The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-03
Letter to The Editor
aar. Dryaa aad .sffeaeraI Tnferfcrenc Editor The AdvArtiger:

Bar. GsryAa and .sEeeaeral Interference.1 .1 Edttor The Advertiser:
 In his recent deIiyerance at Birmipg- ham, Mr. Bryan took occasion to seek little faelional applause by sneering at one of the Federal courts of Ala bama. The alleged offense was the fact that this court has accepteL jurisaict- lon in the railroad rate cases---an of- fense which is now frankly and fully admitted by the attorneys for the State to have been no offense at all.
 While the tnsinuaLton that a Federal Judge has 'set himself up to be great CT than a State" thus lacks t4.e point of accuracy, tG stitI carries--at least to the satisfaction of MT. Bryan--the possibilities of politics"
 A cheap charge Is sometimes expen- sive In It's consequences. There are sections of the country in which an dn- founded sheer at Federal Court may cost the party more support than the sheer was worth. 4 National leader votes are sure by q ming at an (alIeg- ed) instance Of Federal interference, may find in regions where the votes are unsure (but very sorely needed) cesses Is not the very strongest asset of party power. 1t may well p0 feared that what Mr. Bryan has said in Ala bams will be inconveniently overheard in Indiana and New York.
 But why should Mir. Bryan. of all people in the world. be seeking pcpu- lar applause at the South by taking . fiing at the policy of "k,ederal inter ference?" This is strange role for Mir. Bryan. No man in our public life, Republican or Democrat, has ever eQlaled Mir. Bryan in the dubious com eistency with which he has rushed to the support of evory attack upon the prerogatives of the States. and on the historic position of the South.
 Take. for example. Senator Bever- idges bill for the Federal regula- ton of child labor. The policy of The Advertiser in reference to that evil, is well known. It has contendeI for efi- cient State regulation. But Senator Beveridge has proposed a policy of reg ulation under which the responsibilities of the States are to be invaded and yond the Federal power. He would therSfore do 1t indirectly, and would attempt to regulate the age of employ ment for our operatives through the elastic reach reach of the the in sEsato cOm factory employing operatives under 14 years of age (no matter how carefully it may obey the local laws) is to bs permitted to ship its goods over the
 Now. believe this proposal to he unconstitutional, and also cherish the opinion that there is enough knowledge of law and enough common sense in the Congress Of the United States to pre-
 
 ing the jurisdiction of the courts. But all this is not the point. The point is that this whole proposal has been endorsed by this critic of our Federal court not merely in a chance sentence, but in paragraph after paragraph of elaborate approval.
 Mir Bryan thus endorses the propos. al that the Federal power shall use the interstate commence clause of the Constitution to usurp the police funct- ions of the States and to regulate from Washington the age of the operatives in every factory in the South. There is no logical reason, if the precedent be sound, why the Federal power should not use the same device for de- termining all the condi lions of pro- duction and manufacture. Such a pol icy would simply hand over the whole industrial future of the South to the sectional jealousies and the congress sional majorities of the older manu- featuring States. And this Is the pro- gram involved in the party leader hip of the man who thinks 1t opportune to sheer at the legitimate Jurisdiction of a Federal courtl
 Nothing that that court has done. even upon the theory of its noisie st critics. can for a moment compar. in It's peril to the South. with those ex- aggerations of the policy of Federal supervision to which Mr Bryan has ac- corded his sympathy and his approval
 Mo frath.