Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-09-20
CORRESPONDENTS.
Proves too Much.


To the MINING JOURNAL.
| had not intended to say another
word anent the Webb matter, but the
JOURNALS last issue lays itself open
to such delicious reJoinder | cannot
refrain from one more word.
The JOURNAL is forced at last to adj
nit that somebody has legal right in
New York to inquire into grounds of
dismissal. Thus | have overthrown
one of its pet doctrines, and might here
rest on my laurels. But the JOURNAL
says the statute of New York liz not
law and wants to appeal to a higher
court, and that the whole legislature
and governor combined are dema-
gogues. Indeed A lawyer is com
PEELED to smile at these assertions as
the vain and helpless rantings of u
hard pressed and discounted OPP
ponent. But whether demagogues or
not, the laws they make are binding on
courts, corporations and people, as the
JOURNAL would quickly find out if it
violated one of them, and when the
JOURNAL sets itself up against the col
lective wisdom of the Empire State as
to what is law it is much like the bull
which tried to stop the lOcomotive-it
was bad" for the bull.
To such puerile contentious as these
is the JOURNAL forced because it will
not understand that the Legislature
has legal right to control corpora
ton as it pleases. and that the corpor-
alton has no ''inherent' rights, and
no rights at all save what its creator
mas seen fit to give it.
Il, I
in saying that Mr.. Webb did not re-
fuse to give the grounds for dismissal.
| beg the JOURNALS pardon | am not
in error. Mr.. Webb gave the grounds :;
said he discharged some for drunken
ness; others for incompetency, &c.
But as to the truth of the grounds and
whether sufficient he said there is
nothing to arbitrate." His refusal to
submit the truth and su6tciency of those
grounds to arbitration is what | object
ed to in Mr.. Webb the claim of the
right to refuse to give the grounds is
what | objected to in the JOURNAL.
Is that explicit enough The JOUR
NAL shoots with such a long range and
with such wide muZZle that it is
liable to "scatter" unless brought back
to the point once in awhile.
But the delectable part of the JOUR-
NAILS reply lies in this it says if you
discharge a servant because you be-
lieve he is thief, you cannot tell him
so without being sued for SANDER.
There the JOURNAL is "off" on its
law again worse than before. On the
contrary the law so far recognizes the
moral right of a man to be told the
grounds of his dismissal that it abso-
lutely protects his employer from q
suit for SANDER, even it he tells him he
is discharged because he is a thief
Under those circumstances the state
mentis "privileged communication"
| could cite hundred cases in England
and America to show this to be the
law, but will confne myself to:
When a master discharged his foOtman
and cook and they asked him his reason for
so doing and he told the footman, out of the
presence of the cook, that they both had been
robbing him; held that this was privileged
overwhelmingly as. Witt, IS Common
Bench.
Thus the last half of the JOURNALS
long article, based ON this erroneous
notion of the law, topples to the
ground
Like the baseless fabric of dream"
1t has gone to take its place in its
little legal grave, alongside those two
other legal paintings of the JOURNAL
about judges not being obliged to give
reasons for their decisions, and that
nobody in New York had legal right
to inquire into grounds, &c.
The whole trouble is simply this {:
the JOURNAL has conceived certain
extreme notions about corporations
which it thinks ought to be law. Hence
it concluded they are law. But this is
a great mistake A humane and en-,
lightened public sentiment has decided
otherwise, and the JOURNAL might as
we'll bow to the inevitable.
started out to prove two things
,frst-that Webb's grounds of dismissal
could be inquired into by law; and,
second, that there is ID moral obligation
to disclose grounds of dismissal when
requested. These things | undertook
to prove. think have proved them.
Veni, oidi, pici! Yours very truly,
BENZ. A. RICHMOND.