Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/101

67 THE CHILD LABOR LAW CASE 67 the states who would be zealous to protect their local interests, the powers granted would not be abused.^^ It was realized at the time that local self-government by the states must be preserved, and that too much exercise of federal authority would be pernicious. It was also realized that a single dominant federal authority, especially over interstate commerce, was indispensable. The Constitution embodied both principles. And to insure permanent harmony of operation it was declared in Art. VI, cl. 2, that the federal laws should be the supreme law of the land. Standardization, so far as it was an evil resulting from single control over interstate commerce, was to be suffered rather than the distressful weakness which had preceded. The result of the decision in the Dagenhart Case seems to be that the grant to Congress of power over commerce among the states was not of complete sovereign power, and not coextensive with the evil sought to be remedied; and that the adoption of the Constitution caused the disappearance — since neither states nor nation may exercise it — of that governmental authority which the states previously had and exercised over the transportation of "harmless" conmiodities across state lines. Thurlow M. Gordon. New York City. " Federalist, Nos. 28, 31, 45, 46.