THE WEEK

Governor Shivers of Texas welcomed the American Bar Association, in Dallas for its annual meeting, “to a state whose people believe in the Tenth Amendment.” Mr. E. Smythe Gambrell, the ABA’s retiring president, warned against the increased concentration of power in the federal government. A week earlier, also in Dallas, the Conference of Chief Justices of the forty-eight states deplored the centralization of power in the federal government, and most particularly the pre-emption by federal courts of authority intended by the Constitution to be wielded by the states. It is sad that between them, the lawyers of the land and the judges of the several states haven’t the power to make their voices heard in the platform of either political party. Their warnings against the encroachment of government reverberate only in echo chambers of the past; in Philadelphia, for example, when the Constitution was drafted.

Problem: The East Meadow School District in Long Island has a $426,000 federal educational grant. But if it uses it to build what it needs, i.e., classrooms, it jeopardizes its claim to forthcoming state funds, which might total more than the niggardly grant from Washington. Possible solution: Use the money toward a building which cannot be said to increase the “pupil capacity” of the district. The debate rages between partisans of a new administration building and partisans of a swimming pool. Suggestions are welcome. We are sending ours to our Congressmen.

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Governor Shivers of Texas welcomed the American Bar Association, in Dallas for its annual meeting, “to a state whose people believe in the Tenth Amendment.” Mr. E. Smythe Gambrell, the ABA’s retiring president, warned against the increased concentration of power in the federal government. A week earlier, also in Dallas, the Conference of Chief Justices of the forty-eight states deplored the centralization of power in the federal government, and most particularly the pre-emption by federal courts of authority intended by the Constitution to be wielded by the states. It is sad that between them, the lawyers of the land and the judges of the several states haven’t the power to make their voices heard in the platform of either political party. Their warnings against the encroachment of government reverberate only in echo chambers of the past; in Philadelphia, for example, when the Constitution was drafted.

Problem: The East Meadow School District in Long Island has a $426,000 federal educational grant. But if it uses it to build what it needs, i.e., classrooms, it jeopardizes its claim to forthcoming state funds, which might total more than the niggardly grant from Washington. Possible solution: Use the money toward a building which cannot be said to increase the “pupil capacity” of the district. The debate rages between partisans of a new administration building and partisans of a swimming pool. Suggestions are welcome. We are sending ours to our Congressmen.