The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-11
The Senator'S Talking to Kill Time
While Waiting for Presiden-
tial Appointments.
Committees May Be Appointed tt
Investigate Senator Roach
and MIR. Power.
Rights and Duties OF Railway Emplove,
and Railway Managers Under tho
Law-Cnpltnl News.

WASHINGTON, April 1O-The senate passed
a resolution for the appointment Of COM
mlttee to wait on the president and in TO m
MIN that unless he had further communica-
tlon to make tho senate will adjourn. A
motion to reconsider was subsequently
made BY Hohr and entered. Resolutions
for an investigation of the charges against
Senator Roach, OF North Dakota, and Mr..
Power. of Montana, were offered by Hoar
and Chandler, and were laid over until to-
morrow. Hoar's obj,ct in moving a re-
| consideration was to secure action on the
Roach investigation before adjournment.
Tho recent decisions of Judges Taft and
Kicks. in Ohio, and Speer in Georgia, In re-
lation to the rights and duties of railroad
employees. came up in connection with the
resolution instruotinR the committee on
Interstate commerce to inquire into that
and other subjeots. and long debate re-
suited. PETER thought Judge Ricks' de-
| oision. which has been good deal criti-
oised BY labor organizations. would be
approved by them when they came to un-
stand better its scope and view it in all
Its fullness. IL was the first great judicial
declaration of principle concerning the
relations between employers and employees.
1t was declaration that railroad en-
| ploye was as much a common carrier as a
railroad president or railroad company.
Judge Ricks' decision. PETER believed,
would lead to the final adjustment Of all
difficulties between the employees and en-
ployers of carrying corporations. The
resolution was referred.
Jones offered resolution instructinQ the
fkon Ted A.:
vestlRatlons heretofore ordered, with power
TO visit Indian reservations and the Indian
territory. sherman remarked that nyesti.
cations ordered two years ago should have
terminated by this time. 1t seemed to him
| that there should be an end to such investi-
cations. Unless there was public demand
| tor them and some public usefulness to
come out OF them. popular opinion would
condemn them and say they were pleasure
parties organized At the expense of the GOV
eminent of the United States.
Debate drifted bnck to the discussion of
the recsnt judicial decisions. German said
one mattef to be inquired into was the re-.
| cent decisions of the United States Judges,
and whether, in view of the state commerce
law and antitrust law. judges had right
TO deter mine not only what railroad en-
pioye should do, but what he should not do.
these deolslons were the first great step on
tne part OF the judiciary to make serfs of
Plntt said he had not yet seen in the de-
clslon referred to anything that looked like
usurpatlon of power by the courts, or like
degrading the workingmen of the country
to the condition of serfs. He believed en-
pioyes OF railroads had no more right to
| engage in determinations of commerce
than their employers had. and he did not
believe there was anything either in the
interstate commerce act or the antitrust
act that was not an affirmation of we'll con-
side red and we'll established common law,
Mr.. Vest said Judge Speer. in his deci-
sion, had only atfi med what every lawyer
knows to be common law. He decided that
any contract regulation in restraint of the
commerce OF the United States was abso-
luteiy void; that any engineer had right
to give up his employment. but when an
assoclatlon or locomotive engineers or any
other association or corporation undertook
TO make rule and enforce it in restraint of
commerce, Tint rule Is absolutely void
'oorhees SAID the most dangerous ques-
ton the country was facing to-day was the
encroaohing of corporate power or colossal
wealth against those who were helplessly
IN It's power. and whom it wanted to have
chained to its car. This power claimed
that railroad employe was enlisted as a
trlvate soldier. and If be left his post he il
to be punished as a deserter. He, there
fore. felt it his duty to introduce the reso-
luton directing an inquiry as to what ac-
ton might be necessary for the better pro-
lection Of laborinR people. their greater
security from the encroachment of corpor-
ate power.
Platt said it was not wise to attack the
judiciary of the United >tates. 1t was not
wise to intimate that judges were czats. 1t
WAS not wise to talk about the disposition
of the judiciary to reduce lnbarers to the
condition OF serfs. The laboring man had
confidence in the courts and he would be
protected in all his legal rights But he
did not believe, and the laborinR man did
not believe. TINT while engaged in employ
ment on common carriers he could choose
his own time to leave that employment.
After further debate the question went over
till tomorrow. when Palmer will have the
floor to speak upon it.