re essentially single and entire in their nature (for example, railroad
classifications and rates) to be split up merely for purposes of legal
jurisdiction and control. In such matters, therefore, some measure of
federal encroachment is inevitable in order that industry and progress
shall not be hampered. The encroachment, however, is more apparent than
real. The industries are national in scope, and all the activities of
each are more or less interwoven and interdependent. Hence state
regulation of the intrastate activities may sometimes be overruled as an
interference with federal regulation of the interstate commerce. There
is nothing in this which involves any real violation of the
Constitution. It is merely an application of Marshall's doctrine of
implied powers.

Social welfare legislation presents a very different problem. Some of
the most dangerous assaults upon the Constitution to-day are being made
in that field. The leaven of socialistic ideas is working.
Representative government is becoming more paternalistic. Legislation
dealing with conduct and social and economic conditions is being
demanded by public sentiment in constantly increasing measure. Such
legislation for the most part affects state police power and lies
clearly outside the scope of the powers conferred by the Constitution on
the National Government. Moreover, "the insulated chambers afforded by
the several states" (to borrow a phrase of Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes) are ideal fields for social experiment. If an experiment
succeed, other states will follow suit. If it prove disastrous, the
damage is localized. The nation as a whole remains unharmed. The
sponsors for such legislation, however, are seldom content to deal with
the states. Reform was ever impatient. The state method seems too slow,
and the difficulty of securing uniformity too formidable. Moreover, it
often happens that some states are indifferent to the reform proposed or
even actively hostile. Accordingly, recourse is had to Congress, and
Congress looks for a way to meet the popular demand. There being no
direct way, and public sentiment being insistent, Congressmen find
themselves under the painful necessity of circumventing the Constitution
they have sworn to uphold. The desired legislation is enacted under the
guise of an act to regulate commerce or raise revenue, and the task of
upholding the Constitution is passed to the Supreme Court.

Such subterfuges, far from arousing