The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-27


for instance. if the general counsel Of
railroad corporation should advise,
on request 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, imme-
diately he would be liable to be taken
from his office to some remote county
OF the state and imprisoned In the
county jail for ninety days.
The material changes in state legis-
lation are so many and the report of
them SO volumihous. that I have en-
bodied them in the appendix. which
follows this address. In this connec-
ton ! beg the members of the general
council to be assured of my keen APP
probation of the valuable information
reported by them. II the report has
merit the credit is largely due to their
suggestions.
Due to Agitation.
Some OF the hasty legislation dis
closed by these various volumes re-
porting either the entirely new laws of
the states or the amendments to old
ones Is due, in part at least, to an agi-
tation in favor of the assumption of
larger measure of control by the fed
eral government. The arguments in
favor of action in that direction by the
federal authorities have been based to
considerable extent on the assertion
that the states have failed in their
duty. TIL specific charge has been
made that, through their action, legis-
lation has been secured distinctly In
aid of corporate schemes which have
developed into corporate evils; that
efficient remedial legislation has been
defeated, and that administrative Off
Gals have permitted acts in defiance
OF law, until men standing at the head
Of great corporate interests have dared
openly to disregard it.
Most of the intelligent men of my
state and its immediate neighboring
states would, think, concede this to
be IN some measure true. But the adj
mission does not make the charge any
the more palatable Instead it tends
to arouse the public spirited citizen
from his lethargy and to stimulate him
to demand local civic righteousness
while the public servant, on the other
hand, seeks to hide from his constitu-
ents the consequences of his failure
to do his duty by much denunciative
speaking coupled with efforts toward
law making and law enforcing in
harmony with his loud accusations.
Crusade Started in Washington.
Now he who surveys the action of
the legislative and executive depart
ments of the state governments during
the last few months cannot with truth
say that they have been inactive dur
ing this period. Nor can he say that
the federal government has been more
active or more drastic in its action
than nave the states. But it can be
said, and therefore it should be said,
that the federal government began
the crusade. Therein was to be found,
it seems to me. the sole basis for the
assumption that the federal govern
ment, had IT possessed the power,
would have done better than the
states. That assumption, considered
In the light of the circumstances pre-
ceding and possibly inducing It, pre-
sents but a feeble argument in favor
OF taking away any authority now en-
Joyed by the states In order to confer
it upon the national government And
yet many honest, patriotic men who
think otherwise, men who believe that
1t were better that the states were
shorn of much of their power seeing
the neglect Of officials or citizens, or
both, In the state or states to which
they owe allegiance, would abandon
all attempts to right the wrongs, sur
render jurisdiction and pass the re-
sponsibility on to the federal govern
ment.
Gladstone on the Constitution.
There was ardent support for a
strong centralized government prior tn
the adoption of our present system.
In the beginning the advocates of this
idea could see only failure in the plan
adopted. Almost century and a
quarter Of actual experience has shown
that they were mistaken-so mistaken
that nearly century later, after
studying the federal constitution in
the light not only of the circumstances
surrounding its drafting. but also of its
practical working, Gladstone charac-
terized it as The most wonderful
work struck off at a given timSb v the
brain and purpose of man." When
these words were written probably
few of our people would have dis
agreed 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-
terred may have been judiciously dis
trlouted when the federal constitution
expanded and conditions have become so
changed as to present a situation so
widely ditterent as to require changed
treatment
Wisdom Proved by Time.
So far as this argument implies that
the constitution should be so amended as
TO confer further powers upon the nation
al government, 1t is not my purpose to
consider it. The constitution has proved
the wisdom of the men who perfected it,
No one provision better demonstrates this
fact than that providing for the method
or amendment, under which fifteen artf-
Giles have &c this time been added In the
course of time there will no doubt be
others. Perhaps one outcome from the
present situation and the resulting dis
cuSsion, viii be a proposed amendment
10 the constitution of the United States.
Until its appearance, the discussion of
the merit OF such a measure can be post
poned. We have now to deal with a very
different question.
Indeed, ii is claimed that from the
adoption of the federal constitution down
to the present time we have proceeded
upon the mistaken assumption that GER
tain powers supposed to belong to the
states. did in fact reside in the national
government-an assumption which has
been shared by representatives of the
various powers of the federal government
as well as by the like representative
of the state governments. While no one
TO nv knowledge. has stated the o11eSffop