Page:Is Capital Income, Earle, 1921.djvu/5

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
PREFACE.
5

mentioned—"Does Price-Fixing Destroy Liberty?"—to show how vital a preservation of Liberty is to the happiness of America, a summary of the subject is therefore only necessary.

Locke's definition, as quoted above, is, of course, generally correct, but, as it is essential to Justice that all men should be safeguarded in an equal enjoyment of this most vital thing, his definition, for Constitutional purposes, must be so far restricted as the common welfare requires in this respect. But, as the Common Law always points out, the primary presumption is always in favor of the greatest Liberty possible, which is simply saying the same thing in another form, for if Liberty be confined to but a few, it is necessarily greatly restricted; and the burden of proof is always upon those contending for restriction, and restriction of Liberty is always prima facie bad. We must, too, never forget that as Thomas Jefferson and other great statesmen have truthfully stated: "The natural order of things is for Liberty to yield and for Government to gain ground." And all History but testifies that this has been the chief danger, the most ominous threat, not merely to Governments, but to civilization itself.

Restrictions, therefore, introduced into the Constitution to safeguard against this tendency, are deserving of the highest respect and most vigilant care. It will be found that great attention has been heretofore given by Jurists to the "genesis" of the Sixteenth Amendment, which, no doubt, is important; but what to the writer seems even more important, is that so far as he has ascertained, no proper inquiry has yet been made, as to the "genesis" of the two clauses in the Constitution in part amended by it. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to inquire, using the methods