142 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE CONFLICT OF ADMINISTRATIONS 



By President FRANK L. McVEY 



r 

 UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA 



[N a letter to the governors of the states, at the close of the revolu- 

 tionary war, Washington fervently prayed for four things, which 

 he humbly conceived as not only essential, but actually vital, to the 

 existence of the United States as an independent power. These four 

 things were : an indissoluble union of the states under one federal head ; 

 a sacred regard for public justice ; the adoption of a proper peace estab- 

 lishment; and the prevalence of a civic and friendly disposition among 

 the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their 

 local prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions which 

 are requisite to the general prosperity, and in some instances to sacri- 

 fice their individual advantages to the interests of the community. 



None of the revolutionary fathers could see difficulties other than 

 those of a sea-coast commerce policed by many petty sovereigns. The 

 problem of cooperation between the federal authority and the states 

 would, in their opinion, arise only when brought to the surface by a 

 state jealous of its prerogatives, never through the action of the federal 

 authority. A hundred and twenty-five years have passed, and not only 

 has the unexpected happened, but persons and corporations engaged in 

 commerce seek the extension of federal power at the expense of state 

 authority, if need be, in order that commerce may go on unhampered 

 and free from restrictions of a territorial character. 



Men rang the bells in steeples and gave utterance to their jubila- 

 tion in loud hurrahs when King George's fleet left New York harbor. 

 They had forgotten that a nation did not exist; that effective coopera- 

 tion had ceased when Washington disbanded his army in 1783; that the 

 union which was then dissolved existed only as a tradition, while the 

 states were thirteen independent sovereigns, jealous of each other and 

 open to the abuses of foreign intrigue. Thus at the beginning of the 

 twentieth century in America has arisen a new type of problem in the 

 conflict of administrations, solvable only by a process of cooperation. 



Writing to Duane, Hamilton declared " the fundamental defect is a 

 want of power in congress. Three causes contribute to this misfortune. 

 In the people a jealous excess of the spirit of liberty, in congress a 

 diffidence of their own authority, and a want of sufficient means at their 

 disposal." " The clear duty of congress," declared Hamilton, " was to 

 usurp powers in order to preserve the Eepublic, but its courage stopped 



