144 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ically. There arose, as a consequence, certain types of problems, certain 

 species of acts, to which no special law seemed to apply, which left their 

 authors in the possession of concerns working in a no-man's-land. To 

 meet this serious difficulty it has been proposed on one side that there 

 shall be a marked increase of federal authority which will deal with all 

 such problems, and on the other there has been insistence that the 

 sanctity of the constitution shall be maintained, the sacredness of the 

 judiciary upheld, and the doctrine of the division of powers kept intact. 



Those who believe in an increase of federal authority have main- 

 tained that the union is a federal one, that the sovereignty of the states 

 never existed, and that with their present authority and power they are 

 merely nuisances clogging the way of the federal government. There 

 is no question that a series of difficult problems have arisen which 

 demand a wider interpretation of federal authority, but the attitude 

 just mentioned would result in the reduction of the states to mere local 

 administrative units with no more power and authority than that 

 possessed by a county or township. It is declared that the conserva- 

 tion of resources is so important that state lines ought not to be taken 

 into consideration in dealing with the problem, while interstate com- 

 merce and the questions that are associated with it make it impossible, 

 if we are to be a great commercial nation, to recognize that state au- 

 thority over commerce and trade exists within certain boundaries. 



Such, briefly stated, is the controversy; in its final solution the 

 whole theory of American government is carried with it. In the course 

 of the discussion it will be necessary to examine some of the experiences 

 and outcomes of federal legislation, and to present, if there be any other 

 point of view, what can be done in the development of cooperation 

 between the two branches of government rather than subordination of 

 one as compared v.^ith the other. 



Over and above every other problem of a national character, in its 

 importance from the point of view of the public, stands, in all proba- 

 bility, that of interstate commerce. The legislation and various at- 

 tempts at legislation in this connection cover a period of forty years. 

 In the year 1872 Mr. Eegan, a congressman from the state of Texas, 

 presented a bill regulating interstate commerce carried on railways. 

 The bill was the outcome of grievances and difficulties arising from the 

 attempts of the various states to secure some betterment of transporta- 

 tion facilities, lower rates and better methods of carrying on the busi- 

 ness. Annually for more than fifteen years this bill made its appearance 

 in congress, and it was not until 1887 that the interstate commerce act 

 was passed regulating railroads and railroad rates. Despite the com- 

 plaints that were made regarding the inefficiency of this law, and the 

 difficulty of bringing under it many of the problems that arose, no other 

 legislation took place until the year 1903, and since then the law has 

 been modified in 1907 and 1910. 



