The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-07-25
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
WILSON ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE


Below we reprint from constitutional Govern
. ment in the United States" by Woodrow Wilson
Lewis w. Douglas, Democrat quotes it in th'
preface to 'eThe Liberal Tradition his book latel!
published by D. Van Nostrand Co., New York. Reac
this, from Woodrow Wilson:
"Tbe Constitution was not meant to hold tht
Government back to the time of horses and wag
ons. the time when postboys carried every commu
i nication that passed from merchant to merchant
when trade had few long routes within the nation
and did not venture in bulk beyond neighborhood
transactions The United States have clearly from
generation to generation been taking on more and
more the characteristics of community; more and
more have their economic interests come to seem
common interests; and the courts have rightly en-
deavored to make the Constitution a suitable in
strument of the NATIONAL life, extending to the
things that common the rules that it estab-
lshed for similar things that were common at the
beginning.
''The real difficulty has been to draw the line
where this process of expansion and adaptation
ceases to be legitimate and becomes a mere act
of will on the part of the Government, served by
the courts. The temptation to overstep the proper
boundaries has been particularly great in interpret
ing the meaning of the words commerce among
the several states Manifesty, in commercial ma
ton almost every item of life directly indirectly
affects commerce, and commerce is almost all
of it upon the grand scale. There is vast deal
of buying and selling of course, within the boup-
daries of each state but even the buying and sell
ing which is done within single state constitutes
in our day but part of that great movement of
merchandise along lines of railway and watercourse
which runs without limit and without regard to po-
litieal jurisdiction. State commerce seems almost
impossible to distinguish from interstate commerce.
1t has all come to part of what Congress may
unquestionably regulate though the makers of the
Constitution may never have dreamed of anything
like it and the tremendous interests which it af-
fects. Which part of the complex thing may Goa
gress regulate?
CLEARLY, any part of the actual movement Of
merchandise and persons from state to state May
it also regulate the conditions under which the
merchandises produced which is presently to be-
come the subject matter of interstate commerce?
May regulate the conditions of labor in field and
factory? Clearly not. l should say; and l should
think that any thoughtful lawyer who felt himself
at liberty to be frank would agree with me. For
that would be to destroy all lines of division be-
tween the field of state legislation and the field of
federal legislation. Back of the conditions of la
Dor in the field and in the factory lie all the init
mate matters of morals and of domestic and bust
ness relationship which have always been reeog-
conditions that lie back of labor may easily be
shown to have their part in determining the char
acter and efficiency of commerce between the
states If the federal power does not end with the
regulation of the actual movement of trade it ends
nd In lin ba+,u stoto
jurisdiction is obterated. But this is not univer-
sally admitted. 1t is therefore, one of the
things upon which the conscience of the nation
must take test of ITSELF tc if it still retains
that spirit of constitutional understanding which
the only ultimate prop and support of constitutional
government. 1t is questions of this sort that show
'the true relation of courts to national char
lacter and system of government. :.
at would be fatal to our political vitality really
to strip the states of their powers and transfer
them to the federal government. 1t cannot too Of
ten be repeated that it has been the privilege Of
separate development secured to the several re-
gions of the country by the Constitution and not
the privilege of separate development only, but
also, that other more fundamental privilege that
lies back of it, the privilege of Independent local
opinion and individual conviction, which has given
speed facility, vgor and certainty to the processes
of our economic and political growth To buy tenn
porary ease and convenience for the performance
of few great tasks of the hour at the expense
of that would be to pay too great a price and to
cheat all generations for the sake of one"
No South Carolinian is obliged to agree with Mr.
Wilson. No American is obliged by law or morals
to be Democrat. Mr. Wilson's opinion about in
terstate commerce was identical" as Mr.. Douglas
says, with "that of the supreme court" in the
Schecter case, the NRA decision
The News and Courier has respect for the New
dealers. They have right to their opinions No
I New Dealer, unless from feeble-mindedness or the
wish to fool the ignorant will call himself wood
row Wilson" Democrat.-The Charleston News and
Courier.