Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1923-08-31

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cisions long after they have been dis
carded by enlightened students Of
medern industrial conditions.
While the seed Of democracy was
planted in the constitution, its growth
was dwarfed by the ponderous and
intricate system Of checks and bal.
anees set up and by the indirect mod
Ell provided for selecting the president
and the senate. It proposed govern
ment Of enumerated powers. All those
not enumerated were reserved to the
several states. And let It be noted
In passing that 1t was within the
states under their respective sover-
eign governments that the true abid-
ing place Of American democracy was
and still is found.
A calamitous Mistake.
The trainers were wise men but
not prophets. They provided for the
need of their own time and who will
question that they did it well? They
could not foresee our present day
problems which have grown out Of
our marvelously rapid advancement in
population, wealth and world power to
the first place among the nations on
the earth.
Hamilton proposed in the conven.
tion the election of the president for
life with the power to appoint the
governors of the states. He wanted
a senate fashioned after the house of
lords and a lot of other things dis
tinctly English. The appointment OF
the justices OF the supreme court for
life was all he got of his monarchical
program and in accepting that the
convention made its one calamitous
mistake.
Undemocratic though this provision
was and ultra-conservative though the
members Of the convention were there
was one thing they would not do and
expressly refused to do on four sep
arate occasions, and that was to give
to the supreme court the power to
annul an act of congress. And while
they did not create a distinctly demo-
cratic constitution they did leave in
the people the power to amend It.
That this is an effective power is
proved by the nineteen amendments
already made. They also provide for
a succeeding constitutional conven-
ton to revise their own work or to
make a new and entirely different
constitution II the states so willed.
Early Isolation.
On the whole, they probably went
as far In the direction of democracy
as the temper of the people would
permit. The sovereign states saw lit
tie need of extreme democracy IN
their new federation. They still en-
joyed all the power not expressly dele
gated and that left them all the de-
mocracy they particularly desired. In
deed, for half century the average
citizen did not sense or come into
contact with the general government
at all except when the postmaster
handed down his mail, or in the money
he used when ne voted for president
or congressman or as a consequence
Of foreign war.
The civil war ushered in a new or
der Of things political and industrial.
The extreme doctrine Of states rights
as maintained by the slave states had
received its death blow. A nation in
deed sprang into being from fraternal
conflict. Then came the knitting to-
gether OF the country by great rail-
road systems, aided by the telegraph
and the wide diffusion of intelligence
through the vastly augmented out
put OF the printing press. State lines
came to mean less and less; the ma
tional government became pervasive
and dominant. Today the average
citizen Is touched by national govern
mental activities a hundredfold more
often and more intimately than during
the years before the war
Autocraey Of Supreme Court.
The laws of congress passed to meet
the changed conditions begat more
and more of vering litigation, which
eventually reached the supreme court
Without a line In the constitution to
warrant 1t or a statute 10 justify
them, the justices Of that court have
time and again drawn upon their own
Anticipated social and economic views
as the sole authority for decisions
amassed capital and against the in
terest Of the plain people.
They have become holder and bold
er In setting aside acts Of congress, in
multiplying state laws passed to serve
humanitarian need and in sustaining
injunctiOns and contempt Of court pro-
ceedings involving prison sentences
without trial by jury for violation of
some ipse dixit Of a subordinate Judge.
That group of justices OF the su-
preme court has become in the last
analysis supreme autOcracy to whose
rule the American people must bow.
Their selection is dictated by plutoc
racy. They are plutocratic in thought,
through association, education and
training; they hold office for life;
they are responsible to no one for
their acts, and in all respects repre-
sent the antithesis Of government by
the consent Of the governed, the foun-