38 GAME REFUGES. 



much in favor of this Hayden bill as is the State of Wyoming. But 

 there are others that are mighty good seconds. 



The question of general expediency is worth a moment's considera- 

 tion. 



I am now going to ask you to do, for a moment, a very remarkable 

 thing, and that is not to consider the records of legal decisions and 

 precedents. I am going to ask you to go back with me to the fountain 

 head of all United States law, and of all relations between the State 

 and the Nation, the Constitution of the United States. Let us see 

 what has actually been done under the terms of the Constitution of 

 the United States. 



In its preamble, the objects of the Constitution are declared to be 

 "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic 

 tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general 

 welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 

 posterity," etc. 



Section 8 of the Constitution proceeds to specify, briefly, in 18 

 clauses, how those objects are to be attained. In the fourth line of 

 clause No. 1 we find that " Congress shall have power to * * * 

 provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United 

 States." 



Clause No. 18 provides the machinery necessary to secure the ends 

 sought in the first 17 clauses of section 8. It says that the Congress 

 shall have power — 



18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu- 

 tion the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the 

 Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. 



Under the authorization of the words "promote the general wel- 

 fare," the Government of the United States has performed acts in- 

 numerable of great and small importance, and expended uncountable 

 millions of dollars of public money. As a few cases in point we cite 

 the following, for not one of which did the Constitution specifically 

 provide : 



The purchase of Alaska, for $7,000,000. 



The construction of the Union Pacific Railway. 



The completion of the Washington Monument. 



The construction of the Panama Canal. 



The construction, at this moment, of a railway in Alaska. 



The prosecution of vast irrigation schemes. 



The control of infectious diseases among animals. 



The eradication of insect pests. 



The eradication of wild animal pests. 



The eradication of wild animal diseases. 



The so-called " white-slave " law. 



The creation of 16 national parks. 



The creation and maintenance of six national bison herds. 



This list might be extended indefinitely, but it shows the wide range 

 of national activities that very properly have been based on the 

 constitutional provision for the promotion of the general welfare. 

 That provision was wisely inserted to cover the thousand and one 

 cases of national necessity sure to arise but impossible to foresee in 

 detail in the year 1787, when the Constitution was adopted. 



The language of the Constitution is so plain and so explicit that it 

 needs no judge or lawyer to expound it. The words "promote the 



