On no other ground can they find a plausible public excuse for their opposition.

The French royal authority and aristocratic privileges were defended on these grounds in 1780, and as the event proved, with some show of reason.

In the same way the partial legislative control of nationalized corporations now exercised by the state government, is defended, not on the ground that it has been well exercised, not even plausibly on the ground that it can be well exercised.

It is defended almost exclusively on the ground that any increase in the authority of the Federal government is dangerous to the American people.

But the Federal government belongs to the American people even more completely than do the state governments, because a general current of public opinion can act much more effectively on the single Federal authority than it can upon the many separate state authorities.