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Show -86- legal conference is called* a conference of governors* The evil of irrepa- rable waste is apparent» Prodigality must stop, notwithstandings by the way, that these ''national" resources are legally not national any longer , nor even public^ but are private resources. The only suggestion for a remedy is that of Secretary Root, who drew attention to the feasibility of interstate compacts. The Ohio statute for the promotion of uniformity of legislation takes cognizance of private corporations* unfair competition.* and uniform hours of labor, as among the subjects for consideration- These things suggest some very live questions* These are,, or what Is the same thing* the ultimate reigning power* the public> believes that there are mischiefs for which neither our nation nor any state is equipped to find a remedy-. The federal .powers tug and strain at the Constitution. The states glare at each other and at the nation. The judiciary obstructs with its absolute veto0 Yet nothing is done. Between New Jersey who fondles her numerous corporate offspring, and supports herself out of their hard earnings and winningsj and Texas who vainly waits at her borders for a chance to administer chastisement, there is an incoherent rout of states legislating* as it were, in each other's spite s and to the detriment in the long run of allo All these and other questions of substantive policy* importanta press- ing, omniouSi yet unsolved by any orthodox legalities.; commend this obscured constitutional provision by which the several states may offer each other guaranties of concurrent and reciprocal action for their mutual and common benefit. The purpose to redress some of the imperfections of our system is astir. It will not be stayed or thwarted. Either we frankly make way by constitutional and orderly means, or our Constitution at last will stand in untenantecU majestic decay* In that event, our professional posterity would no doubt account for the United States of their time* as Roman juris- consults once accounted for their empire by the fiction of a Julian Law* or ecclesiastical doctors for the paper. sovereignty by the mythical Dona- tion of Constantine and the False Decretals. Such a vicissitude is remote. \ie have seen that our present political mechanism needs adjustment* To amend the Constitution at the cost of the last amendments-, slowly substitute a government by men instead of laws, are alternatives out of the question.. We have begun in a more practical? orderly way to supply the most urgent and obvious defects. The same way. ' may be widened to a thoroughfare broad enough for our national progress. To consummate interstate conferences by interstate compacts is natural and easy. Such compacts should not be irrevocable, of course3 but should furnish guaranties against fitful and inconsiderate departures by the states which might become parties. The same public opinion which supports the bonded obligations of the states would sufficiently support their compact obligations* Merely "to raise a standard to which the wise and honest may repair" is worthy of patriotic statesmanship. |