The meeting adojurned until June 30, 1922, at 10 o'clock A. M. MORNING SESSION Pursuant to adjournment the Maryland State Bar Association re-assembled at 10 o'clock A. M. THE PRESIDENT: In refutation of Kipling's dictum we have brought the West to the East today and our speaker this morning is Merritt Starr, Esq., of the Chicago Bar. Mr. Starr is an original and courageous thinker who never hesitates to express his opinion simply because it may not receive unanimous approval. I am sure we will all be glad to hear Mr. Starr who will address us on the "Economic Equality and Some New Uses of National Power." MR. STARR: Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, and members of the Maryland State Bar Association: Your gracious: invitation and greeting have done me great honor. I have greatly enjoyed being with you. The papers and discussions: to which I have listened have increased my professional knowledge and my reverence for the law; and the cordiality of your greetings has quite touched my heart. And when in the future I shall count over the bead roll of friends it is a gratification to me that that roll of saints and friends will have been lengthened and enriched by the men of the Baltimore and the Maryland Bar whom I have met on this occasion. ECONOMIC EQUALITY AND SOME NEW USES OF NATIONAL POWER Address by MERRITT STARR, ESQ. Mr. President, Members of the Maryland State Bar Our theme is "Economic Equality and Some New Uses of National Power;" and our purpose is to take a birdseye view of certain fields in which those new uses occur, and discover the legal bases for such uses of national power. That invaluable treasury of information, The Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year Book for 1922, lists in the Government Service for 1921, 45 Bureaus, 105 other branches or divisions, 90,559 clasasified employees in Washington and 389,994 outside Washington, giving a total of 480,553 men, exclusive of soldiers and naval fighting men (pp. 597-603). For the year 1913, the Almanac of 1914 gives a total Civil Service of 334,901, an increase of 43.5 per cent in eight years, while the census of 1920 showed an increase in population of 14.9 per cent for ten years. This increase in the civil lists in itself suggests a vast increase in the use of national power. Lord BRYCE in his "Modern Democracies" has pointed out that Equality, as an object of governmental action, may be Civil (securing to all citizens "the same status in the sphere of private law"); or Political (securing to all or nearly all adult (or adult male) "citizens a like share in the government;" and after discussing social equality and natural equality, says: "Last of all we come to Economic Equality, i. e. the attempt to expunge all differences in wealth;" the argument for which he compresses into the contention that "wealth produced by the toil of the Many, must not be allowed to accumulate in the hands of the Few. The establishment of Political Equality has not, as was fondly hoped, secured general contentment and the peace of the community, but has rather accentuated the contrast between two sections of those citizens who, alike in the possession of voting power, are alike in little else." (Modern Democracies, pp. 65-67.) Lord BRYCE, as everybody knows, does not approve economic equality as an object for governmental action; and says of the French development of the last 50 years, "Economic equality has come no nearer (there) than elsewhere. Only a social and economic revolution could create it, and it is doubtful whether it could thereafter be maintained." (Id. p. 316.) Our National Government is a representative democracy, and has shared this direction of legislation for the welfare of the poor. And it is my purpose to illustrate this by some recent Congressioanl legislation, and to consider its tendencies. I. Congressional Legislation of 1912-1921 - Illustrations For this purpose I take the last ten years (1912-1921, inclusive) and omit from the discussion the great amendments to the National Constitution adopted during this decade, viz., 16th, the Income Tax Amendment; 17th, the Senatorial Election Amendment; 18th, the Prohibition Amendment; and 19th, the Woman's Suffrage Amendment; but note that the super-tax legislation under the Income Tax Amendment and the Estate taxes and progressive inheritance taxes in the Revenue Acts of 1916, 1917 and 1918 are striking illustrations of our theme. Omitting routine legislation and political legislation such as that dealing with revenue, banking and the tariff, and the extraordinary legislation dealing with the great war; and much other interesting legislation - for illustration I have selected from the Acts of Congress for the decade thirty statutes. Of these, four may be grouped as dealing with Conservation of Natural Resources, seven with Farm Conservation and Promotion, twelve with Health and Human Conservation, Education and Labor, and seven with Trade and Transportation. I list these Acts more in detail in an appendix which I submit without reading. A VOICE: "Leave to print." THE PRESIDENT: