Book Reviews : Freedom and Federalism. By FELIX MORLEY. (Chicago: Henry Regnery Com pany, 1959. Pp. 274. $5.00.)

• Author: Louis Wasserman
• Published date: 01 June 1960
• Date: 01 June 1960
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296001300238
• Subject Matter: Articles

546

opposite

program

of

centralization,

both

in

the

areas

of

government

authority

and

administrative

services.

Centralization

and

not

decentralization

appears

to

be

the

call

of

the

day

in

Indonesia.

GARTH

N.

JONES

USOM,

Indonesia

Freedom and

Federalism.

By

FELIX

MORLEY.

(Chicago:

Henry

Regnery

Com-

pany,

1959.

Pp.

274.

$5.00.)

It

should

be

noted,

at

the

outset,

that

for

Morley

federalism

and

freedom

are

synonymous;

accordingly,

American

was

free

only

so

long

as

the

Union

was

really

federal

in

character.

As

Morley

elaborates

it,

this

condition

existed

from

the

birth

of

the

Republic

through

the

Civil

War

years.

The

federal

system

was

deliberately

conceived

by

the

Founding

Fathers,

and

reaffirmed

in

the

Tenth

and

Eleventh

Amendments.

Its

chief

merits

were

categorical

restraints

upon

the

power

of

the

national

government,

and

the

allocation

to

the

&dquo;sovereign&dquo;

states

of

all

residual

powers.

The

author’s

main

theme

now

becomes

apparent:

bluntly

put,

it

is

that

the

past

century

has

witnessesd

the

erosion

of

American

federalism

(and

conse-

quently,

freedom)

through

the

unchecked

usurpations

of

power

by

the

national

government.

The

principal

agencies

of

this

process

are

identified

by

Morley

as

the

Fourteenth

and

Sixteenth

Amendments.

The

former

burdened

the

states

with

Constitutional

limitations

which

were

intended

to

apply

only

to

the

national

government;

the

latter

&dquo;supplemented

this

revolutionary

change by

giving

the

central

government

virtually

unlimited

power

to

tax

the

people

without

regard

to

State

needs

or

boundaries.&dquo;

Hence,

in

the

course

of

events,

the

New

Deal

and

a

peddler’s

pack

of

other

legislation

(abetted

by

a

servile

Court)

which

has

all

but

enslaved

the

states

to

an

insatiable

centralized

bureaucracy.

All

this

is

a

not

inconsiderable

theme

for

Mr.

Morley’s

efforts;

and,

because

he

does

his

job

well,

many

who

do

not

share

his

anger

nonetheless

will

join

him

in

a

companionship

of

nostalgia.

But,

for

reasons

best

known

to

himself,

the

author

engages

in

a

simultaneous

joust

with

political

democracy

(his

syno-

nym

for

Rousseau’s

distasteful

&dquo;general

will&dquo;)

which

he

views

as

the

agency

that

has

corrupted

the

national

government.

The

Founding

Fathers,

he

reminds

us,

formulated

an

undemocratic

Constitution,

establishing

undemocratic

institutions

designed

to

function

in

an

undemocratic

manner.

This

wise

intention

has,

in

turn,

been

frustrated

by

a

villainous

array

of forces

in

which

the

author

includes

all

three

branches

of

national

government,

both

major

political

parties,

and

a

heterogenous

succession

of

individuals

from

Jackson

to

Eisenhower

-

all

of

them

consciously

or

unwittingly

persuaded

by

Rousseau’s

general

will

concept

of

gov-

ernment.

The

resulting

democratic

clamor

has

produced

&dquo;governmental

hand-

outs,

subsidies,

and

interventions

of

every

kind,

[which]

no

matter

how

dressed

up

with

a

specious

humanitarianism,

are

essentially

coercive

measures

by

the

state,

encroaching

more

and

more

on

the

voluntary

action

of

society.&dquo;