Unemployment in the United States

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1828236179

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-226169

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Unemployment in the United States

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: United States, Government Printing Office

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: II, 193 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Statement of Frank L. Peckham

Collection:: Economics Books

158 UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES They suffer from the same disease that a drug addict suffers from they become the beneficiaries of stimulation and, if you once remove the stimulation, they cease to exist; they can not go on. And it is just the same thing in this, as Mr. Green properly described it— a gesture. The difficulty with gesturesis this, that gestures from Wash- ington result as a rule in the laying down all over the country of those who are engaged in trying to solve a problem and waiting for the solution to come from Washington. And while it is not a constitutional question but rather an economic one—and I can not speak as an economist, but I can speak as one who has gained a modicum of common sense through his own experience— this gesture from Wash- ington would probably do more to delay the solution of this problem of unemployment than anything else. The other two measures are constructive; one proposes to plan for a sensible, orderly expenditure of Federal funds in such operations as the Federal Government may properly carry on; and the other proposes to collect and disseminate information, which is properly a Federal function. But this bill is violative of the spirit of the Con- stitution; it is violative of the genius of the American Government; and I warn those people who propose to violate the Constitution on this score that they will suffer the evil consequences, because, eventu- ally, as we amend the Constitution by constant violation, those who now so glibly wipe aside the constitutional argument may have occasion some day to regret that some other constitutional provision on which they rely to support their rights has also gradually become amended and eliminated through violation. There is another feature to this and that is the strange coincidence that a great deal of the support of this measure comes fiom a State which is holding up the Eighteenth amendment to the Constitution as a great violation of the principles of American Government of local determination, and they propose by this measure to invite the Federal Government to come in and regulate a thing which by the Con- stitution itself is primarily, solely and exclusively, a State function. I thank you. In New York ». Miln (11 Pet. 102, 139 (1837) ) the court said: “We choose rather to plant ourselves on what we consider impregnable positions They are these: That a State has the same undeniable and unlimited jurisdiction over all persons and things, within its territorial limits, as any foreign nation; where that jurisdiction is not surrendered or restrained by the Constitution of the United States. That, by virtue of this, it is not only the right but the bounden and solemn duty of a State to advance the safety, happiness, and prosperity of its people and to provide for its general welfare by any and every act of legislation which it may deem to be conducive to these ends, where the power over the par- ticular subject or the manner of its exercise is not surrendered or restrained in the manner ‘just stated. That all those powers which relate to. merely municipal legislation, or what may perhaps more properly be called internal police, are not thus surrendered or restrained; and that consequently in relation to these the authority of a State is complete, unqualified, and exclusive.” ‘ - In re Raher (140 U. 8. 545,554 (1890)) the court said: “The power of the State to impose restraints and burdens upon persons and property in- conservation and promotion of the public health, good order, .and prosperity is a power originally and always belonging to the States, not sur- rendered by them to the general government nor directly restrained by the Con- gtitution of the United States, and essentially exelusive.” : - In Kansas ¢. Colorado. (206 U. S. 46, 89, 90 (1906), the court said: ~ “The proposition that theve are legislative powers affecting the Nation. as 2 whole, which belong to although not expressed in the grant of powers, is in direct conflict with the doetrine that this is a Governimnent of enumerated powers.

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