This Court has no more important function than that which
devolves upon it the obligation to preserve inviolate the
constitutional limitations upon the exercise of authority,
federal and state, to the end that each may continue to
discharge, harmoniously with the other, the duties entrusted
to it by the Constitution.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Hammer v. Dagenhart_, 247 U.S., 251 (1918).]

[Footnote 2: An even stronger assertion of state rights is found in the
Child Labor Tax Case (_Bailey v. The Drexel Furniture Co._) decided May
15, 1922, after this chapter had been put into print.]

How is it then, someone may ask, if the Supreme Court is so zealous in
defense of the rights of the states, that those rights are being
encroached upon more and more by the National Government? The answer
must be that there has been a change in the popular frame of mind. The
desire for uniformity, standardization, efficiency, has outgrown the
earlier fears of a centralization of power. Congress has found ways,
under the constitutional grants of power to lay taxes and regulate
interstate commerce, to legislate in furtherance of the popular demands.
The Court is not strong enough (no governmental agency which could be
devised would be strong enough) to hold back the flood or permanently
thwart the popular will. In a government of the people everything has to
yield sooner or later to the deliberate wish of the majority.

Some profess to view the recent encroachments of federal power as a
triumph of the principles advocated by Alexander Hamilton and John
Marshall over the principles of Thomas Jefferson. Such a claim does