The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-20
THE ROOSEVELT PROGRAM.

evasion on President Roosevelt's part,
 or on the part of those, who from time
 to time address us common folk in his
 behalf, as regards his personal deter
 mnation to substitute for the consti- l tutional doctrine of the founders a doc- i Urine of his own. He would take from
 the States the powers presumably
 reserved to them, whenever by chance
 a business outgrows its state bound
 aries and spills over into an adjoining State In more diplomatic language, Secretary Root warned the States, in a
 New York speech last winter, that in
 event of their failure to assert their
 rights the federal government would
 step in and assert them in the name
 of the nation. This is the Roosevelt
 program.
 It was in one of his recently deliver
 ed speeches that President Roosevelt added more chapters to his gospel of political acquisition, With regard to the
 railroads he spoke with conviction, as
 prophet might, in forecasting the fu- ture, and declared that the best way of administering them was to bring them
 under national charter. That would, as said at the time, automatically elim-
 mate the charter granted to the New I Haven railroad by the Connecticut 1 legislature and bring it directly under the interstate commerce commission, when Congress was not in working or der, and under Congress when modes ty overcame the commission. carrying with it the destruction of all local
 rights as to rates of speed, ct cetera. At Jamestown he advanced more the
 ories of federal control, including coal
 fields Tn fact one cannot read pub | lie speech of the strenuous young Pres ident without encountering either the square deal, or the new personally con- ducted tour towards federal control in all things interstate in character. It 1 is true that Justice Brewer in a diplo-
 matic speech at the Yale Law school a year ago suggested that there was still supreme court in existence to be heard from, before all of these strange
 doctrines could be enforced, but the fact has remained that the President, with his powers of fascination which he exercises over the American people with such astonishing results, has made many believe that he was superior to that tribunal as he has demonstrated he Is to Congress itself.
 It appears now from decision hand ed down month ago in a case in volving this new doctrine of federal absorption of State rights that Justice Brewer saw ahead more clearly than the rest of us In fact he wrote the opinion in the case to which we have reference, and which has just come to the public notice through the newspapers. There are obstacles in the way of the enforcement of the Roosevelt program, and it is at least .reassuring to learn from. such q high authority that even the masterful will of a restless man can be stayed by the calm philosophy of a department of government which refuses to be nov ed by a government inspired by clamor or an official moved by righteous ness.' In the particular case which gave the court its opportunity to again interpret the constitution according to the wisdom of John Marshall, to which we need not refer in detail, Jus tlce Brewer represents the Solicitor General the spokesman of the admin istration, as saying in his argument before the supreme court All legisla- tive power must be vested either in the State or the national government; no legislative powers belong to a State government other than those which af- feet solely the internal affairs of that State; consequently all powers which are national in their scope must be found vested in the Congress of the United States This in other words was the formal presentation of the Roosevelt program to the Supreme court of the United States Lawyers will take occasion to read the full text of the courts opinion. It is enough for laymen to. know that again the doctrine has been affirmed that the tenth article of the constitution holds good. The people who adopted the constitution,' says Justice Brewer for the court, "knew that in the nature of things they could not foresee all the questions which might arise in the fu- ture, all the circumstances which might call for the exercise of further sational powers than those granted to the United States, and after making provision for an amendment to the constitution by which any needed ad- ditional powers would be granted, they