Like the Girondsts in the French Revolution
! American lawyers must submit TO be condemned by
the Bourbons radicals If they stand for rational
| and constitutional legislation to meet new condi-
tons and TO correct the evils in the old conditions
be guillotined by the Reds obstructionists
If they fail TO indorse the popular vagaries of the
| political ephemera who swarm about every great
| movement of reform unappreCiative of it's origin
! its tendency and its purpose. Such is the fate OF
the profession that studies. loves and defends the
institutions Of civilized government and has ever
| been their most powerful constructive ana con-
serving force.
PRESERVATION OF CONSTITUTION.
The preservation of our Constitution is not COM
nitted 10 the federal judiciary alone. 1t is the
oathbound obligation of every legislative, judicial
and executive officer of the states and nation and
is the highest duty of private citizenship The Con-
stitution is not TO perish at the hands OF the I'M
| passioned phrasemaker and its defenders should
! not he deferred by mistaken prejudiced clamor
| from performing their obligation to preserve and
| defend it.
The Constitution was founded upon the sacrifice
Of the lives and fortunes Of ancestors II Is the
solemny expressed will of the people; 1t has been
| preserved by the people through the most gigantic
| and tragic of modern times and it must en-
dure written and expounded until altered by the
| people by the means they have prescribed
| The power of the federal government cannot be
! increased except by new grants of power through
| amendment of the Constitution. The efficiency
however. of the federal government will progress
sivey increase through the application OF existing
| federal power TO the growing complexities or So
| Cial and commercial conditions.
| What changes in these conditions may he In
store for us man can foretell. What social re-
adjustments may follow the application of the fed
eral commercial power to such changes is likewise
| unknown. The power is fixed and definite factor;
no one has pretended to define the boundaries OF
| the subject upon which 1t operates The distn-
| guished present Solicitor General OF the United
| States an bonored son OF Yale-Henry NJ Hoyt-
| in a recent argument in the Supreme Court aptly
| said: The word commerce is not restricted to
| trade and traffic, or navigation or transportation
! No say definitely what movements
ana interactions across state lines may not be en-
| braced within its meaning
| Human government IS human necessity. 1t is
all the stronger and more effective in times of dire
need for not having been experimental with and
its fiber strained in times of tranquility
THIS Is A LAND OF LAW
| The way to make real progress in needful legls-
| aton and permanently retain each advance is
! to move wisely along legitimate lines. This is
land of law as we'll of liberty. and the liberty
OF the lawmaker is subject 10 restraints well
| the liberty of the individual. Congress do only
what 1t is possible 10 do under the powers dele
gated to II by the body polite which is the peo-
| pie To do anything would he futile usurpa-
tion; to do any less under those powers than the
best interests OF the people demand should he done
would he neglect OF duty. -.
1t Is beside the question to urge tho desrabiIlty
| and popularity Of measures If Congress has
! power enact them. our heartiest sympathy
may be enlisted I'm many movements and yet
| judgment may he compelled to reject the means
| proposed for their accomplishment I remember
| and am impressed by the words Of President Roose
| welt in his nrst message to Congress that 'the
| men who demand the impossible or the undesirable
| serve as the allies or the forces with which they
are nomnally at war. for they hamper those who
would endeavor To nnd out in rational fashion what
| the wrongs really and what extent and I'm
what manner il IS practic able to appiy remedies"
The last words OF Washington and the first words
OF Lincoln contained a Solemn admonltion us
On the necessity OF preserving dual government
intact
| In his farewell address to the American people
WASHINGTON said:
IT, In the opinion Of the people. the distribution
| or modification of the constitutional powers be I'm
any particular wrong let IL be corrected by an
amendment in the way which the Constitution des-
| gnates. But let there be change by usurpa-
! iion; for. though this I'm instance may be the
instrument Of good II is tho customary weapon by
| dent must always greatly overbafance IN perma-
nent evil any partial transient benefit which the
use can at any time yield.
| LINCOLN'S FIRST MESSAGE.
And IN his frs. message to the American Con-
gresS Lincoln said:
to order and control under the Constitution their
own affairs by their own Judgment exclusively is
essential for the preservation OF that balance OF
power on which our institutions rest.
| And finally Chief Justice Marshall the great
expounder Of the Constitution, said, in Gibbons agt.
Ogden:
The genius and character OF the whole govern
ment seem 10 be that Its action is be applied to
| al the external concerns of the nation and 10
those internal concerns which affect the states
generally; but not 10 those which are completely
within particular state. which do not affect other
states. and with which IT is not necessary inter
fere for the purpose OF executing OF gen
eral powers Of the government.