Montana labor news., 1936-10-29
The Constitution Was
Made for The People

The Constitution was made for
the people of the United States, not
the people for the Constitution
This is the fundamental fact which
economic and political Tories over
look in the bowling that accom-
panies the conflict between the pro-
gressive social legislation recently
enacted by Congress, and the re-ac-
tionary majority of the Supreme
Court.
1t is along this line that Associate
Justice Harlan F. Stone who is
usually found in the progressive
minority of the Supreme Court,
sounded call for common sense
and a broad consideration of the
rights Of the masses in interpreting
the Constitution in his address at
the Harvard Tercentenary Confer
ence on the future of the common
law. Justice Stone said:
I'VE are coming to realize that
law is not an end, but a means to an
end-the adequate control and pro-
lection of those interests, social and
economic, which are the special con-
Germ of the government and hence
of law; that that end is to be at
tanned through reasonable accomo-
dation of law to changing economic
and social needs.
Just where the line is to be
drawn which marks the boundary
between the appropriate field of in
dividual liberty and right and that
of government action for the larger
good is the perpetual question of
constitutional law. It is necessarily
a question of degree which may vary
with time and place
It is apparent to all sincere citi-
zens that the aims of the trainers of
the Constitution and those respons-
ible for the Federal social legislation
enacted by the last two sessions of
Congress are the same-both desire
just balance between individual
liberty and the authority of the gov
ernment.
Those who framed the Constitu-
ton were not confronted with child
labor, starvation wages paid to
large groups of workers, denial by
many employers of the essential
right of their employees to organize
for the protection of their economic
liberties, and an industrial system
so managed that millions of toilers
are thrown into the unemployed
army.
In these directions it is clear that
the spirit of the Constitution confers
on the Federal government the duty
to enforce the intent Of the Consti-
tuition in protecting the general vel
fare of the people.
In discussing the guarantees of
the Constitution relative to personal
liberty and property rights, Justice
Stone said:
sThe chief and ultimate standard
which they exact is reasonableness
of official action and its innocence
of arbitrary and oppressive exact
ness.
"There is need for a continuity
not of rules but of aims and ideals
which will enable government, in all
the various crises of human affairs,
to continue to function and to per-
form its appointed task within the
bounds of reasonableness."
AS Justice Stone views the ques-
tion, the text of the Constitution !
always means the same thing, but in
translating its ideals into Federal |
law Congress should take into con-
sideration the social needs and insti-
tutions of the time
Justice Stone has hit the nail
squarely on the head by directing
public attention to the fact that the
Constitution was meant for living
people-that it is not a set of static
rules by which men long since
dead sought to hamper the legiti-
matte aspirations of succeeding gen
erations and impose servitude and
poverty on large portion Of our cit
liens and their dependents