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14 B.U. L. Rev. 243 (1934)
Is There a National Police Power; If So, What Is Its Relation to the Recent Federal Statutes Affecting Industry and Trade Generally, Particularly the National Industrial Recovery Act

handle is hein.journals/bulr14 and id is 245 raw text is: IS THERE A NATIONAL POLICE POWER; IF SO, WHAT IS ITS RELATION TO THE RECENT FEDERAL STATUTES AFFECTING IN- DUSTRY AND TRADE GENERALLY, PARTICULARLY THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL RECOVERY ACT? By HARRISON J. BARRETTA The short answer of the average reader, particularly if a lawyer, to the first part of this question will be: Why discuss such a question; the answer has been repeatedly given. There is no Federal police power except as incident to the war power, or other specific powers delegated to the Federal government by the Constitution. Not- withstanding, the repeated declarations in days past, and I will refer to these later, that there is no such power under the Constitution, we must, I believe, face this issue squarely. The draftsmen of the Constitu- tion, sincere and earnest as they doubtless were,' dealt with condi- tions as they saw them at the time and in the future apparent to them. No dreamer of that day foresaw the social and economic development since 1787; nor the great problems of political, social and economic ad- justment that this has involved. Admittedly under the War Power, in time of war, the Federal Government is absolutely supreme throughout the nation. Is not the economic situation with which we must deal even more serious than if we were in fact at war? We are building on a charter of government, the Constitution, theoretically devised for all time, if such a thing is humanly possible ;2 and if we desire to continue our efforts to build on this written constitution, which may be a de- batable proposition, though I want to try it a while yet, we may have to find there are inherent powers thereunder not contemplated by its founders nor by the Supreme Court of the United States up to this time. All that has saved our written Constitution is the great wisdom of its expounders: The Chief Justices, and Justices of the Supreme Court ALL.B., (1893), George Washington University; (1919), Boston University; LL.M. (1920), Boston University; Lecturer at Boston University School of Law on Fundamentals of Law since 1917; Member of the Massachusetts and Fed- eral Bars; Author: Brooks Adams-An Appreciation. 7 BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 107. 'Speaking of the framers of the Constitution: It was an aristocracy, and as such it had inherited a concept of public duty, quite separate and distinct from the universal concept of public interest. There were things that Washington simply would not do, even to serve Washington. He saw the nation that he had helped to set up, as something apart from and superior to himself, or to any other man in it-as something deserving and demanding a high measure of devotion. Henry L. Mencken, American Mercury (1927) xii-251. 'Brewer, J., in In re Debs, 158 U. S. 564, 591: Constitutional provisions do not change but their operation extends to new matters, as the modes of business and the habits of life of the people vary with each succeeding generation.Y

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