The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-23

from Judge ana an attorney Dy
profession. Nothing could indicate
more clearly than this article the
abyss towards which the free people
of this country are advancing.
(COntinaled.)
An Englishman named Watt
had turned to mechanical purposes
the expansive power of steam. His
statue stands in Westminster Alb
hey, the greatest of England's great;
greater than Wellington, greater
than Nelson; greater than any gen.
eral or statesman, or lawyer or di-
vine; bearing the inscription that
it was erected by grateful king and
country. That invention turned to
such use coal and iron which God
had planted beneath the soil of Eng
land, as made the country the first
among the nations, to remain the
first until her glory shall be eclipsed
by that of her unruly child
THAT young eagle of the West,
Driven out from the mothers nest
10 forage Tor 1ofS0lI alOno.
An American named Fulton had
applied this new and wonderful force
to navigation. Another English
man named Stephenson had applied
it to land navigation, so to speak,
by means of the railway. 1t was
soon discovered that the railway
train could be made to fly over the
land at far greater rate of speed
than the ship through the water.
Then began the era of railway build
ing, both in England and in this
country. The orgy which surround
ed the halls of legislation extended
to the temples of justice and the
judges were swept into the mael-
strom. The good fame of the judi
ciary of the English speaking coun-
tries, whether appointive or elective,
in so far as mere honesty-the COM
monest quality of judges-is con-
cerned,-is amply justified by his
tory and experience. Dealing with
every question openly and in public
view, under the full light that beats
against the throne; surrounded by
an upright and honest bar, sensible
of their dignity and proud of their
traditions,-a judge must be a poor
specimen of human nature indeed,
that does not deserve the credit Of
acting from honest motives. But
in period when public opinion set
in wildly in favor of corporate enter
prises, the judges, especially of the
elective courts, must have been
more than human if they could have
resisted entirely the force of the
surrounding impulses. They drifted
with the tide so far as to forget to
be impartial. Their intellects were
hoodooed when great corpora tions
stalked into their courts in the per-
sons of eminent counsel. Uncon-
sciously they did most of their
thinking on the side of the corpOr-
alton.
Railroad companies were organized
and their runners were sent out
through the country to obtain SUBJ
scriptions to their stock. They were
sharpers capable Of such work, and
they did not go out without being
first we'll instructed by their super
iors. They regarded the unsophis-
ticated farmer as their legitimate
prey. They promised him that the
road would come to this or that
place in his neighborhood, or that it
would 60 within this or that dis
lance of his farm. On these repre-
sensations they urged him to help
along an enterprise so beneficial to
him, by taking some of it's stock.
He said: "Put it in writing in the
subscription paper, and I will take
so many shares" 1t was done; but
the road was not so built, and when
he endeavored to escape from his
contract on the ground that the
other contracting party had not
complied with it on his part, he dis
covered that, instead of being de-
frauded by the cunning agent of the
corporation, he himself had COM
mitted a fraud on the common
wealth. If the representation was
not put in writing his position was
still worse. 1t was a fraud upon
him, but that was immaterial, for
the agent of the corporation had no
authority to tell the lie; therefore
the corporation might take the ben
eft Of the fraud, and he take his
experience. He had subscribed to a