The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-08-10

ain it under the new doctrine of
inherent sovereignty" and para
mount necessity" 1t is evident, |
that the trouble is going |
o be with the supreme court, some
If whose members are FESTIVE under
the imputation which has come from
high sources, that 1t would find way
to SO "construe" the constitution as
to read into it what the people have
never put there.
And yet it is evident enough that
the delimitation of the powers of
state and federal government has not
been so made as to clearly settle the
respective rights and duties of the
two authorities in respect to some
objects of legislation, and there is
an increasing number of clashes be-
tween state and nation. In this state
the treaty-making power-or one
part of it-has claimed the right to
some control over our school system
The executive branch of the federal
government has claimed national au-
thority over non-navigable interstate
streams, and been turned down by
the supreme court. Some of the
states-or rather many citizens
deny the right of states to charter
corporations to do what they please
in other states, so only that they do
nothing except maintain an Office and
pay taxes in the state which charters
them. Now there Is clash between
the state of Virginia and a federal
court In respect to the power of the
state to regulate railroad fares, and
there would be a similar clash In
North Carolina except for the agree
ment of the railroads to obey the
state law pending the action of the
courts upon it. In Virginia state
| corporation commission, being duly
empowered by law, has prescribed u
uniform rate of cents per mile for
local fares, a United States judge has
enjoined the commission from put.
ting the rates in force, and the gov
ernor and the commissioners seem
ready to defy the United States
Judge. who is probably iegally in the
wrong.
1t is not stated on what grounds
the federal judge attempts to inter
fere with the Virginia law, but it il
presumably on the ground that the
railroads affected form part of inter
|
state systems and that any impair
ment of their local revenues would
| affect the receipts of the entire sys
TEN. At any rate, it is difficult to see
on what other grounds a fedora
question could be arised warranting
at this stage of the proceedings, sucf
action by federal Judge. Wha
Judge Pritchard did was to enjoir
| the corporation commission from per
fecting a legislative act which, under
the state constitution and laws, 1t is
presumably authorized to pass. That
is very different thing from passing
on the validity of the act when 1t has
become a law, and 1t is resented In
| Virginia as an act of judicial usur-
patton.
1t begins to look as though the
state rights" question might be-
come the leading issue in the coming
national compaign. Their are some
foolish people who insist that the
state rights question was settled
at AppomattoX, and who go straight
into Mysteries If state rights are men
toned at all. That, of course, is very
silly; but there is no way of COM
polling silly people to keep still. In
fact, they usually make more noise
than others. The only state rights
question settled at Appomattox was
the alleged right to secede. 1t was
settled that states have no such
right. But as to the rights of the
cfatoc undar and within the cOnSti-