mpetent to deal. The regulation of commerce,
the control of corporations, and the still more radical questions
connected with the distribution of wealth and the prevention of
poverty--questions of this kind should be left exclusively to the
central government; or in case they are to any extent allowed to remain
under the jurisdiction of the states, they should exercise such
jurisdiction as the agents of the central government. The state
governments lack and must always lack the power and the independence
necessary to deal with this whole group of problems; and as long as they
remain preoccupied therewith, their effective energy and good intentions
will be diverted from the consideration of those aspects of political
and social reform with which they are peculiarly competent to deal. The
whole future prosperity and persistence of the American Federal system
is bound up in the progressive solution of this group of problems; and
if it is left to the conflicting jurisdictions of the central and local
governments, the American democracy will have to abandon in this respect
the idea of seeking the realization of a really national policy.
Justification for these statements will be offered in the following
chapter.

CHAPTER XII

PROBLEMS OF RECONSTRUCTION--(_continued_)

Any proposal to alter the responsibilities and powers now enjoyed by the
central and the state governments in respect to the control of
corporations and the distribution of wealth involves, of course, the
Federal rather than the state constitutions; and the amendment of the
former is both a more difficult and a more dangerous task than is the
amendment of the latter. A nation cannot afford to experiment with its
fundamental law as it may and must experiment with its local
institutions. As a matter of fact the Federal Constitution is very much
less in need of amendment than are those of the several states. It is on
the whole an admirable system of law and an efficient organ of
government; and in most respects it should be left to the ordinary
process of gradual amendment by legal construction until the American
people have advanced much farther towards the realization of a national
democratic policy. Eventually certain radical amendments will be
indispensable to the fulfillment of the American national purpose; but
except in one respect nothing of any essential importance is to be
gained at present by a modification of the Federal Constitution. This