Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-02-12
towS:
As to State Rights.


As to State Rights. ~
SIN all matters pertaining to inter.
state commerce the authority of the ma.
tional government already exists and
does not have to be acquired, and the
exercise of this existing authority can
be in no sense a usmrpaton of, or in
iringement upon, the rights of the
states. On the contrary, had the fed
cral government given this question
moro attention in the past and applied
n vigorous check to corporate abuses,
conditions would now be better, be.
cause the states would have had fewer
real or imaginary grievances and have
had less cause not only to attempt the
exercise of the authority reserved to
the national government, but to act
without proper moderation in matters
peculiarly within their own provinces.
The national government has been re.
miss in the past, but even at this late
day it can solve this problem, and the
sooner the national authority is exer.
cised the less apt are the states to take
action which will represent encroach-
,nent upon the national domain. There
is field OF operations for both powers
and plenty alike for national and state
governments to do in order to protect
both the people and the public utilities.
The line of demarcation between federal
and state authority can and should be
speedily settled by the federal courts.
The fact that the national government
has omitted to exercise the authority.
conferred upon it by the interstate COM
merce clause of the Constitution has
made the states FESTIVE under what they
deem corporate abuses, ard in some
cases has probably stimulated them to
go too far in the attempt to correct
these abuses, with the result that all
measures which they passed, good or
bad, have been held up by the federal
courts. The necessary equitable and
uniform regulation can not be obtained
by the separate action of the states,
but only by the affirmative action OF
the national government"
This is an appeal by a high state
judge, alarmed, as good citizens should
be alarmed, by conflicts over the mat
ter of jurisdiction, and by the radical
action advocated by honest people
smarting from a sense of injury re-
ceived from corporations; which injury
the federal courts forbid the states to
try to remedy, while the federal gov
eminent nevertheless refrains from it.
self taking adequate measures to pro.
vide remedy. 1t can not too strongly
be insisted that the defenders and apol-
ogists of the great corporations, who
have sought in the past and still seek
to prevent adequate action by the fed.
eral government to control these great
corporations, are not only proving false
to the people, but are laying up a day
of wrath for the great corporations
themselves. The nation Will not toler-
ate an utter lack of control over very
wealthy men of enormous power in the
industrial. and therefore in the social,
lives of all our people, some of whom
have shown themselves cynically and
brutally Indifferent to the interests of
the people; and if the Congress does not
act, with good-tempered and sensible
but resolute thoroughncss, i'll cutting out
the evils and in providing an effective
supervision, the result is certain to be
action on the part of the separate states.
sometimes wise, sometimes ill-judged
and extreme, sometimes unjust and
damaging to the railroad and other cor
porations, more often ineffective from
SNSiy otdhupOiul, DCCdust llit itucidl
courts declare it unconstitutional.
No Thought of Retreat
81 do not for moment believe that
the actions of this administration have
brought on business distress; so far as
this is due to local and not worldwide
causes, and tc the actions of any par
ticn!ar individuals. it is due to tho
speculative folly and fragrant dishonesty
of n few men of great wealth, who seek
to shield themselves from the effects of
their own wrongdoing by aseribing it's
results to the actions of those who have
sought to put n stop to the wrongdoing.
But if it were true that to cut out rot
tenness from the body polite meant Il
momentary check to an unhealthy SEEM
ing prosperity, i should rot for one mo.
ment hesitate to put the knife to the
corruption. On behalf of all our people,
on behalf no less of the honest man of
means than of the honest man who earns
each days livelihood by that day S
sweat of his brow, it is necessary to
insist upon honesty in business and pol
tics alike, in all walks of life, in big
things and in little things; upon inst
and fair dealing as between man and
man. Those who demand this are striv-
ing for the right in the spirit of Abra-
ham Lincoln, when he said:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we
pray, that this mighty scourge may
speedily pass away. Yet. if God wills
that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondsmen's two hundred
and fifty years Of unrequited toll shall
be sunk, and until every drop of blood
drawn with the lash shall be paid by
another drawn with the sword, as was
said three thousand years ago, so still
it must be said, "The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether.
"sWith malice toward none; with
charity for all; with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we
are in.'
are in, there is, thanks be to the AL.
mighty, no danger Of bloodshcd and no
use for the sword, but there is grave
need of those stern qualities shown alike
by the men of the North and the men
of the South in the dark days when each
valiantly battled for the right as it was
given each to see the right. Their
spirit should BIO our spirit, as we strive
to bring nearer the day when greed
and trickery and cunning shall be
trampled under feet by those who fight
for the righteousness that exalteth
nation.
"THEoDoRE ROOSEVELT"
Horses and Music.
Regimental horses have been the
subjects of musical tests, and nearly
all epiOyod tho ayporfonca onJy n vary
small percentage Of the animals re-