The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1894-04-25
SCORED IN A PULPIT
Judge jenkins Again Attacked in a
Sermon at Milwaukee.
AN ETHICAL STANDPOINT
The Rev. Jutlson Ellsworth Of Plymouth
Conversational Church Reviews
the Strike Deci~iOn.

MINIATURES, Wis, April s2.-Rev.
Judson Ellsworth. pastor of Plymouth
Congregational church, reviewed in
sermon the recent decision of Judge
jenkins in the strike order case. In
some respects it is the most severe
criticism of the decision that has yet
been made. In part he said:
81 make no pretcntion to be lawyer
or to know anything about law techni
callv, but about ethics l may claim.
without arrogance, to know what the
average man knows. My purpose is not
at all to criticise the law as laid down
in the famous decision of Judge Jenkins,
but simply to examine two or three
points in it, which, whatever their rela-
ton to other things, seem to me to have
ethical bearings worth thinking of.
Judge Jenkins says in his decision that
it is not within his province to take
part in the contest between capital and
labor, but the impression left on my
mind was that the judge did assume
part in the contest. 1t was not, l be-
lieve, the intention of the men primarily
to cripple the road as the court STAGES,
but to work on the sense of the receivers
the undesirableness of this state of
things. The judge assumes that the
men can be kept at work to prevent
Gripping of the road, but there is an
other way to escape such consequences
that is by the receivers continuing to
pay the same scale of wages as they had
formerly paid. l ask, is it equitable to
assume that the entire responsibility
for an inter ference with the business of
the road in the presence of such an
alternative should be placed on the en-
ployes7
"The Judge manifests the same bias
further along in assuming that the men
intended to cripple the road. Might not
they have expected that the receivers
would yield to their demand and pre-
vent gripping of the road9"
The preacher made reference to a
slight misquotation of the judges. which
is apparently nnintentional, and vet
which makes a wide difference in the
meaning between clause IN The order
and the reference 10 1t in the decision.
He continued:
"The decision TO my mind goes into
details in describing what the men may
not do which unwarrantably limit the
right of action by the individual. Shall
a man be prevented entirely from quit
ting work, no matter how a man may
quit work. He mu t interfere in some
manner with the operation of the road,
and hence may be enjoined. Can any
judge or any law in equity 60 SO fare
Again, the view that the Judge takes of
strikes seems prior assumption rather
than an induction from the actual his
tory Of strikes. The court has studied
Shakespeare to some purpose and had
in mind Portia, in the Merchant of
Venice when preparing his decision.
4 concede,' says the court, '+he right of
all employees to abandon work in concert
IT they do it at proper time and in a
decent manner Then he goes on to
say, virtually, that there Is no proper
time nor decent manner"
Mr.. Ellsworth thinks that wherein
Judge Jenkins differs from Judge Cald-
we'll, Judge Jenkins is clearly right, that
IL, 1t seems proper to enioin the men
from.a pu posed crime If the evidence
be clear rather than wait for the com.
mission of the crime to administer a
penalty