New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-12-14
A FIGHT TO LIVE.

The welcome assurance that the people OIL
New York are not helpleSSly and hopeesSly
ontanoled in a network of electric wires and
legal technicalites was supplied yesterday Dy
Judpes Van Brunt. Barrett and Brady of the
Supreme Court. Their judgment IS that inc
right to live is more precious than the prlVliesc
of having the pathway to the grave Illuminated
by electricity, and they accordingly dissolve
the Injunction obtained by the electrlc-hghting
companies from Judge Andrews, restraining all
persons from moesting their property. Three
opinions were handed down, and all of them
are refreshingly vigorous. That of Presiding
Justice Van Brunt goes most thoroughly into
the question, but those Of his colleagues though
briefer, are not less decisive. we venture 10
say that it is many years since the pam orulh'
as it appears to minds uninstructed IN the law
has been spoken in cause so important and IN
a manner so satisfactory to this community
Il has seemed to the general public from the
bepinninc that no assumption could be more
imDudent than that upon which the companies
have preceded. They have practically set up
the claim that they had an inalienable right 70
keep on Strengthening human beings so long as II
suited their convenience to maintain their wires
in a dangerous condition OF this pretence
the court makes short and edifying work. Judge
Van Brunt reminds the plaintiffs that their own
gross negligence has made their wires public
nuisance. declares that they " have been guilty
of wilful violation of manifest duty in al
lowing these wires to become dangerous" and
with a grim irony which exactly expresses pop
ular feeling goes straight to the heart of the
matter in these words: "They are without
IL olo.N hot no Hnetl NJ
ton of these instruments of death. maintained
by them in violation of every duty and obliga-
ton which they owe to the public, is an invasion
of their nights Of property, such claim seems
to proceed upon the assumption that nothing
has a right to exist except themselves" Pur-
suing the same line of thought Judge Brady
affilms the principe-which it is surprising thai
any one should have ever queStiOned-that the
rights of the plaintiffs acquired through leGiS-
laton, are subject to the dominant law Of public
safety that they were secured and invoked
with knowledge of this principle, and that when
business becomes hazardous to the public
safety it no longer remains lawful business
but a public nuisance. Judge Brady declares,
moreover, that when this point has been reached
the nuisance may be abated, not only by pub
! TIC OIlCldI Dut DH any NltIHNh Nip assuming
the responsibility of proof chooses to exercise
the power.
Thus, then, at last the terrifying and perilous
conditions under which the whole population
has existed for months past, and which have
brought sudden death to many individuals, are
authoritatively declared TO be intOlerable in
law as well in fact, and the burden of re-
sponsibity and of disgrace is put upon the
corporations which have been defying public
opinion and earning public detestation by
persistent display Of brutal Indifference to
human life. From this decision they may seek
means Of escaping but we prefer to assume
that they are not absolutely impervious to rea
son and destitute of every decent impulse. 1t
is safe, we think, to expect an immediate ex-
termination of the wires which are officially
known to be dangerous, and a vigorous cam
paign in behalf of general security from the
mysterious perils Of electric lighting. For this
fair promise Of relief the community has been
waiting anXiously and in some dependency
If the Judges who have rendered opinions in
accordance with universal popular sentiment
prefer not to be thanked for performing the
simple duty Of declaring the law as they under
stand it, there is at least no improperly in ex-
pressing our gratitude for decision so framed
that nobody can mistake its meaning and sig
niticance.