The Alaska daily empire., 1918-01-30

The opinion of the United States Supreme Co, deciding the draft law constitutional adversely e attacks of Emma Goldman and Alexander Bel n is given in full and goes inexhaustvely into gal phase quoting long strings of authorities. T flowing however quoted from the opinion, will gi e average layman fairly good idea of the soul ,ss of the decision:
 When the constitution came to he formed it may not be disputed that one of the rec ognized necessities for it's adoption was the want of power in Congress to raise an army and the dependence upon the States for their quotas. In supplying the power it was manifest ly intended to give it all and leave none to the states since besides the delegation to Con- gress of authority to raise armies the Const1 tuition prohibited the States, without the con- sent of Congress. from keeping troops in time of peace engaging in war. (Art. l.. sec. 1O) To argue that the the State authority over the militia prior to the Constitution embraced every citizen, the right of Congress to raise an army should not, be considered as granting authority to compel the citizens service in the army, is but to express in a different form the denial of the right to call any citizen to the army. Nor is this met by saying that it does not exclude the right of Congress to organize an army by voluntary enlistments; that is, by the consent of the citizens. for if the propo sition be true, the right of every citizen to give consent would be controlled by the same prohi- bition which would deprive congress of the right to compel unless it can be said that although Congress had not the right to call because of State authority. the citizen had a right to obey the call and set aside State auth ority if he pleased to do And like clusiOn demonstrates the want of foundation for the contention that although it be with in the power to call the citizen into the army without his consent the army into which he enters after the call is to be limited in some respects to service for which the militia it is assumed may only be used, since this admits the appropriateness of the call to military ser loo ;t and yet destroys the purpose for which the call is authorized the raising of armies to be under the control of the United States
 The fallacy of the argument results from confoundng the constitutional provisions corning the militia with that conferring upon Congress the power to raise armies. It treats them as one while they are different This
 1.-The Congress shal have power < to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the nation, suppress in surrections, and repel invasions to provide for organizing forming and dscpining the mili- tia. and for governing such part of them may be employed in the service of the United States. reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers. and the author ity of training the militia according to the dis cpline prescribed by Congress" (Art. 1, sec S)
 This line which separates it from army pow CT is not only inherently plainly marked by the text of the two clauses, but will stand out in bOider relief by considering the condition be- fore the Constitution adopted and the ren euy Wnlcn II provided TOT the military Sllud tion with which it dealt The right the one. hand of Congress under the Confederation to call on the states for forces and the duty on the other hand of the United States to fur nish when called. embraced the complete power of government over the subject. When the TWO were combined and were delegated to Congress all governmental power on that subject was conferred, result manifested not only by the grant made but by the limitation expressly put upon the States on the subject. The Army sphere therefore embraces such complete thortiy. But the duty of exerting the power thus conferred in all its plenitude not made at once obligatory but wisely left to depend upon the discretion of Congress as to the arising of the exigencies which would call it in part in whole into play. There was left, therefore under the sway of the States undelegated the control of the militia to the extent that such control was not taken away by the exercise by Congress of its power 10 raise armies This did not diminish the mill tary power or curb the full poteDtiality of the right to exert 1t but left of authority requiring to be provided for tthe militia area)