Evening star., 1939-02-26
Government by Cooperation
Oils Workings of Democracy
Federal Grants and Compacts of States Bring
About New Forms of Control in
Harmony With Ideals
By John Lear,
Associated Press Sta1 Writer.

maze of rural mud roads and town and
city streets to the finest interconnecting
network of smooth surfaced travel routes
in the world;
Encourage teaching of trades in public
schools
Establish Nationwide system of en-
ployment Offices.
Picture Easily Conjured Up.
Stop to think what the highway sys-
tenn alone means-or the vocational
schools-or the agriculture extension and
experiment system-and you have pic
ture of the practical accomplishments
Of this joint grant-in-aid effort.
1t has been so successful that the ad-
ministrator of the new Federal wage
hour law, Elmer B. Andrews. wants to
turn the task Of administering that law
over to the States as much as possible
If that is done decentralization OF
the wage-hour enforcement machinery
will be achieved automatically and the
grant-in-a aid device will have fulfilled
function its advocates claim for it:
1t will have been a substitute for Fed
eral administrative government-thc in
direct rule by bureaus and boards which
Congress and the courts now are trying
to keep within constitutional and DEM
ocratic limits.
Despite its success, the grant-in-a aid
system is not unanimously approved
Its critics are principally those who feel
it gives the Federal Government
club over the States-particularly in
depression times, when the States share
of financial responsibility in the pro-
grams Is cut down by necessity, as it
has been since 1929. AS far as the
Supreme Court is concerned this is not
an acceptable argument: The court has
ruled that grants -in-aid are not coercive
because no State need accept a grant if
it does not wish to.
Alternatives Available.
For those who see political rather than
legal danger in any formal Federal
Intervention in the field once bounded
by States right" other forms of CO.
operation are preferable. There are two
Of these: Cd Informal Federal-State
assistance, and (2) interstate co-opera-
ton.
Informal relations between the Federal
Government and smaller governmental
units make an almost endless list They
are so commonplace they escape notice
most of the time
When car-or a child-is stolen and
taken across State lines, for example
the Federal agents and the local police
cooperate to nab the thief
Local jails board" prisoners of G-men
The same sort of give and take" ar
rangement exists between local and
State police and Secret Service agents in
counterfeiting cases.
Inspection of butter, eggs and vege-
tables is carried on by Federal men for
the State, and vice versa. A similar in
terchange governs fish and game war
dens
The Federal Power Commission Ii
censes only those public utilities which
comply with State laws
States require Federal flying licenses
of airplane pilots who fly within State
boundaries.
4AAVCA NC SOoOpC1 dCAO11 10 d AAuSAl vi.
ferent matter. 1t operates through in
formal conferences of State officials, and
through formal compacts. The principle
of it is as old as our Government, but
its activities nowadays are mostly car
ried on through the council of State
governments, which was set up in 1885
in Chicago.
Uniform Laws Develop.
An example of the informal confer
ence method of interstate action is the
achievement of the Interstate Commis-
sion on Crime. Model laws drafted by
the commission have been adopted uni
formly by 26 States, with the result that
police find their work much easier
An Interstate Commission on Conflict
ing Taxation is at work with similar
purpose in the tax field.
Liquor laws-left in the hands of the
States by the constitutional amendment
which repealed prohibition-that dis
criminate between the products of States
are being attacked through the same
medium.
Formal interstate pacts take longer
than informal agreements, but also last
longer usually. They require approval
by Congress.
An example is the agreement between
New York and New Jersey creating the
Port of New York Authority.
Another, between the same States,
ended long dispute over Palisades Park.
A third unites New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and Delaware in purifying
the Delaware River Basin and protecting
wild life there
Ohio River Valley States have drawn
up pact to the same end on the Ohio
and its tributaries.
States bordering on the Great Lakes
have agreed on plan to control fish
ing and forestall threatened extinction
on that economic resource
There are so many possibilities in it
that some advocates of interstate CO.
operation expect to remove any necessity
for further extension of Federal control
in the life of tho r}fi1ap