Middletown transcript., 1909-06-19
estate LOYALTY

John P. Nields, United States District
Attorney, at the 20lst anniversary of Old
Drawers, Pres by terian Church, on Sun
day June 9th.
To-day the most significant political
fact is the growth Of national.power. The
authority Of the States has relatively de-
creased. Where the increase of national
power is caused by the failure and neglect
of the States to do their duty in the fed
eral system, that increase is wholly un.
necessary. The effect of the increase of
national authority is to lessen the author
ity and importance of State citizenship
and the weight and influence OF the in
/ diyidual citizen.
My theme is the Importance of State
loyalty in two respects. First, as an in
fluence to stimulate the States to full
performance of their duty in our federal
system. Second, as an influence to pre-
serve the significance of the individual
citizen and to foster his intelligent and
individual action in government.
Such sovereign powers as the people
| yielded to their government they divided
between the States and the nation, at the
same time giving to the Supreme Court
the power to determine the limits Of
national powers. Every man in this
country is a citizen of State as well as
citizen of the United States. This d.
vision OF sovereignty is the extraordinary
feature of our government. In the Con-
stitution the people enumerated the polit-
ical powers OF the nation and removed
from the States the power to interfere
with interstate trade by vesting the
power to regulate that trade in the nation.
In the exercise of this non-political power
the nation has tended to trench upon the
power of the States over domestic and
social affairs and matters of private right
In one hundred and twenty years every
aspect of our country has changed. The
life of the people is strongly unified. A
confident national spirit has replaced the
fear and jealousy of early days. In 1889
men raised and sold their crops, made
and marketed their goods, lived and died
within the borders of a State. To-day
with the railroad, telegraph and tele-
phone, State lines are largely obliterated
and trade of every kind extends to the
borders and even beyond the borders of
the nation. Trade has become national
or interstate affair. In sense the pa
tional authority has not grown but the
subject matter over. which that authority
may be exercised has grown to a vast
extent. The. appropriate regulation of
interstate trade accounts for the federal
Antitrust Law, the Anti. i.Rebate Law,
the Safety Appliance Law, the Employ
ers' Liability Law, the Meat Inspection |
Law and the Pure Food Law. It does |
not account, however, for such new pro-
jects as national control of insurance,
divorce or child labor.
Senator Root, probably the strongest
American statesman of this generation,
delivered an address on December 18th,
1906, upon the subject: "What is the
Future of the States of the Union Under
Our Dual System OF Constitutional Gov
ernment?" In the course of this address
he said: "If any State maintains laws
which promote and foster enormous over
capitalization OF corporations condemned
by the people Of the country generally, if
any State maintains laws which promote
conditions of child labor revolving to the
sense of mankind, if any State maintains
laws of marriage and divorce SO far in.
consistent with the general standard of
the nation as to violently derange' the
! domestic relations wi1iiCh the maiUIity Of
the States desire to preserve, that State
is promoting the tendency of the people
OF the couRtry to seek relief through the
national government and to press forward
the movement for national control and
the extinction of local control.
''The Intervention of the national gov
ernment in many of the matters which it
has recently undertaken would have been
wholly unnecessary if the States them.
selves had been alive to their duty to-
ward the general body of the country. It
is useless for the advocates of State rights
to iuveigh against the supremacy of the
constitutional laws of the United States
or against the extension OF national au.
thority into the fields Of necessary con-
troll, when the States themselves fail in
the performance of their duty"
Senator Lodge, strong follower of
Alexander Hamilton, said in his address |
to the Massachusetts, Legislature ON Wash.
ingtou's Birthday sNothing can acceler-
ate the growth of the national power to |
an unwholesome degree SO much as the
failure of the States, from local or selfish |
motives, to do their part in the promotion |
of measures which the good of the whole |
people, without respect to State lines, |
admits. No such reproach, so far as l |
am aware, lies at the door of Massachu-
sets. The President OF the United States |
has said, not once, but many times, that,
if every State had adopted corporation !
aud railroad laws like those of Massa-
chusetts there would have been no need |
of that national railroad legislation which
he has advised and which has been
largely enacted. The result of
this neglect aud of local seIfshness, has
been national legislation and great ex.
tension Of the national power"
When the strongest exponents of ma
tional authority like Senator Root and
Senator Lodge sound warning, is it not
time for all men to give heed 2 With the
decline and fall Of the States the repre-.
sentative form of our government would
be lost. With the transfer Of powers of
government from the States to the nation,
the liberties and privileges of the indiyid.
nal citizen would be seriously impaired.
Ours is still an indestructible Union Of
indsstrucsibIe States, but to-day the en-
phasis belongs on States.
How can the States ha stimrlakad ~