agreement among the justices who were ranged on the same side of the divided court.

The question most discussed, merely by the way, was whether Congress is authorized to enact a compulsory arbitration law, in the face of the Thirteenth Amendment forbid. ding the existence of involuntary servitude. Some of the justices who thought this power existed might with propriety have cited the case of Robertson v. Baldwin, 165 U. S. p. 280, where the court, through Mr. Justice Brown, said:

"Does the epithet 'involuntary' attach to the word 'servitude' continuously, and make illegal any service which becomes involuntary at any time during its existence; or does it attach only at the inception of the servitude and characterize it as unlawful, because unlawfully entered into? If the former be the true construction, then no one, not even a soldier, sailor or apprentice, can surrender his liberty, even for a day";

or have quoted the words of the Court, delivered by Mr. Justice McReynolds in Butler v. Perry, 240 U. S. 328, in which case there was no dissent but a concurrence by seven of the present justices:

"The term involuntary servitude, as used in the Thirteenth Amendment, was intended to cover those forms of compulsory labor akin to African slavery, which in practical operation would tend to produce like results."

No one can tell whether the Child Labor Law will be upheld. In the face of the rapid progress of Congressional enactment in the regulation of commerce, one can hardly indulge the hardihood to challenge any well-framed Act of Congress dealing with commerce among the States.

It occurs to me, however, that Congress has as much power to forbid an illegitimate child to ride on a journey from one State to another, as it has to forbid the channels of interstate commerce to the product of a manufacturing establishment in which children within a forbidden age are permitted to work, such denial applying whether or not the labor of such child entered into the making of the product. Under that law, if a

child within the forbidden age carries water to the operatives, and does no other work, the product of the plant cannot be shipped in interstate commerce. If this can be accomplished by Congress, that body can require an eight-hour day for all such manufacturers and can regulate every detail of the relationship between master and servant, where the master's output moves in interstate commerce.

It is important that the onward march of this power be noted. First Congress regulates the transportation of those articles which are harmful or menacing to other commerce, such as high explosives and diseased animals. Then Congress forbids the transportation of those things which are not harmful or menacing to other commerce, but are thought to be harmful to the people of the United States, such as lottery tickets, impure drugs and exhilarating liquors. And finally, Congress prohibits the transportation of those articles which are absolutely innocent in themselves but originate from unwholesome conditions.

In the light of all this, it may well be asked, what is the limit of Congressional power?

SHOULD GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL OF
QUASI-PUBLIC CORPORATIONS BE

EXTENDED?

PAPER BY

MILLARD REESE,

OF BRUNSWICK,

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The principle of governmental regulation of quasi-public corporations is now thoroughly established in our system of jurisprudence as a proper exercise of governmental power. Whatever doubt formerly may have existed as to the power of the government to regulate and control has been educated away, and practically a unanimous public opinion now concurs fully with the unanimous legislative and judicial opinion that the power does exist, and, broadly speaking, that such power is inherent in the sovereign power of the State, though under our system of dual governments it has necessarily been divided between the national and State governments. Whatever controversy there formerly may have been as to the wisdom of the exercise of such power except within narrow and welldefined limits, has long since been decided by the policy of our State and national governments in passing and sustaining laws regulating everything, from the drinking water to be supplied by railroads to their passengers to the terms and conditions upon which such corporations will be permitted to issue securities and how the money obtained therefrom may be expended.

Having committed themselves to this policy our governments must see it through. It would be unfair to the governments themselves, unfair to the industries sought to be controlled and all engaged therein, whether as owners or workers, and unfair to the general public for the policy to be abandoned

now. It must be extended until at least a fairly satisfactory and successful solution of the many-sided problem presented by governmental control of privately-owned public utilities shall have been reached. The only alternative now would be to confess failure and try government ownership, which is one of the temptations into which we should pray the good Lord not to lead us and one of the evils from which to deliver us.

I think it may safely be assumed that we are all agreed that governmental control of interstate commerce has not yet reached a successful or satisfactory solution. It follows that governmental regulation must be extended unless we have already reached the point that we are willing to concede that privately-owned instrumentalities engaged in such commerce cannot be successfully and satisfactorily operated under government supervision-in other words, that our whole transportation system, comprising now more than a quarter of a million miles of rail lines engaged in interstate commerce, is builded upon an erroneous economic basis.

For my own part I am unwilling to make any such concession. I believe that a fair degree of statesmanship, which includes more than a fair degree of intelligence and of honesty of purpose and of fair-mindedness, and eliminates demagogy and vote-catching politics, applied to the acute problems presented to-day will be able to devise ways and means to accomplish the desired purpose.

Aside from the abnormal international situation that exists to-day, the gravest problem with which our country has to deal is the ever-present strife between the owners of the rail carriers and those classes of their employees that are strongly organized in labor unions, and that recently have exhibited their power and disposition in a way and under circumstances that no loyal citizen can contemplate without dire forebodings and just resentment.

The all-important question is, what is to be done to make a recurrence of the happenings of the past few months impossible?

We would be deluding ourselves with a false hope if we were simple enough to think that the Adamson so-called Eight

Hour Law can prove anything but the miserable makeshift that it was. Its prime object was to avert temporarily the catastrophe that was impending. But in spite of unprecedented efforts to speed up the judicial arm of the government to a rate never before deemed possible, which in itself was no particularly pleasing spectacle, the organizations at whose instance and in whose behalf the law had been passed were unwilling to wait until its constitutionality could be decided in their favor.

I do not think that any particular blame is to be attached to the individuals in charge of these organizations for their attitude and actions, or to the individuals composing such organizations. Human nature has always been selfish, prompted by selfish motives and selfish desires, and looking to selfish ends. The history of the world shows clearly that unbridled power in the hands of any man or set of men will be abused sooner or later. And the real blame should attach to the governmental policy that has permitted the acquisition of such power as the representatives of the labor unions hold, before which, last August, and again during the early spring of the present year, our government and our people stood aghast and helpless.

The apparently irreconcilable conflict of interests between capital and labor commenced when industry began to expand beyond the one-man shop or factory, and has continued ever since, with increasing friction and bitterness as the personal touch between employer and employee began to grow less and less under the development of our latter-day system of enormous combined capital on the one hand and armies of combined employees on the other.

Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations," first published in 1776, observed:

"The common complaint that luxury extends itself even to the lowest ranks of the people, and that the laboring poor will not now be contented with the same food, clothing and lodging which satisfied them in former times, may convince us that it is not the money price of labor only, but its real recompence, which has augmented.