The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-08

O- to 4. The act was declared void on the ground that it did not affirma. lively appear on the face thereof that 1t applied only to interstate com merce. They said that 1t might ap- ply to transportation within state also. In other words. they salo ,n the law might be considered state law. Just think of that Just as though Congress did not know that it had no power to pass a state law. It knew just as well as the supreme court knew, and as everybody knows, that it had no power to pass any act ex- cept concerning interstate commerce. There was nothing in the act to show that they thought they were passing an act to cover state commerce also. All that the court needed to do was to say that the act related only to interstate commerce and dismiss the suit. But instead they declared 1t un- constitutional and void, in that It might mean state railroads as well as interstate railroads. Four judges pro tested, but it was no use. The cdse reveals the hostility of courts to sucn legislation, and that Is why cal your attention to 1t.
 Mayor Suggests Cure.
 On the question of how to put. a stop to such decisions the them mayor T ea,u ston
 ''The only way to nullify ana stop such decisions is by constitutlonai amendments as such decisions occur. The people of the states adopteo tneir constitutions by popular vote. III me same way they can amend them as they see fit Tn my state we freQuent- ly overrule judicial decisions by con stitutional amendment. If you Will we recall judicial decisions. to use the new word And the same Is done ID all the states.
 "Some people are just now crying out against submitting such constitu- tional amendments to a vote of the with the fundamental principles o1 ! our government They do not know what they are talking about. w have been recalling judicial decision: l by constitutional amendments adopted | by a vote of the people from tnt | we ought to do Is to pass a genera l constitutional amendment forb1ddine such an interpretation to be gwen ts this constitutional guaranty by tnt l courts that liberty and property shai not be taken except by due process O ing one judicial decision after anothe 1 by constitutional amendment, VI | ought to put an end to the who'll | business once for all. This forced constitutional interpretation has no been permitted in some of our states | however, JO IIIS VI 0OAt OA SAASs@ SOoA '
 be 1t. said"
 Too Hard to Amend.
 It is very difficult to. amend tn too difficult. Constitutions should b. amended only with great care an' after due deliberation. But never theless they have to be amended an the process should not be too diff ficult. Lincoln said that constitution
 
 did not mean by this that constitu ton should go by the board as whole at the end of each generation He only meant that 1t would need t
 be amended to keep pace with tn
 economic and social growth of societ,
 That is the way the British const1tu
 ton grows constantly. It was thu
 that Macaulay was enabled to say C 1t so truly. That while it has bee constantly changing there never ha
 been an instant of time in which tn
 majority of it was not old It wa
 changing. but so gradually, and I deliberately, that the majoF part C been now six years or more in pro
 cess of amending the national const1 tuition in respect of 1evying an .1ncom tax, and the end is not in sight ye
 so slow Is the process. 1t seems to m that the national constitution shoul
 ion calling for the meeting of con stitutional convention every ten c fifteen or twenty years, delegates to b elected from each congressional dis trict, say. In that way the peopl
 would have a chance to have the con stitution amended in safe, deliberat and orderly manner, instead of bein unable to amend it at all without tn utmost difficulty. As it is now tn an. endments are not submitted to t1 people at all, but to the legislature of the various states, after congres sees fit to do so."