The Topeka state journal., 1908-01-31

control can in the end only be obtain
ed by the action of the national gov
ernment. for almost all the corpora
tions of enormous wealth-that IL.
the corporations which it is especially
desirable to control-are engaged in
interstate commerce, and derive their
power and their importance not from
that portion of their business which
is intrastate. but from the Interstate
business. 1t is not easy always to de-
eide just where the line of demarca-
ton between the two kinds Of busi-
ness falls. This line must ultimately
be drawn by the federal courts. Much
of the effort to secure adequate con-
troll of the great corporations by state
action has been wise and effective, but
much of 1t has been neither; for when
the effort is made to accomplish by
the action of the state what can only
be accomplished by the action of the
nation, the result can only be dfsap-
pointment, and in the end the law
will probably be declared unconstitu-
tional So likewise In the national
arena. we who believe in the meas
ures herein advocated are hampered
and not aided by the extremists who
advocate action so violent that 1t
would either be useless or else would
cause more mischief than it would
remedy.
State Rights.
In a recent letter from a learned Judge
OF the supreme court of one of the gull
states the writer speaks as follows:
In all matters pertaining to Interstate
commerce the authority of the national
government already exists and does not
have to be ACQUIRED. and the exercise Of
this existing authority can be in sense
a usurpation of, or infringement upon,
the rights of the states. On the contrary,
had the federal government given this
question more attention in the past and
abuses, conditions would now be better.
because the states would have had fewer
real or imaginary grievances and have had
else of the authority reserved to the
tional government, but to act without
witbPi,, +heir IN matters pecunary
government has been remiss in the past.
but even at this late day it solve this
problem. and the sooner the national au-
thorfty is exercised the less apt are the
states to take action which will represent
encroachment upon the national domain.
There is a field of operations for both
powers, and plenty alike for national and
state governments to do in order to pro
tect both the people and the public utili-
ties. The line of denarcation between fed
eral and state authority and should be
fact that the national government has
omitted to exercise the authority confer
red upon It by the interstate commerce
clause OF the constitution has made the
states restive Under what they deem cor
porate abuses, and 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 equita-
BILE and uniform regulation can not be OBJ
tained by the separate action Of the states
but only by the affirmative action Of the
national government"
This is an appeal by high state Judge
alarmed as good citizens should be alarm
ed. by conflicts over the matter of juris-
dfction, and by the radical action advo-
Gated by honest people smarting from a
tions: which injury the federal courts
forbid the states to try to remedy, while
the federal government nevertheless re-
In ode To
ures to provide a remedy. Tt can not too
strongly be insisted that the defenders and
have sought in the past and still seek to
prevent adequate action by the federal
government to control these great corpor-
atfons, are not only proving false to the
people, but are laying up day of wrath
for the great corporations themselves The
control over very wealthy men of enor-
nous power in the industrial, and there
fore in the social, lives of all our people,
some of whom have shown themselves
and brutaIly Indifferent to the
OF the people; and if the con-
and sensible but resolute thoroughness, in
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-judg-
ed and extreme sometimes unjust and
damaging to the railroads or other cor
porations, more often ineffective from ev-
cry standpoint, because the federal courts
declare it unconstitutional.
months Of acute financial stress. At any
such time 1t is sad fact that entirely
their own; and everyone must feel the
keenest sympathy for the labor body of
honest business men, of honest investors.
cause involved in a crash for which they
are in no way responsible. At such a time
there is natural tendency on the part of
many men to feel gloomy and frightened at
the outlook; but there is no justification
hs feeling s4s Fhsrs is no nasea 80
ours. OF course we shall succeed Ours
IS a nation of masterful energy. with a
within its veins the thrill which comes to
hose who know that they possess the fu-
.ure We are not cast down by the fear
nope of ultimate. triumph. The wrongs
hat exists are to be corrected; but they in
of the future, or Of the lofty
hat prosperity as a foundation. No mis-
leeds done in the present must be permit
ed TO shroud from our eyes the glorious
very fact it vehooves us never to swerve
rom our resolute purpose to cut out
I do t.t not for ' moment % believe Y that the
Lctions Of this administration have
,rought on business distress; so far as
auses, and to the actions of any particu-
ar individuals. it is due to the speculative
o@en @ Of T great T Wealth. cal es who Seek t. to shielS &
themselves from the effects of their own 80
by ascribing It's results to the
ctions of those who have sought to put -
top to the wrongdoing. But If it were
rue that to cut out rottenness from the
ody polite meant a momentary check
0 an unhealthy seeming prosperity. I
hould not for one moment hesitate to put
he knife to the corruption. On behalf of
IL our people, on behalf no less of the
onest man of means than of the honest
ian who earns each days livelihood by
hat days sweat of his brow it is nee
ssary to insist upon honesty in business
nd politics alike. in all walks of life in
ig things and in little things: upon Just
nd fair dealing between man and man
hose who demand this are striving for
le right in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln