A Child Labor Amendment Is Unnecessary
Year: 1938
Type: article
Abstract: A Child Labor Amendment is UnnecessaryTT WAS the purpose of the American people in creating our present system of government to establish an adequate, permanent, and efficient national government.Provisions for that government were made in a novel scheme which now, even more than then, makes the government of the United States unique in the world, namely, a written constitution."That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis on which the whole American fabric has been erected.The exercise of this original right is a very great exertion; nor can it, nor ought it, to be frequently repeated.The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental: and as the authority from which they proceed is supreme, and can seldom act, they are designed to be permanent."'-Thosewho framed the written constitution contemplated it as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation beyond modification except by the supreme sovereign will of the people. 2 "This theory is essentially attached to a written constitution, and is, consequently, to be considered, by this court, as one of the fundamental principles of our society.It is not, therefore, to be lost sight of, in the further consideration of this subject." 3 The powers of the national government are granted "in a constitution, intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs." 4 Certainly no problem of greater importance can confront the American people than whether the powers of the national government shall be changed.Such changes must be either to increase the national agency of government with the consequent diminution of the present freedom of individuals or of the states, or to decrease its powers with corresponding increase of the privileges of individuals or states. 5Under
Source: California Law Review
DOI: 10.2307/3476320
Author: James Barclay Smith
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4240034026