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Show A FEDERAL MENACE. j It was believed that in the railway j rate bill, "and in the methods adopted for its administration, the Federal Government Gov-ernment had Tcnchcd the high-water mark of its possiblo cxcrclso of Constitutional Con-stitutional power in the control of private pri-vate business. The end to be attained, however, was so essential in tho judgment judg-ment of President Roosovolt and he was so cordially supported by the mass of tho people of tho country, that tho warnings uttered by such men as For-akcr For-akcr against the measure went unheeded. unheed-ed. Other lawyers equally as able as the Senator from Ohio and some of them regarded as far greater than himself him-self in their ability to construe the Constitution Con-stitution advocated the measure; not only as a meritorious law, but one strictly within the authority of Congress Con-gress to pass and the Federal executive to administer. Only with one point of the protest voiced by Forakor and some of his Senatorial Sen-atorial colleagues, and several lawyers of tho National House of Representatives, Representa-tives, is it necessary for us now to concern con-cern ourselves. Those gentlemen raised the warning cry against permitting any possiblo invasion of tho National Constitution, Con-stitution, to secure beneficial legislation for tho people. They pointed out that thero was no danger at present of such a breach of the fundamental law with an unpopular or intrinsically injurious measure: for tho demerits of tho bill would be alone sufficient to restrain Congress. Tho danger would come, a3 they avowed it in this case, under the guise of an act which the populace would accept, as a promotion of tho general gen-eral welfare, and when the need of the measure to effect certain popular reforms re-forms would still awo protest against -'constitutionally. That, as an abstract, proposition, is undeniable. Whether it applied to tho rate bill is not now the question, sinco that, measure has become a law and will enter into the life of tho Nation, subject sub-ject only to a decision against its constitutionality con-stitutionality by the Supremo Court of the. United States. But the principle laid down a trite one, and yet not too often repeated by the opponents of the rato bill, tho pcoplo of the United States should constantly bear in mind. They should cling to it as to the ark of their safety. Ouce allow an invasion inva-sion nf civic safeguards in order to procure pro-cure measures which aro popular, and tho (lay may come when an overbearing personage in tho White Houso can secure se-cure ennctments to enlarge executive power greatly to the disadvantage of the people. Such bulwarks of liberty, established by tho voice of a free pcoplo pco-plo before the' come to he dcstroj'cd by tyranny are always first wcakoned, ostensibly in the interest of the commonalty; com-monalty; and after such repeated weakenings weak-enings for good purposes, they no long er exist when the bad purpose is sufficiently suffi-ciently supported by aggressive power. The idea that the Federal Government Govern-ment cannot do indirectly, what the Constitution withholds as a direct ex-erciso ex-erciso of authority, is falling into desuetude. desue-tude. Hero is Mr. Bcvcridgo'n anti-child-labor bill, which expresses tho popular feeling against the cmplaynieut of children in sweat shops and disease- I inoculating occupations. Under the well I known power of the Federal Government Govern-ment to control commerce between the States, Senator Beveridgc proposes to control the purely domestic or Slate question of what kind of labor shall bo employed within tho sevoral States. If the measure were abhorrent to the sentimentalities sen-timentalities of the country there would be no danger; because the bill, being unpopular, could not now override over-ride tho Constitution. But because the good "end to be attained, namely, tho protection of childhood from cruel and unfitting toil, touches the heart of ovcry citizen, the Constitutional barrier is lively to bo swept away. Incidentally it might be remarked that Senator Bcv-cridgo Bcv-cridgo has built up the census figures amazingly, and has demonstrated that statistics can be used to reinforce almost al-most any kind of an argument. He has led uninformed people to believe that more than two millions of children are engaged iu dangerous and cruel occupations; occu-pations; whereas tho actual number of children engaged in gainful occupations in the United States is loss than that total, and that from even tho modified figure should be subtracted seventy-five per cent who nro employed on farms, in domestic service and ns messengers, etc. But bo the total number greater or less that is not the question. Under cover of an awakened sentimentality we are to indirectly apply a Federal corrective to a local wrong; nnd tho National Government is to do indirectly what the Constitution of the United States cxprcssl prohibits it from doing directly. The dangers of centralization should uqt pnss unheeded by the people. The Fedoral Government seems to be drifting drift-ing away from all the old land marks. Not alone is the Stnto assumed to bo inefficient in-efficient to make its own laws and gov-I gov-I ern its own domestic concerns, but tho individual is to bo controlled from tho seat of National Oovommont in tho on-jo3'mcnt on-jo3'mcnt of his individual Tights; ho is to bo inspected and suporvisod; his business is to be run for him; and ho is to bo placed under a suspicion that he either docs not understand tho law or is willfully disobodiont to law. Witness, for instance, that astounding pronouncement pronounce-ment that no ono is to rocoivo a patent for Government land until after some special inspection has been made and this, too, in a matter where the law, tho regulation and the control (to say nothing noth-ing of tho fnct that a settler on the public domain is himself a citizon and is presumed to be obedient to law), aro already sufficiently cumborsomo to insure in-sure a certain safoguardiug of National right. And of the same texture is tho proposed pro-posed bill to regulate tho size and tho st3'lo of tho newspapers which aro to bo permitted to enjoy postal facilities in the United States. The Constitution never contemplated that, in granting to the National Government authority to conduct the postal affairs of the federated fede-rated Slates, a Congress would assume to say how many pages of roadiug matter mat-ter "in proportion to a given number of pages of advertising a publisher must issue nor what kind of paper ho should use in the several parts of tho duily issue nor how many copies ho might chooso to give away as compliments to his friends or neighbors. And 3'ct a committee, prcsumabl3" serious in its contemplation of this question, has proposed pro-posed a bill, the effect of which will be greatly injurious to the people of the country, and tho final effect of which might be to destro3' the free and independent inde-pendent newspapers of the Nation. In the report of the joint committee of the two houses, recommending this measure, it appears that they have passed judgment upon the magazine feature fea-ture of the Sunday newspapers, condemned con-demned that feature, and have proposed by the use of tho postal authority granted to the Federal Government by the Constitution to prohibit the issuance issu-ance of the kind of newspapers tho pcoplo pco-plo desire, nnd to prevent tho poople front obtaining at. a low cost the wide general information which is afforded to them by the enterprising newspaper. In this case tho injury is not so much to the publishers of newspapers as to the people at large. If thero bo one single agene.3- to which can be attributed attribut-ed tho rapid growth of our industn. our wealth, our population and our general enlightenment; that agency is the public pub-lic press. Nowhere else in tho world aro the people so well informed con-corning con-corning world affairs a9 in tho United States. Nowhero else are the people so j well served by an outspoken press. All the little criticisms of journalism, as it is practiced in this count ry, fall away when compared with the mighty good which is achieved for our National life In' tho newspapers. They are at once tho best sources of information and the surest safeguard of a free people against oppression. Once permit Congress Con-gress to enter into this domain, regulating, regu-lating, as this proposod bill does, tho quantity of .matter and the kind of paper pa-per which may be sent out 1)3 a publisher pub-lisher in order to have access to the postal facilities; and the day might como when tho Nation would cmplo3 censors, and when our people would be as are some of the people of the old world permitted to read onl- that which the Government thinks it is safe for them to read. It must, bo clear to any thinking mind that these extremes of Federal power are becoming a inenrtco, and that Congress, Con-gress, representing the people nud the several States, should restrain rather than to encourage the tendency. |