Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-27

Under the Minnesota statute, Tor IN
stance If the general counsel OF q rail-
road corporation should advise, on re-
quest for his opinion by his client, that
the rates prescribed by the statute were
confiscatory and, therefore, in violation
of the due process of law provision OF
the constitution, Immediately he would
be liable to be taken from his office to
some remote county of the state ana
impris oned in the county jail for ninety
days.
aThe material changes in state leg1s-
Iation are so many and the report OF
them SO voluminous that 1 have en-
Bodied them in the appendix, whicn fol-
lows this address. In this connection l
beg the members of the general council
to be assured of my keen appreciation
of the valuable information reported
by them. If the report has merit, the
credit is largely due to their sugges-
tions. ,,
.'some. of the hasty legislation, dis
closed nv these various volumes report
ing either the entirely new laws OF tne
states or the amendments to old ones is
due in part at least to an agitatloh III
favor of the assumption OF iarse'
measure of control by the federal gov
ernment The arguments In 1aVor oi
action in that direction by the federai
authorities have been based to con-
Siderable exetnt on the assertion tnat
the states have failed in their duty.
siderable extent on the assertion that
through their action, legislation mus
been secured distinctly In aid OF cor,
porate schemes which nave oeveiupe sas,t
into corporate evils; that efficient
remedial legislation has been defeated
and that administrative officials nave
nermitted acts in defiance of law, untli
men standing at the head of great cor
norate interests have dared openly TO
disregard 1t.
"Most of the intelligent men OF my
state and its immediate nelghporlne
states would, think, concede THIS no oe
in some measure true. But the admissloii
does not make the charge any the more
nalatahIe. Instead it tends to arouse
the public-spirited citizen from his letn-
arev and to stimulate him to demand
local civic righteousness, while the puplc
servant on the other hand, seeks to hioe
from his constituents the consequences
of his failure to do his duty by much de-
n,nciatiye speaking coupled with efforts
toward law making and law enforcing IN
harmony with his loud accusations.
Have Not Been Inactive
"Now he who surveys the action of the
Legislative and executive departments OF
the state governments during the last
few months cannot with truth say that
thew have been inactive during this
period. Nor can he say that the federai
government has been more actlve OF
more drastic in it's action than nave the
states. But it can be said, and therefore,
it should be said, that the federal govern
ment began the crusade. Therein was TO
he found 1t seems to me, the sole OASIS
for the assumption that the federal gov
ernment. had it possessed the power,
would have done better than the states.
The assumption, considered In the light
of the circumstances preceding ana pos
sibly inducing 1t, presents but feeple
argument in favor of taking away any
authority now enjoyed by the states IN
order to confer 1t upon the national gov
ernment And yet many honest, patrio-
tic men who think otherwise, men who
believe that 1t were better than the states
were shorns of much of their power, see
ing the neglect of officials or citizens, or
both. in the state or states to which they
owe allegiance, would abandon all at
tempts to right the wrongs, surrender
jurisdiction, and pass the responsibility
on to the federal government.
''There was ardent support for strong
centralized government prior to the adop-
ton of our present system. In the be-
ginning the dQNOCdlco VI Tins iHSN SSH,N
see only failure in the plan adopted. Al
most a century and a quarter of actual
experience has shown that they We're
mistaken-so mistaken that nearly CEN
tury later. after studying the federal con-
stitution in the light not only of the cir
oumstances surrounding it's drafting, but
also of its practical working, Gladstone
chara cterized it as The most wonderful
work struck off at given time by the
brain and purpose of man.. When these
words were written probably rev OF our
neople would have disagreed with him.
but finding now many abuses under
the present distribution of powers, some
turn to their redistribution as furnishing
what seems to them the only hope OF re-
lief They urge that the powers con-
ferred may have been judiciously dis
tributed when the federal constitution
was created, but that the country has 50
expanded and conditions have become so
changed as to present situation SO
widely different as to require changed
treatment
$50 far as this argument implies tnat-
the constitution should be so amended as
to confer further powers upon the ma
tional government, 1t is not my purpose
10 consider It, The constitution has
nrnved the wisdom of the men who per-
fected II. No one provision better dem
onstrates this fact than that providing
for the method of amendment, under
which fifteen articles have to this time
been added. In the course OF time there
will no doubt be Others. Perhaps one out
H.. nd "a