The Washington herald., 1918-04-12

sistently, in quoting an editorial from
Missouri country newspaper, that
| the refusal Of the Senate to permit
the taking over and operation of pa
| per mills by the eovsrnm mt was ~the
refusal or the Senate TO protecr ste
/ small newspapers from depredations
of the paper trust"
Pray. IL any trust Is working on
the job just now. let Mr.. brisbane
take 1t up. Let him tell Of IL to our
| good friend. Joe Davies. Of the Fed
| eral Trade Commission, or "Bilf'
Colver, of the same body.
Let these two make further diligent
| inquiry into the subject which they
| have been investigating for some
time-and then IL there Is anything
| to what Mr.. Brisbane indorses as his
views. let the department headed by
Attorney General Gregory be called
| into the equation. There is a way
! to treat the trusts to something they
are not looking fora way I'm spite
! of the fact that Mr.. Creel said we
were not better than Russia, in some
! things-snd IL Mr.. Brisbane and the
editor of the Missouri Mercury" will
| inquire they will find out what can
be done.
Another point We desire to make
| does Mr.. Brisbane know positively
that IL the government had taken
! over all the paper mills of the coun-
! try the price of paper would have
| been lowered, to any great extent?
We have observed that the govern
/ ment has to pay pretty well for
| everything 1t has done-except in the
| case of Washington clerks-and II
We had added a government paper mill
| to our quota of public-owned affairs
We would have had to keep on pay
ing as high. OF even higher prices.
Mr.. Brisbane ought TO know this.
| The balances of our constitution
! the checks and re-checks whereby
the power of any branch cannot be
utilized to the detriment of another
branch or to the detriment Of the
| people-cames in for suggestive and
enlightening mention in a portion Of
the Introductory of President Will
sons Congressional government. He
quotes this from John Adams letter
to show 1t explicitly:
rs there a constitution upon record
more complicated with balances than
| ours? In the first place, eighteen
| WV" iohty -CsehtB StdtcS diC
4 against the national government. In
the second place, the House of Rep
resentatives Is balanced against the
Senate, the Senate against the House.
In the third place the executive au-
thority is balanced against the legis-
| lature. In the fourth place, the
| judicial power is balanced against
the House, the Senate. the executive
power and the State governments. In
| the fifth place, the Senate is balanced
| against the President in all appoint
ments to office, and in all treaties. In
the sixth place, the Ieople hold in
| their own hands the balance against
| their Representatives, by biennial
elections. In the seventh place, the
| legislatures Of the several States are
balanced against the Senate by sex
tennial elections. (This no longer pre-
walls, however. Under the Oregon
plan the people elect their own Sena-
| tors. Here is a balance hitheto held
by the Representatives of the people,
which the people themselves now
have in their own hands.) In the
eighth place, the electors are balanced
against the people in the choice of
the President. Here is q COM
plicated refinement Of balances which,
for anything recollect. is an inven-
ton Of our own and peculiar to US"
Mr.. Wilson continues this thought
by saying, "All of these balances are
reckoned essential in the theory of
the constitution, but none is SO
| auintessential as that between the
national and state governments; it
is the pivotal quality Of the system,
indicating its principal, which 10 its
Federal characteristic"
The people Of the forty-eight States
| are the people of the Union. THIS is
being realized more and more, and
this idea of unionization has been i'm
measurably helped by the war. The
foundation principle of the constitu-
ton. however. is that the people shall
have their government in their own
hands. and that representatives shall
act for them and be responsibio 70