Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-10-10

and Maine. Of Louisiana and Texas Our
deet IS going 10 its own home waters IN thu
racine, and after a stay there ii will return
10 its own home waters in the Atlantic.
The best place for a naval officer to
learn his duties is at sea- By performing
them, and only by actually putting through
voyage Of this nature a voyage longer
than any ever before undertaken by as
large feet OF any nation, can we find out
Just exactly what Is necessary for US 10
know as to our naval needs and practice
our officers and enlisted men in the highest
duties Of their profession
hundred years ago there was, except
the commerce which crawled along our sea
coast or up and down our interior water
ways, practically no interstate commerce.
Now, by the railroad, the mails, the tele-
graph and the telephone, an immense part
OF our commerce is interstate. By the
transformation IL has escaped from the
power of the State and come under the
power Of the nation. Therefore there has
been great practical change In the exer-
else OF the national power, under the acts
OF =, congress, over interstate commerce !;
while, on the other hand, there has been
no noticeable change in the exercise of
the national power ito regulate commerce
tribes"
The change as regards interstate COM
merce has been, not in the Constitution,
but IN the business of the people to which
1t Is TO be applied Our economic and
social future depends in a very large part
upon how the interstate commerce power
Of the nation is interpreted.
l believe that the nation has the whole
governmental power over interstate COM
merce and the widest discretion in dealing
with that subject.
The nation has no direct power over
purely interstate commerce. even where 1t
Is conducted by the same agencies which
conduct Interstate commerce. The courts
must determine what IS national and what
IS State commerce.
Interstate Commerce Problem.
The chief economic question of the day
In this country is 10 provide a sovereign
Tor the great corporations engaged in in
terstate business; that Is for the rail-
roads and the Interstate industrial corpo-
rations- At the moment our prime concern
Is with the railroads. When railroads were
first built they were purely local in char
acter. Their boundaries were not coexten-
sive even with the boundaries of one State
All this has now changed. At present five
great systems embody nearly four-ffths of
the total mileage of the country
Probably 50 per cent of their business is
Interstate business 1t is the nation alone
which can with wisdom, justice and effect
tveness exercise over these Interstate rail-
roads the thorough and complete supervi-
sion which should be exercised. The rail-
roads themselves have been exceedingly
shortsighted in the rancorous bitterness
which they have shown against the resump-
ton by the nation Of this long-neglected
power.
The control must exist somewhere, and
unless it Is by thoroughgoing and radical
law placed upon the statute books of the
nation it will be exercised in ever-increas-
ing measure by the several States
Personally, l firmly believe that there
should be national legislation to control
all industrial corporations doing an inter
state business, including the control Of the
output of their securities, but as to these
the necessity for federal control is less
urgent and immediate than is the case with
the railroads.
Many of the abuses connected with these
corporations will probably tend to disap-
pear now that the government-the public
is gradually getting the upper hand as re-
CARDS putting q stop to the rebates and
special privileges