Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-22
LABOR AND COXEYISM
Judge Cooley's Address to the Bar
Association.
OF CURRENT QUESTIONS
Boycotts, Strikes and the Rights
of Citizens.
CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS

SARATOGA, N.Y.,August 22-The Ameri-
can Bar Association, of which Judge Thos.
NJ. Cooley Of Ann Arbor. Mich, Is president,
began its seventeenth annual meeting here
this morning. The president being absent
by reason of Illness his address was read
by the acting president, Judge Samuel F.
Hunt Of Cincinnati. 1t was very lengthy
and communicated the most noteworthy
changes in statutory law on points of gen.
eral interest which have been made in the
several states and by Congress during the
preceding year.
Judge COOley's Address.
Judge Cooley passed In review the new
laws made by the several states during the
year, touching particularly upon those re-
lating to the inheritance tax in Ohio and
New Jersey. the liquor traffic, marriage and
divorce and medical practice. He then took
up the subject of the Coxey armies, to
which he alluded as that extraordinary
spectacle of considerable bodies of men col
lected In various sections Of the country,
under the leadership Of persons who as
sumed military titles, and who proposed to
march upon Washington and make demand
In the name of the people for legislation in
the supposed interest Of those among us
who were out of employment"
THE thought actuating the movement If
we may judge from such means as were
furnished US for understanding It," said
Judge Cooley, was that the country OF
their birth, or which they had selected to
live in, owed them the duty to see that the
means Of support were provided them and
that the government must perform this
duty. No attention seems to have been
taken by them of the apportionment of
power between the state and the general
government; the states were passed I'M
20 lfav
Institutions it was plain enough that the
duty insisted upon, IL 1t existed at ALL must
rest upon the states, and the armies
marched directly upon the national capital
to demand the action Of the general govern
ment. The national legislature must pro-
vide these idle men with means Of obtaining
living
The judge rapidly passed in review the
march of the so-called army of the COM
monweal; Its seizure Of railway trains; its
subsistence upon the residents Of the Sec
tons through which 1t passed; its defiance
Of law and assumption that 1t represented
the working people Of the country. The
apathy and tolerance with which citizens
viewed the acts of the army the speaker
regarded with establishment
But for its demoralizing effect upon those
who took part in 1t, and who were, as was
pretended, lesirous of q life of industry
and also upon all who in any way lent 1t
countenance, this march upon the national
Capitol might well have appeared to the
observer ludicrous In the extreme.
The pretenSe Of the leaders that they
only desired to go to the Capitol that they
might III person exercise their constitution
al right Of petition, and present to the two
houses In session the written expression of
their views and needs. was said Judge
Cooley, AS Idle as any Of their other pre-
lenses. Such personal appearance might be
permitted on special occasions. but it Is not
a matter of right. and cannot well be. The
Constitution contemplates no visit Of the
fnfO H.
Of mouth or otherwise of his opinion or
desires; he has an indefeasible right to do
this by his representation; any other meth
cd would not only be without value, but
might even be employed in legislative halls
for the most mischievous and obstructive
purposes. Their claim in this particular
was as baseless as all the others.
THE teaching of the whole movement
was socialistic. though oftentimes doc
trines deserving of still harsher designa-
ton found utterance among them. But
they we're, nevertheless, tolerated to an ex-
tent that for "a long time rendered their
rowing life one Of unaccustomed enjoyment
to many OF their number, SO that we may
almost say that armies like them are en-
couraged to live upon the country, marching
under like dangerous pretenses hereafter.
They claimed to represent an unacknowl-
edged but fundamental right Of the people,
when, in fact, they represented only idle
ness and disorder, and their seizure Of
mears Of transportation and demand for
food and shelter as they moved along were
directly in the line of, and only warranted
by, their socialistic motions. But their
treatment, we are obliged to admit, was In
very many cases such as, instead Of re-
pressing the public mischief. has only tend
ed to perpetuate 1t"
Obligations of Lawyers.
In the face Of such demonstrations as that
Just described, Judge Cooley thought it well
to impress upon his hearers the obligations
under which, as members Of the legal pro-
fession, they were placed by their oath to
support the Constitution of the United
States and of the state. A lawyer, he said,
may very often more effectually support
the Constitution and laws by assisting to
build up public sentiment that shall con-
stitute an impregnable bulwark against
those who. either through malice or ignor-
ance or with revolutionary purpose, assail
them than 1t would be possible for him to
do by personal service as a soldier, or by
physical assistance in the suppression of
the rebellion or of domestic disorder.
What i desire to impress at this time
upon the members Of the legal profession is
that every one of them is or should be from
his very position, and from the license
which gives him special privileges in the
of legal questions and con-
troversies; a public leader and teacher.
ton and laws, and to act with all due fidelity
to the courts, is not fully performed when
the fundamental organization Of society is
assailed or threatened, or the laws defied or
likely to be in the community in which he
lives, as a result Of revolutionary purpose
or of ignorance or unreasonable passion,
unless he comes to the front as the sup
porter Of settled institutions and of public
order, and does what he properly and law
fully can to correct any sentiment, general
or local, that would in itself be a public
danger, or be likely to lead 10 disorder or
unlawful Violence"
Anarchy in America.
Abiding to the fact that the last year
had been specially prolific in acts Of vio-
lence against individuals who were charged
with crime of a particularly disgusting or
horrifying character, or who for any
reason had made themselves specially OBJ
noxious or repulsive to their neighbors or
to some specially influential or numerous
class of the community, Judge Cooley con-
tinued:
Until recently 1t has been assumed by
some Of our people that one section of the
country only was justly subject to the re-
proach that it's public sentiment tolerated
the crime Of inflicting punishment by law
less force, and that even In that section it
vas limited for the most part to one gross
and disgusting clsss Of offenses But no
one section can longer reproach any other
in this particular. Lynchings during the
year have been numerous north, south and
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