FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  
hed enemy and friend alike. Its growth has been due to both pressure from without and developments within. Our foreign wars, especially the war with Germany, have drawn the people together and enhanced the importance of interests purely national. Some of our other foreign relations have brought into relief the advantages of a strong central government as well as certain inconveniences of our system as it left the hands of the framers. Witness the embarrassment toward Italy growing out of lack of federal jurisdiction in respect of the New Orleans riots, and the ever-present danger to our relations with Japan from acts of the sovereign State of California which the Federal Government is powerless to control. Among developments from within was the Civil War, with its triumph for the idea of national supremacy and an indissoluble union. Another, which has hardly received the attention it deserves, has been the influence of the large element of our population composed of immigrants since the Revolution and their descendants. The state sovereignty doctrine was not a mere political dogma but had its roots in history. It was an expression of the pride of the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies in their respective commonwealths. To them it stood for patriotism and traditions. These feelings the later immigrant neither shared nor understood. When he gave up his Old World allegiance and emigrated he came to America, not to New York or Massachusetts. To him the nation was everything, the state merely an administrative subdivision of the nation. Another cause has been the desire to obtain aid in local matters from the national treasury. This has proved an exceedingly potent and insidious influence, leading state officials to surrender voluntarily state prerogatives in exchange for appropriations of federal money. Notable examples of this influence may be found in the field of river and harbor improvements, the creation of various new bureaus in the Department of Commerce, the enormous extension of the activities of the Agricultural Department and the Bureau of Education. The temptation in this direction is particularly strong among the less prosperous states, for it means the expenditure in those states of federal moneys raised chiefly from the taxpayers in wealthier states. The most potent influence of all, however, has been the matter of internal economic development, stimulated by free trade among the states. This developmen
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
influence
 

states

 

federal

 

national

 

strong

 

Department

 
potent
 

Another

 

relations

 

nation


foreign

 

developments

 

growth

 

matters

 
treasury
 

desire

 

obtain

 

proved

 

prerogatives

 

exchange


appropriations
 

voluntarily

 

surrender

 
subdivision
 
insidious
 

leading

 

officials

 

exceedingly

 

administrative

 

understood


immigrant

 

shared

 

allegiance

 

Massachusetts

 

emigrated

 

America

 

Notable

 
examples
 

raised

 

moneys


chiefly

 

taxpayers

 
wealthier
 
expenditure
 

prosperous

 

developmen

 
stimulated
 

development

 
matter
 

internal