Kansas University Weekly.
335
LITERARY.
The Tendency to Federalization in Our Government.
The dawn of the second century of this Republic is at hand. The prophetic vision of our forefathers that a century would see the American Government extending from ocean to ocean has been fulfilled. The mighty picture of progress, symbolized in our Federative Union, has never before been witnessed in the grand diorama of history!
Among the dangers that threaten the peace and prosperity of our country there is none that gives us a graver sense of responsibility than the unmistakable tendency to concentrate in the Federal Government powers and privileges belonging to the states far beyond anything contemplated in the early days of our Republic. The vital principle of our mixed political system is a balancing of the governments—national and state—in such a manner as to hold them forever in equipoise. The highest mission of American statesmanship is to preserve this political structure in all its simplicity. Yet how far has this nation wandered from the high ideal of an association of co-equal and sovereign states with a common authority—a government which derives its entire life from the good will, the mutual interests and the unconstrained devotion of the states which at once "originated and composed it."
The Civil war decided forever that no state has a right to leave the Union. Nevertheless, this did not involve the sovereignty of the states in the Union, for we are still "an indissoluble Union of indestructible states."
For thirty years the strong tide that has been setting towards centralization in our government was due to the surges of the civil war. The inventions of steam and electricity have augmented this result by bringing the people closer together. The schemes of monopolists, the demands of spoilsmen, the pressure of partisans have dazzled the unthinking, tempted the poor and av-
aricious and overcome our sacred duty of eternal vigilance.
The mad race after patronage has made us tend to paternalism. The manufacturer asks the government to protect his product; the merchant asks that the arteries of trade be regulated; the rich invoke the aid of armies, the unfortunate ask for help; one for schools, the other for subsidy. The result is a dwarfing of the states and the magnification of the national government--the central authority made stronger and more splendid to govern a people who can best govern themselves.
If the large number of laws by which Congress has assumed jurisdiction over local concerns had been thoroughly debated on their merits they never could have been enacted. The growth of Federal power has been followed by a loss of local responsibility. Congress has overshadowed and taken away the jurisdiction of state legislatures in dealing with those subjects which are purely of social and domestic importance.
More than this Congress has assumed powers never within the contemplation of the founders of this government. Herein lies the true cause of the existing Congressional paralysis. No wonder the people cry: Why doesn't Congress do something? It is the accumulation of private claims, land grants, public buildings and internal improvements that prevents the transaction of business which concerns the whole country. General interests are neglected, sectionialsm encouraged. Class legislation, extravagence and corruption deplete the public treasury. These are the evidences that mark the insidious growth or paternalism.
The extension of the Federal power has been attained at an enormous expense. This means that money has not only been thrown away on objects not originally within the Federal jurisdiction, but that looseness of construction has led to looseness of expenditure.