The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-25
n CONFERENCE OF STATES.

A CONFERENCE OF STATES.
/ Voicing the concern which thought
full public men everywhere feel, the
New York legislature has under con-
sideration a bill calling a conference
of delegates from each state to meet
next October and frame a policy which
shall check the tendency of the ma
tional administration toward centrali-
cation Of all power in the national gov
| eminent.
/ The conference is to be composed of
three delegates from each state and
/ will consider uniform legislation on
such subjects as divorce labor public
utilities, fire and life insurance and
/ interstate commerce, with a view to
/ preserving to the states the constitu-
tional rights which We're reserved to
them but which the federal admins
| traitor seems to think can be abrogat-
ed ut will.
| in a way, the call for a conference is
! intended as an answer to Secretary
Roots famous speech which was in
terpreted as threat from the admin
/ istration to assume state powers for
the federal government because some
states have shown an inability, or what
the administration regards as inabili-
| ~. 10 discharge duties implied in the
constitutional compact
Significance attaches to this move
whether it materializes in a confer
ence or not, because it indicates the
extent of the dissatisfaction with the
| presidents attitude on this most inn
portant question of the day. Repre-
sentative Mccall of Massachusetts, in
notable address on Lincolns BIRTH
/ day, expressed the fear which disturbs
every thoughtful observer that this ten
dency toward Capitalization is not full
/ " understood, nor its dangers appre-
ciated by the people generally. He rep
resents q much larger mass than he
suppoSes in his criticism of the presi-
Dental policy, but such a conference
as is proposed would go far toward
crystalizing sentiment against a fur
ther usUrpation of state prerogative by
the executive such as has been mani
tested in the San Francisco case, in the
attempt to pass the Beverage child
labor bill, and more recently in the
summons to state governors of states
to Washington on the presidents COM
mand.
Such Capitalization of power and en-
enactment on state prerogative as
have been common with the president
must either be resisted and the line of
demarcatiOn fixed or else state lines
will be obliterated in all but imaginary
boundaries. Since the great civil war
it has been supposed that no further
question as To the limitations of ma
tionaI power and states rights re-
manned to be determined; but within
this presidential term the executive
has pushed encroachment to the point
of absolute disregard of constitutional
limitations; he has compelled Caiifor-
MIA to abandon its clear right to con-
troll its own schools; he has suggested
legislation in states, and in various
ways indicated his intention to extend
his power beyond what have heretofore
been regarded as well-defned consti-
tutiOnal boundaries.
Unless the individual states are
ready to abandon the theory of the
fathers and yield to the federal govern
ment the rights which were SO jealous
ly withheld in the founding of the gov
eminent, some check upon these en-
crOachments of federal power will have
to be devised in concert, Whether the
New York idea is adopted or not, it is
certain that a rapidly growing public
| sentiment will find a form of express
/ sion that will make clear the issue be-
tween state and federal power. and
bring that issue to conclusion in the
next presidential campaign.