The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-04-12

w ASllNffION. ADFll ~ Inc recent Qe-
cisions of Judges Taft and Kicks in Ohio
and Speer in Georgia in relation to the
rights and duties of railroad employees
came up in the senate today in cOnnec.
ton with a resolution instructing the
committee on interstate commerce to in
quire into that and other subjects, and
quite a long and interesting debate re-
suited, which had not closed when the
senate adjourned. The remarks of Sena-
tors German aud Voorhees, as to the effect
OF those decisions being to convert rail-
road employees into seris and galley slaves
were criticised by Mr.. Platt as intemper-
ate and as merely intended TO excite the
passions of the laboring man.
\ resolution for committee to wait on
the president and inform him that the
senate was ready to adjourn sine die was
offered and agreed to without question;
but subsequently motion to reconsider
was made by Mr. iIoar and entered, TO be
called up hereafter. Mr.. Hoar's reason
Tor moving 10 reconsider was understood
TO be his determination. if possible, to
force the senate to take action ia the wav
OF investigating Senator Roach of North
Dakota. Resolutions to investigate Mr..
Roach's case and that of Mr. Power of
Montana were offered by Senators Hoar
and Cha ndler and went over without
action. In pursuance of the same pur-
nose. Mr. HOar successfully resisted a
motion to proceed TO executive business.
MIR. Hoar presented the petition of Joseph
dV for in nf lta ola
tion of L. ). senator from the state Of
Kansas. Referred.
Mr.. Gorman's Views.
Mr.. German took the lead in the discus
sion OF the relations between labor aud
capital. He said that one matter to be in
quired into was the recent decisions of
[. ;. judges, and whether. IN view of the
interstate commerce law and OF the anti
trust law, judges had right TO determine
not only what a railroad employe should
do. but what he should not do. Those
decisions were the first great step on the
part OF the judiciary to make serfs of the
men who were employed by railroad cor
pOratiOns. The recent judicial decision
that railroad employees might be restrained
bv an order of the court. might be fined
and imprisoned If they resigned their po-
sltIOus, was a most eXtraOrdnar decision
and one that had to be met at the very
threshold OF the next congress. Il ought
TO be inquired into carefully by men VINO
have but one motive and that was TO see
while protecting the interests OF com
mercel that no injustice was done the in
dividuals and that the courts OF the United
States should not be armed with power as
arbitrary as those Of the czaT OF Russia.
Mr. Dlatf cofH that ha haH not vat oaar
in the decision referred TO anything that
looked like usurpation of power by the
courts, or that looked like degrading the
wOrkmen of the country to the condition
Of serfs. lie believed that the employees
of railroads mad no more right to engage
in determinations OF commerce than
their employers had. And he did not be-
lieve that there was anything either in
the interstate commerce act or in the
antitrust that was not anaffirmaiion of
well-considered and wel-established COM
mOniaw.
Senator voorhees, Talks
Mr.. Voorhees, said that the most dan
gerous question that the country was
facing today was the entertainments of
corporations. with their power Of colossal
wealth. against those vino were helplessly
in its power, and whom il wanted to have
chained to their labor as completely as
the galley slave was chained to his oar.
This power claimed that the railroad en-
ploye was enlisted as a private soldier. and
If he left his post ne was to be punished
as deserter. He had therefore felt il his
duty TO introduce a resolution directing an
inquiry as TO what action might be neces-
sary for the better protection of the
laboring people of the United States
in their natural and inalienabfe
rights and for their greater security
from The encroachment Of corporate
power Nobody pretended, Mr.. Voorhees,
added, that a railroad engineer could leave
his engine, endangering a tram OF cars
ana endangerinR the lives of it's pas
senRers. But that was not all that was
contemplated in the interstate commerce
law. That law said. In plain terms, that
he could not alone, and IN an orderly
way sever his connection from
corporationt; hat he was enlisted to stay
and was to be punished as a deserter ii he
did not stay. He thought that the com
nittee on interstate commerce could not
be better employed than in investigating
this dangerous question.
The Roach Case.
Itmay be that the Roach case will be
the cause for failure Of the senate to ad-
journ early as il was expected last
week. At meeting of the committee on
privileges and elections Saturday. IL was
untarztnod that fha nommiltaa would ba