Congressional Record,-Sen Ate

1922. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD,-SENATE. ~ 11659 SENATE. The spirit of reform is altogether encouraging. The organized effort and insistent desire for an equitable distribution of the WEDNESDAY, August 133, 1922. rewards of industry, for a wider justice, for a more consistent righteousness in human affairs, is one of the most stimulating The Chaplain, Rev. J. J. Muir, D. D., offered the following and hopeful signs of the present era. There ought to be a prayer: militant public demand for progress in this direction. The Our Father and our God, we give Thee thanks for the bright society which is satisfied is lost. But in the accomplishment ness of the morning and for all the privileges of life· which of these ends there needs to be a better understanding of the have been continued unto us. We pray that in the midst of the province of legislative and judicial action. There is danger of duties of the day there may be brought to us the consciousness disappointment and disaster unless there be a wider compre of the largest responsibility, so that the things which are high hension of the limitations of the law. est and best shall be chiefly in our thought and dominate our The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner action. We pray Thy blessing constantly upon each one who of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the bears these anxious moments of care, wondering which way is practice of primitive peoples. Such governments assumed juris the best to take. We ask Thee to blaze the path, and when diction over the action, property, life, and even religious con there is uncertainty give direction, we beseech of Thee. victions of their citizens down to the minutest detail. A large Remember, we would ask this morning, the stricken home of part of the history of free institutions is the history of the one so long related to the other House of Congress. We pray, people struggling to emancipate themselves from all of this in the multitude of Thy mercies, vouchsafe the comforts of Thy bondage. infinite consolation, and thus guide us all, whether in bright I do not mean by this that there has been, or can be, any ness or in gloom, along the pathway that leads to the life eter progress in an attempt of the people to exist without a strong nal. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. and vigorous government. That is the only foundation and the On request of :Mr. McCu:MBF.R, and by unanimous consent, the only support of all civilization. But progress has been made by reading of the J'ournal of the proceedings of the legislative day the people relieving themselves of the unwarranted and unnec of Thursday, August 3, 1922, was dispensed with and the Jour essary impositions of government. There exists, and must nal was approved. always exist, the righteous authority of the state. That is the sole source of the liberty of the individual, but it does not FOREIGN COMMERCE AND THE LAW. mean an inquisitive and officious intermeddling by attempted Mr. FLETCHER. I move that the paper which I hold in my government action in all the affairs of the people. There is no hand, entitled "Jus Gentium, a Stepping Stone to Better Law justification for public interference with purely private con and Lawyers," by Henry C. Clark, member of the Jacksonville, cerns. ·Fla., bar and of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United Those who founded and established the American Government States, with a foreword by William Reynolds Yance, be printed had a very clear understanding of this principle. They had as a Senate document, and I ask that the motion, with the suffered many painful experiences from too much public super paper, be referred to the Committee on Printing. vision of their private affairs. The people of that period were The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It is so ordered. very jealous of all authority. It was only the statesmanship ADDRESS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT. and resourcefulness of Hamilton, aided by the great influence of the wisdom and character of Washington, and the sound Mr. SHORTRIDGE. Mr. President, at a meeting of the reasoning of the very limited circle of their associates that American Bar Association held at San Francisco, Calif., the succeeded in proposing and adopting the American Constitu Vice President delivered a masterly address. I think it is tion. It established a vital Government of broad powers, but worthy of reproduction, and I ask unanimous consent that it be within distinct and prescribed limitations. Under the policy of printed in the RECORD in the larger type. implied powers adopted by the Federal party its authority Mr. ROBINSON. I inquire of the Senator from California tended to enlarge. But under the administration of Jefferson, what is the subject matter of the address? who, by word, though not so much by deed, questioned and Mr. SHORTRIDGE. The subject matter of the address, resented almost all the powers of government, its authority broadly and generally speaking, is government, laws, constitu tended to diminish and, but for the great judicial decisions of tional forms, and the observance and enforcement of the laws John Marshall, might have become very uncertain. But while of our land. there is ground for criticism in the belittling attitude of Jeffer Mr. ROBINSON. I have no objection to the Senator's request. son toward established government, there is even larger ground Mr. SHORTRIDGE. I think it will meet the approval in for approval of his policy of preserving to the people the sentiment of every Senator and of the people, quite regardless largest possible jurisdiction and authority. After all, ours is of any differences upon other matters. an experiment in self-government by the people themselves, and There being no objection, the address was ordered to be self-government can not be reposed wholly in some distant capi printed in the RECORD in 8-point type, as follows : tal; it has to be exercised in part by the people in their own ADDRESS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT BEFORE THE .AMERICAN BAR .ASSOCIA homes. TION .AT SAN Jl'IlANCISCO, CALIF., .AUGUST 10, 1922. So intent were the founding fathers on establishing a Consti The growing multiplicity of laws has often been observed. tution which was confined to the fundamental principles of The National and State Legislatures pass acts, and their courts government that they did not turn aside even to deal with the deliver opinions, which each year run into scores of thousands. great moral question of slavery. That they comprehended it A part of this is due to the increasing complexity of an ad and regarded it as an evil was clearly demonstrated by Lincoln vancing civilization. As new forces come into existence new in his Cooper Union speech when he showed that substantially relationships are created, new rights and obligations arise, all of them had at some time by public action made clear their which require establishment and definition by legislation and opposition to the continuation of this great wrong. The early decision. These are all the natural and inevitable conse amendments were all in diminution of the power of the Gov quences of the growth of great cities, the development of steam ernment and declaratory of an enlarged sovereignty of the and electricity, the use of the corporation as the leading factor people. in the transaction of business, and the attendant regulation and It was thus that our institutions stood for the better part control of the powers created by these new and mighty agencies. of a century. There were the centralizing tendencies and the This has imposed a legal burden against which men of affairs amendments arising out of the War of '61. But while they in have been wont to complain. But it is a burden which does not creased to some degree the power of the National Government, differ in its nature from the public requirement for security, they were in chief great charters of liberty, confirming rights sanitation, education, the maintenance of highways, or the already enjoyed by the majority and undertaking to extend other activities of government necessary to support present and guarantee like rights to those formerly deprived of equal standards. It is all a part of the inescapable burden of exist protection of the laws. During most of this long period the ence. It follows the stream of events. It does not attempt to trend of public opinion and of legislation ran in the same direc precede it. As human experience is broadened, it broadens tion. This was exemplified in the executive and legislative with it. It represents a growth altogether natural. To resist refusal to renew the United States Bank charter before the it is to resist progress. war, and in the judicial decision in the Slaughterhouse cases But there is another part of the great accumulating body ot after the war. This decision has been both criticized and con our laws that has been rapidly increasing of late, which is the demned in equally high places, but the result of it was perfectly result of other motives. Broadly speaking, it is the attempt to clear. It was on the side of leaving to the people of the several raise the moral standard of society by legislation. States, and to their legislf\tures and courts, jurisdiction over LXII--735 11600 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. AUGUST 23, the privileges and immunities of themselves and their own ~one outside of the limitations prescribed for it by the people citizens.

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