The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-03

upon the interp1S- the instru- ment itself but upon tho instruction, the right apprehensio of the living conditions to which 1t Is to be applied. The constitution is now and must re- main what 1t always has been; but it can only be interpreted as the interests of the whole people demand, if inter preted as a living organism, designed to meet the conditions of life and not of death; In other words, if interpreted as Marshall interpreted 1t, as Wilson declared 1t should be interpreted The Marshall theory. the theory of life and not of death. allows to the nation, that is to the people as a whole, when once it finds a subject within the national cognizance, the widest and freest choice of methods for national control, and sustains every exercise of national power which has any reasonable rela- tion to national objects The negation of this theory means, for instance that the nation-that we, the ninety mil- lions of people of this country-will be left helpless to control the huge corporations which now domineer in oura industrial life, and that they will have the auth ority of the courts to work their desires unch hecked; and such Q decision would in the end be as dis astrous for them as for us. If the tn cory of the Marshall school prevails, then an immense field of national pow CT, now unused, will be developed, which will be adequate for dealing with many, if not all, of the economic problems which vex us; and we shall be saved from the ominous threat of constant oscillation between economic tyranny and economic chaos Our In dustrial, and therefore our social. fu- ture as a nation depends upon settling alright this urgent question.
 Conditions Change.
 1 The constitution Is unchanged and 1 unchangeable save by amendment Tn | due form. But the conditions to which l it Is to be applied have undergone | change which is almost transforma- tion with the result that many sub l jects formerly under the control of the states have come under the control of the nation. As one of the justices of | the supreme court has recently said: "The growth of national powers under l our constitution, which marks merely the great outlines and designetes only | the great objects of national concern, | is to be compared to the growth or country not by the geographical eZ- largement of it's boundaries. but by the increase of it's population" A hun | dred years ago there was, except the l commerce which cTaWled along our seacoast or up and down our interior waterways, practically no interstate commerce. Now, by the railroad, the mails, the telegraph, and the telephone | an immense part of our commerce. Is 1 interstate. By the transformation 1t has escaped from the power of the | state and come under the power of the l nation Therefore there has been 1 great practical change in the exercise l of the national power, under the acts of congress, over interstate commerce l while on the other hand there has been no noticeable change in the exercise of the national power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and with the Indian trbes." Tho change as regards interstate commerce has | been not in the constitution, but In | the business of the people to which It is to be applied Our economic and social future depends in very large , part upon how the interstate commerce l power of the nation is interpreted
 believe that the nation has the vhole governmental power over inter state commerce. and the widest discre- ton in dealing with that subject of 1 course under the express li''its pre- scribed in the constitution the eX- ercise of all powers, s- tance as the condition tf or | law shall not on has no direct
 | state cop'-
 l ducted
 ..al
 The
 lined the
 1rporate the
 IS to sustain
 .1e an interstate
 [ corporation con,
 cate business.
 -uItIes Arise.
 difficulties arising from our
 of government. If they prove
 superable resort must be had to
 ,wer. of amendment. Let us first try
 meet them by an exercise of all the -Jwers of the national government which in the Marshall spirit of broad interpre- tation an be found in the constitution as it is They are of vast extent The ehlef economic question of the day In this country is to provide sovereign Tor tne great corporations engaged in interstate business that is, for the railroads anu the Interstate Industrial corporations At the moment our prime concern is with the railroads When railroads were first built they were purely local In character. Their boundaries were not eo-extenslYe even with the boundaries of one state, They usually covered but two or three counties All this has now changed, AL 1 present. i've great HJSltiH NiibNNJ ''NNf'J four-ffths of the total mileage or the country Al the most important rall- roads are no longer state roads. but ln- struments of interstate commerce. FroD- ably S5 per cent of their business is inter state business. 1t is the nation alone which can with wisdom, justice and el- fectiveness exercise over these Interstate railroads the thorough and complete su- pervision which should be exercised. one of the chief. and probably the chler' of the domestic causes for the adoption of the constitution was the need 10 con- fer upon the nation exclusive control over , Interstate commerce. But this grant or power Is worthless unless 1t is held to conser thoroughsoing and complete con trol over practically the sole instrumeh- tallties of interstate commeree-the Inter state railroads. The railroads themselves , have been exceedingly shortsighted In the rancorous bitterness which they nave shown against the resumption by the na- , ton of this long neglected power. Great , capitalists, who pride themselves upon their extreme conservatism, often believe 2 they are acting In the interests of prop | f1ff