The record-union., 1895-05-29
THE DEBs DECISION.


insurrectionist, is so clear, convincing
and patriotic that really 1t demands no
explanatory comment. Indeed, it con-
stitutes its own commentary. and is un-
answerabla in its logic.
It must make every sincere American
prouder of his land and impress him
more deeply with the conviction that we
have a stronger nation than the malcon-
tents have held, or perhaps than he has
believed. It asserts the inherent power
of the Government of the Republic to
protect itself and maintain uninterrupted
the means of interstate communication
and commerce, guaranteed to the people
the republic an indissoluble union of
sovereign States.
The American citizen who reads the
opinion of the court and does not feel
prouder Of his Americapism as q result
is insensible to patriotic feeling, and is fit
only for destructive courses: he is of
w
of society, the advocates of a Govern
ment without the virility essential to
governmental life. Government that has
not the right nor the power to discharge
the most ordinary functions of govern
ment. namely to protect the people in the
right of life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
or course il was expected that Debs
would "squeal.' This audacious cow
ard, who has skulked at every turn and
pleaded the baby act on more than one
occasion, and asserted the right to inter-
rupt the commerce of the country and
defy the tribunals Of his land, when
brought up with round turn for dis
obeying the injunction laid upon him &C.
cording to the laws of his land, sneaked
behind a miserable plea that the courts
had not the power to interfere, that the
Executive arm Of the Government alone
might interpose between him and his
schemes, and that it alone had the power
and the right to do 80. He then took the
stump and campaigned around the coun-
try at two bits head, arguing that the
Federal power was wrongfully exerted
against him through the Executive arm,
and that the latter was moved by the
power of corporations and the machina-
tions of money.
Now that the Supreme Court has, with
out dissenting voice, declared that Debs
is subject to penalty for oontemptuously
refusing to obey the mandate Of a court
of his country, the fellow is heard ex-
claiming against the courts, and asking
il they can try, convict and sentence
arbitrarily? He then proceeds to inti-
mate that the courts are SO corrupt and
are SO invading human rights that revo-
luton must come or men 60 in the chains
of slavery.
Balderdash. The whipped cur howls,
and that was to have been expected.
This worn old chatter about everybody
and everything being corrupt, and DOM
mated by the enemies of those who are
not permitted to dictate in this land who
shall go and who come. who shall work
and who cease from toll, who shall judge
and who refrain from judgment is weari-
some, and the American people are
plainly growing very tired of it Dsbs.
now that he is downed by the law. goes
10 far to excite sympathy for himself
as to assail the Supreme Court on the
income tax decision. 1t does not appear
to have suggested itself to his mind that
the court simply interpreted the Consti-
tuition, and declared what is and what is
not direct tax. That, in fact, the deci-
sion is a positive limitation upon the
powers of Congress assumed without
constitutional warrant, q check upon the
very body that Debs has been preaching
against as venal and rotten to the core.
Other alleged labor leaders. say the
wires, are echoing Debs and denouncing
the courts as tyrannous and corrupt, and
declaring that wealth has influenced the
Supreme Court in its decision. Such re-
sorts are always the refuge OF the cow