New Britain herald., 1924-09-10
third nartN aiiitIlde hits hoih.

SNPlShlS Soult uSCisioH "puiu tS~ tabish communism in the United | States" as 1t would take considera- ble more than that 10 establish com This statement by the | president was an eXaggeration, and | was not necessary to buttress the general logic of hls argument. A man of the legal eminence of MT. l Davis would not have added such a chaser to a good argu- meat. Roe says the supreme court Is exercising an authority formerly vested in the British king, and that the only difference today Is that five kings" instead of one exercise the in the United States. This sounds delightfully."- demagogic," but there happen to be nine kings" and not five. on the supreme bench, and all nine of them agree, and most of the time more than five.
 The third ticket partisan claims that the authority being exercised by the court was never given to the supreme court by the constitution; it is pure usurpation on the part of the court"
 This is favorite argument and has been heard before. The court manifestly exists to interpret the constitution, and such interpretation cannot logically be deemed usurpa- tion.
 But here are Roe's most i'm portant declarations:
 "The power has never been
 exercised to protect the liberties
 of individuals. 1t was exercised
 to protect the institution of
 human slavery which 1t took
 the civil war to get rid of. It
 was used to prevent the passage
 of an income tax law, and did
 prevent 1t for 20 years, saving
 to great corporations hundreds
 of millions of dollars in that
 time. It has been used to pre-
 vent or obstruct every species of
 progressive welfare legislation in
 this country in the last 25 years.
 The courts latest exercise of
 that power has had the result
 of keeping thousands of children
 in virtual slavery in shops and
 factories"
 The Dred Scott decision, referred 10 as protecting human slavery, was in conformity with the constitution. Had the court taken the anti slavery view regarding the Dred SSUll ucClSiOu anu dtlCllplcu lo 6O beyond the constitution there is no reason to believe the southern slav- cry states would have refrained from starting a civil war over the ques- tion. The court prevented the pas sage of an income tax law because | it was clearly beyond the dele gated powers of congress to pass such law. The law was created through an amendment to the con- stitution, which was the proper method. The nullification of the child labor law was on the same grounds, the court holding in both cases of notification that the aims of congress were humanitarian but the method of procedure was illegal.
 Under our system of government, congress is not given power to pass laws that infringe with the sovereign powers of the states; the constitu- tion definitely prohibits this, and the supreme court is the only body capa- ble of deciding a dispute between 8 congressional enactment and the constitution.
 The method laid down for enact ing laws that affect the sovereignt! of states hy regulating their interna methods is to amend the constitu ton. This is a longer process thar the passage of congressional enact ments, but it is safer and more cer tain to reflect the popular will.
 That the ratification of the consti tuition does not appeal to the inter ests" that Roe rails about is indicat ed by recent statement on'the pro posed child labor amendment mad by the Manufacturers Association 0 Connecticut, Inc, with headquarter in Hartford. The attitude of this as sociation toward the ratification process is described by the folIowinl paragraph from its statement date' August 1.
 "If ratification is merely ob- tained through a majority of 56 legislatures. less than 2,4oo
 legislators can radically change
 the constitution under which 11oo00,OO0 people live" From which it can be seen tha the manufacturers of the state d not like constitutional ratifcatio methods, any more than Roe and tn