A state is a political and legal body; and as a political and legal body it cannot escape its appropriate political and social responsibilities.

But a state has in the great majority of cases no meaning at all as a center of economic organization and direction.

The business carried on within state limits is either essentially related by competition to the national economic system,--or else it is essentially municipal in its scope and meaning.

Of course, such a statement is not strictly true.

The states have certain essential economic duties in respect to the conservation and development of agricultural resources and methods and to the construction and maintenance of a comprehensive system of highways.