Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1907-10-16
STATES RIGHTS ISSUE
IN NEXT CAMPAIGN
A Renewal Of the Question Which
Divided the Country a Generation
Ago.


New York, Oct. 15.-(SDecial Cor
respondence OF the Republican.-Fi-
nance and politics have gone closely
hand in. hand, but it looks as if they
would be in closer sympathy the COM
ing year than at any time since the
first Bryan campaign. Many of the
issues that are now being raised are
founded on finance. Even the states
right issue, which is forging to the
front is largely due to questions of
commerce and finance. This issue has
received a new boost through the con-
nict between the state and the United
States courts in the matter of the re-
ownership of the Metropolitan Street
railway, which controls the surface
lines in New York city. Attorney
General Jackson, who was elected last
year on the Democratic Hearst ticket.
raised the issue by applying To the
state courts to appoint separate re-
ceivers on the ground that the federal
courts had no jurisdiction and that the
federal receivers We're appointed
through fraud and conspiracy. The
public at large believes what the at
torney general says, especially. as
Judge LacOmbe of the United States
court has always shown a disposition
to interpret the law according to the
technicalities which the corporations
were able to raise
one of the most widely quoted opin-
ions on the states rights issue appears
in the current number of the Van Nor
den Magazine. a monthly publication
which make n sepcialty of financial and
political affairs. In view of the fact
that the editorials of this magazine
represent the opinions of one of the
foremost bankers i'm the country. War
ner Van Norden Of the Van Norden
Trust Co. it is of particular interest
TO note what it says:
AS the constitution now reads, and
as the supreme court now interprets
it. it is certain that the powers of the
Interstate commerce commission can
not legally be expanded to undertake
all the federal regulations of business
that President Roosevelt advocates.
If then, the country is satisfied to
follow the lead of the constitutional
lawyers. the Democratic party has in
the states rights issue, as Judge
Parker defined it in his speech. an ex-
cellent issue. and it would be interest
ing to have a popular vote upon it.
As a matter of political fact, how
ever, there are innumerable signs
that on this issue, so defined, a party
standing for a strict construction of the
federal constitution would be as over
whelmingly defeated as il was on The
same issue a generation ago. That
which the legal mind fails to see is
the profound political truth that ma
tions are living. organic aggregates
of human beings undergoing progress
sive evolution, and, therefore, newt
ably growing away from or modifying
OF breaking through restraints imposed
upon them b. the past. In the course
of this evolution many interests
originally unorganiZed or decentralized
become definitely correlated and. there
fore, inevitably centralized. other in
terests that have been closely united
disintegrate and fall apart. 1t be-
comes impossible, therefore. to MAIN
tain in all cases the old legal limita-
tiOns, and It becomes absolutely nee
essary to create some new ones.
There is, therefore, before the Amer
lean people a real states rights issue,
but it IS not the one which the law
yers formulate. The real issue is.
What power ought the federal govern
ment to have and what powers ought
the state governments to have today?
The powers that they had given to
them respectively by the constitution
and its amendments We're suggested
and determined by an age of stage
coaches and "sIoops" Some of them
also for an age of continental railways,
leviathan steamships, wireless teleg-
raphy and telephone connections, but
it is certain that some of them have
become ANTICIPATED.
The real states rights issue as it
stands today then, is How can the
federal constitution be so amended,
and how can its further amendment be
so provided for that it can be made
now, and IN the future be maintained,
as an adequate expression Of the act
ual economic and moral organization
of the living, instead of remaining n
merely glorious memorial Of the dead?
The states rights Issue is being
closely pressed by the demand for
tariff reform, which is growing con-
stantly stronger. Even the New York
Sun has come out for tariff revision
and a flat-footed demand for such
changes as are necessitated by chang
ing conditions appeared in a recent
leading financial editorial of the jour
nal. II VieW of the close relations
which the Sun has to ]. p. Morgan,
and in view Of the fact that Morgan
created the steel trust, the largest ben
eficiary of the tariff wall. the demand
from it possesses especial significance
and Importance. The Sun say: One
of the first things that should be done
is to reduce somewhat that high wall
of tariff protective duties that in form
er days for reasons good at that time,
but valid no longer, the country built
around its industries. What is needed
at the present time is an opportunity
for the people of our country to make
the purchases of the goods they need
as economically as possible rather than
necessarily to make these purchases
of home producers; and if this oppor-
tunity)is denied to them our lawmak-
ers viii be but following in the same