Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capitol. Special Correspondence to The Democrat: i The gravest problem wbich has ' confronted the Congress of the United States since the question of secession was disposed of will be uppermost in the deliberation and debates of the Fifty-ninth 'Congress which, the President has recently announced, he will assemble in extraordinary session on October 16, next. If the coming Congress does its duty it will largely determine for many future decades the extent to whioh the federal government shall go in its interpretation of that clause in constitution which reads, “The Congress shall have power....to regulate commerce... .among the severul States.” Simple as this statement appears it has been construed with increasing latitude until the Anti-Rebate law and the Interstate Commerce Act have been declared to come within its scope and the most important question which the next Congress will have* to decide is whether or not this clause contains sufficient warrant to enable Congress to declare what Bhall and what shall not be considered a just rate to be charged by railroads for transportion. The proposition advanced by commissioner of corporations Garfield, that the federal government has the power to compel all corporations transacting an interstate business to take out a federal license is also based oh this clause as is the same official’s proposition that the federal government has the power to regulate the transaction of insurance business. **- t t t To those legislators who, with strict regard for their oath to support the constitution, adopt a conservative view regarding its interpretation, the radicalism of the present administration, the general disposition to maintain that the provisions of the constitution must be broadened in proportion to the growth and increasing complexity of the nation and the insistence in some quarters that a striot interpretation of the constitution is old-fashioned and out of date, seems dangerous and abhorrent. In a policy which would stretch the constitution beyond the evident meaning of its framers, they can detect nothing but portents of disaster, the small beginning of what, once adopted, will mean in time radical departure from the constitution itself and ultimately the adoption of every form of radioalism demanded by popular olamor. In support of

this view they contend that it iB manifest that the framers of the constitution, by the clause quoted, intended only to empower the federal govenment so to regulate [commerce between the States as to insure the absence of all discrimination and the abolitions of those customs, duties and other forms of embargo which during the days of federation, contributed so seriously to the ills which attended the nation in its infancy. If the constitution in its present form is not suitable to existing conditions, they argue, then let it be amended, but under no circumstances permit the slightest deviation from the true intent of the framers of that instrument. t t t Those who oppose this view declare, however that such a narrow view of the constitution itself, so close an adherrence to the doctrine that the rights of the Sovereign States must not be violated, will necessarily place the people at the mercy of those corporate interests which by the lavish use of money can always corrupt a sufficient number of State legislatures to prevent the success of any proposed amendment of the constitution, however meritorious, which even tend to curtail the liberties or the license of corporate wealth. The problen is too deep for extensive discussion in a news letter but the foregoing assertions may serve in a measure to indicate to the thinkers of the nation the gravity and complexity of the problem with which the next Congress will be called upon to deal. t t t President Roosevelt, after consulting with Senators Gorman, Spooner, and Lodge and the members of his cabinet, has notified Santo Domingo of his assent on behalf of the United Btates to the arrangement proposed by President Morales as the only practicable means of bo preserving existing conditions in that distraught Republic as to make possible the execution of the provisions of the pending treaty in the event that the treaty is ratified by the Senate next autumn. The proposition of Santo Domingo was that President Roosevelt assent to the appointment of American citizens to take charge of the Dominican customs house, collect the revenues and pay to the Dominican goVerhment 45 per cent of the gross receipts, the remaining 55 per cent, less the cost of collection, be deposited, in some New York bank to await the action of the Senate. t t t In submitting the forgoing proposition President Morales point-

ed out that foreigen power* were unwilling to await the action of the United States Senate in the absence of some arrangement which insure the continuance of existing conditions and the Dominican President’s assertion has boen promptly verified by the Italian Ambassador who yesterday called at the State Department to learn officially if the reported assent of President Roosevelt was correct and who then stated that in the absence of each assent his country would have felt compelled to use force in Santo Domingo to protect the rights of its citizens. While much has appeared in public prints regarding the liability of this country’s having to use force to maintain the Morales administration, there is really little liklihood of such an emergency. All foreign powers have cheerfully agreed to the temporary arrangement accepted by President Roosevelt, and in the absence of interference from without President Morales will doubtless be able to maintain order iu his own country. t t t The President has called for the resignations of all the members of the Panama Canal Commission and will soon issue a statement of the lines along which reorganization will be affected. The President will soon announce the personnel of the reorganized commission, as soon, probably, as he reaches San Antonio, if not before. He left Washingtonon Monday for a six weeks trip, which is to include attendance at the reunion of the Rough Riders at Sau Antonio, April 7, and a bunting trip in Colorado of several weeks’ duration.