Leave it to the states
Cry Wolf Quotes
The very great objection to that is the possibility of confusion. We have State laws and we have city laws in the matter of constructions, and we have insurance laws that we have got to comply with….the construction of a building that might suit the Secretary of Agriculture would not suit those folks, and what might suit those folks might not suit the Secretary of Agriculture.
Unwise because it is an unnecessary extension of Federal power and would seem to be a step toward the deprecation of State sovereignty. I am one who still believes in the American system of Government the States have important functions and that State sovereignty is a fundamental and inherent principal of the American democracy.
[A federal income tax would be an invitation to D.C.] to invade its territory, to oust its jurisdiction and to establish a Federal dominion [in Virginia]. A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man’s business. The eye of the Federal inspector will be in every man’s counting house.
As reprehensible as child labor is, and as much as it ought to be abandoned — that's something that has to be done by state legislators, not by Members of Congress. This may sound harsh, but it was designed to be that way. It was designed to be a little bit harsh. Not because we like harshness for the sake of harshness, but because we like a clean division of power, so that everybody understands whose job it is to regulate what.
