Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-28
SAYS CONSTITUTION
WAS PREPARED BY
AND FOR GRAFTERS
Its Trainers, Writes Columbia
Professor, Cleaned Up S4O,-
100000 by 1t.
MODERN POLITICAL BOSS
OUTDONE IN IT'S PASSAGE
Severe Attack Upon Funda-
mental Law of United
States.
BY JUDSoN KING


brated fathers who met in secret
conclave at Philadelphia in 1887, and,
without authority, framed the con-
stitution of the United States actual
ly represented a powerful group of
business men. which by virtue of one
clause alone, cleaned up $40. 900 in
profits through its adoption!
The fathers" were personally and
financially interested in the results
of their labors. Forty out of fifty
five members were in on this deal and
some made as high as 100000!
The constitution is an economic
document-cold as a chattel mortgage
deliberately designed to enable the
then big Business" element TO con-
troll the small farmers and working
classes for their own financial benefit!
1t was ratified" by less than one
sixth of the adult males and its
Adoption secured by methods which
would do credit to modern politicai
bossl
Though written in severe, historical
phrases these are some of the start
ling declarations of a new book, An
Economic Interpretation of the Con-
stitution of the United States" by Dr..
Charles A. Beard, associate professor
of politics in Columbia University,
and published today.
1t is the most remarkable book
ever written about the constitution.
1t literally annihilates the old-tine
| tradition that the constitution is a
sort of sacred chair of liberty and
Justice written by unselfish patriots
gifted with little less than divine
| wisdom.
This book is not written by a half
informed radical. The author is an
eminent authority on American MS
tory and politics. He is conservative
to a degree but he has had the cour-
| age to reveal facts unknown Or lg-
nored by any other author 20 DATE
EVERY statement is backed By docu-
mentary evidence. The conclusions
are as dispassionate as those OF
scientist examining paleozoic bones.
The author has spent months oelN-
ing in records at the treasury &C.
partment in Washington which nave
not seen the light or been examined
! by a human being since washington
day. and were buried in dust and
dirt so deep that they had, as re
saws to be "exeavated with a
vacuum cleaner"
| He has ransacked thousands OF old
wills. scanned thousands of unpup-
lished manuscripts in the. congress
sional library, unearthed private let
tiers. read hundreds of old news
papers, pamphlets and so on. The
results are astounding.
For example, Professor Beard has
made a sort of Bradsteet's report
upon the financial interests and
standing of each of the fifty-five
members of the constitutional con-
vention.
This shows that in that conclave
the public security interests were
represented by forty men VINO hsd
quantities of soldiers scrip and pub
lie securities; the money lenders by
twenty-four men engaged in that
practise; the land spectators by
! fourteen men who held vast tracts OF
Western lands the merchants and
manufacturers by eleven men direct
w concerned and the shareholders
by fifteen men who owned slaves.
Not a single man in the convention
represented the small farmers, the
working classes or the ; propertyleas
masses.
The actual political opinions of each
member, given in a separate chapter,
were based directly upon their eco
mic interests and would delight the
heart of present-day corporation.
They. Beard seems to show, coined
the phrases used by Root, Taft and
Bailey today To them constitution
making and government were strictly
business propositions. They took
good care of themselves and their
class-the business interests. There
is not human throb in their delin-
erations.
Hamilton argued that one great ad-
vantage of encouraging mannfactuf-
ing would be to better utilize the
labor of women, girls and children OF
a tender age"
The people. as father" Gerry put
1t, was "a great beast" to be re
| strained" They feared democracy,
and for good reasons.
For example, they provided for the
payment in full of the State and ma
tional debts. although the face value
of the paper represented millions
more than had ever been paid for IL
Then as soon as Washington was
elected and Hamillton's funding
scheme was established forty of the
men who drew that provision turned
UP at the United States treasury
with quantities of soldiers scrip and
public securities which were promptly
exchanged by Hamilton for govern
ment bonds. This scrip and paper
had been bought by the fathers and
their friends-the bankers and specu-
! lators-from the needy soldiers and
holders at five, ten and twenty cents
on the dollarl Some of them had ac-
tually been clipped off, Beard de-
clared, from the interior of the secret
convention as to what would be done
and they bought right and left. The
whole transaction Melted a profit OF
at least $40,000,000 and was. the au-
thor laconically remarks, the first
really great achievement of nascen.
capitalism in the United States.
Forty millions then would relatively
equal two thousand millions now
The continental congress could not
pay the soldiers and the national
debts because taxes We're then levied
direct in proportion to each man
wealth, and the rich refused to pay
That is the big secret why the old
government failed.
The new government succeeded be-
| cause the fathers abolished direct
| taxes, hated by the rich, and threw
the burden of the support of the new
/ government on the backs of the
masses by means of the tariff law
Chief Justice Marshall used to de-
| claim from the supreme bench that