The appendix will be printed in our proceedings. MR. STARR: I summarize them now by their popular or colloquial titles. are: The Acts so noted on Conservation of Natural Resources 1. The April Land Reclamation Act of 1914, extending the period of payment under reclamation projects and supplementing the Roosevelt Reclamation Act of 1902. The 16th Amendment, authorizing Federal Income Taxes, was by the Secretary of State proclaimed ratified by proclamation dated February 25, 1913 (11 Fed. St. Ann P 1110) (37 St. L. Part 2 p. 1785); the 17th Amendment on election of United States Senators by the people, by proclamation dated May 31, 1913 (11 Fed. St. Ann p. 1112) (38 St. L. Part 2 p. 2049); the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transportation or exportation of intoxicating liquors, by the certificate of the Secretary of State, dated January 29, 1919 (40 St. L. Part 2 p. 1941); and the 19th Amendment, removing sex restriction upon the right to vote, by proclamation dated August 26, 1920 (U. S. St. at Large 3d Session 66th Congress Part 2 App. X p. 1). 2. The Daylight Saving Act of 1918. 3. The Federal Water Power Act of 1920. 4. The Minerals Leasing Act of 1920. 1. Touching Farm Conservation and Promotion, we note: The Plant Quarantine Act of 1912. 2. The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1913. 3. The Cotton Futures Act (taxing such sales of cotton) of 4. 1914. The Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916. 5. The United States Warehouse Act of 1916. 6. The Wheat Price Stabilization Act of 1919. 7. The Packers and Stock Yards Act of 1921. 1. Concerning Education, we may note: The Vocational Education Act (called the Smith-Hughes The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1920. Concerning Health, we may note: 2. 1. The Children's Bureau Act of 1912. 4. 5. The Minimum Wage Law (for the District of Columbia) of 1918. The Woman's Bureau of 1920. 6. The Maternity and Infancy Hygiene Act of 1921. Concerning Labor, we may note: 1. The Industrial Relations Commission Act of 1912. 2. The Arbitration Act of 1913. 3. The La Follette Act on Merchant Seamen of 1915. 4. The Adamson Eight-Hour Law (so-called) of 1916). Concerning Trade, we may note: 1. The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. 2. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914. 3. The Future Trading Act of 1921. Concerning Transportation, we may note: 1. The Physical Valuation of Railroads Act of 1913, and 2. The Esch-Cummins Transportation Act of 1920. And 3-4. The Rural Post Road Act (for co-operating with the States in constructing same) and Act supplemental thereto. We observe at once that our different subjects are more or less interblended. The Esch-Cummins Act devotes Title III, a chapter of five pages, to "Disputes between Carriers and their Employees and Subordinate Officials," which plainly relates to Labor; and Title IV, a chapter of 24 pages, to comprehensive amendments to the Interstate Commerce Act. The Future Trading Act and the Cotton Future Sales Act might be grouped together under the title "Farm Conserva tion" or under the title "Trade." The Minimum Wage and Child Labor Laws might be grouped under the title "Labor." II. Constitutional Bases and Characteristics of this Legislation Some of these uses of national power are new. Some of these Acts have precedents in previous Federal legislation. Some have a definite constitutional basis. For most of them it is the power to regulate commerce among the States and with foreign nations. The Nursery Stock Quarantine Act is an example. Commerce is human intercourse, and each of these subjects is legitimately within that field of regulation. The Daylight Saving Law is primarily a law regulating the movement of railways trains in Interstate Commerce. The conservation of water power upon navigable streams deals with a by-product of the improvement of navigation, which is a regulation of the natural highways of commerce; and I may be permitted to say that I deem the Federal Water Power Act a wise and valuable exercise of national power. Legislation concerning drugs and food produced in one State for consumption in another, regulates Interstate Commerce. Some of the new legislation (such as the Lignite and Peat Investigation Act) not included in our list may be referred to the census taking power. The Reclamation Acts, the Enlarged Homestead Act, the Potash and Mineral Leasing Acts may be referred to the power to dispose of public lands; some, such as the District of Columbia Minimum Wage Law, to the power to govern the District of Columbia; some, such as the Vocational Education and Rehabilitation Acts, to the War Power or to the General Taxing and General Welfare Power. Without reopening the controversy over the constitutional grant of power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises; to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" (U. S. Const., Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 1); it is now beyond debate that "when the United States exerts any of the powers conferred, no valid |