The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-09
MILITARY AFFAIRs.

which deters needy and deserving people
from applying for assistance. If public work
could be undertaken direc5 1y by muntcipa
ties perhaps more relief might be afforded.
MILITARY AFFAIRS
The report of the adiutant general will give
you detailed information concerning this
department of the government, and, as the re-
port contains some matters of Importance to
the state. your attention is called to it directly
and detailed statement is therefore unnec-
essary here.
Knowledge of social conditions has greatly
increased within decade, and it is now no
longer debatable that large number of men
are out OF employment through no fault of
their own. Yet our statutes in regard to va
grants. enacted in the days of our almost uni
versal ignorance of what is now well known
savagely treat the merely unemployed poor as
work. In the condition of industry at present
prevailing, if never BEFORE these provisions
governor some months ago issued a circular
to police boards directing them not to i'm.
them only for the commission of some
dctual crime when guilty OF 1t. The
in search of work without Icing arrested for
not having found it. The supreme court. or
majority of the bench. has since decided that
these outrageous statutes constitutional;
but might is not always right; and for the
very reason that these statutes have been held
amended 1t is too true Of the unfortunate
poor that the world is not their friend, nor
the worlds law"
Your attention is directed to the increasing
tendency of the federal courts to draw to
themselves entire administration of affairs Of
the states and to constitute themselves gen.
eral guardians of the state governments. Ad-
uniting the sovereign power OF the state,
through its legislature, to fix rates of trans
portation, the United States supreme court
has decided that, nevertheless, after the mem
bers of the house and the senate have deliber-
ated upon a law fixing such rates and have
enacted it into law, with the approval of the
governor, solitary judge sitting as a federal
m AZ 6T=r rFa n nj n a
legislative and executive branches OF the state
government and, TO- that matter, of the judi
ciary department also, and substituting his
opinion for theirs as to whether the rates
fixed are reasonable, may enj0ln the enforce
railroad companies, the federal courts. con-
S1StIng usually, "a L am informed, OF but a
single Judge, apollsh as 70 such companies tue
state government altogether. The bank COM
missioner cites incident which serves to
show the arrogant 1ndecency of some Of these
tribunals towards the sovereign states which
lmpudently keep up the appearance of inde-
pendent government within the territorial
jurisdiction OF this almighty judiciary. "Iho
officers of a bank" says the commissioner in
his report. "surmising from the critical exam
nation made by the commt ssioner that apDIi-
cation would be made by him for the appoint
ment of a receiver, proceeded to make applica-
ton in the federal court. and secured the ap-
pointment of a receiver, whose bond had been
prepared in advance, and who was Installed
as such receiver by telegraph" This was done
without notice to the bank commissioner
under whose supervision the state supposed
il had placed its banking institutions Dur
mer the federal courts usurped the power
which the constitution of the United States
vests exclusively in the executive and legisla-
tive departments OF the government, and
2nder their own direction recruited, armed
anu turneu loose W oVeTruH bne sldte VI hau-
sas. military force subject to neither the
president Of the United States nor the gov
ernor of Kansas, but to the federal judiciary
alone, They were called deputy marshAls, but
were to engage in no service forw hich any fees
have been fixed by congress, and hence their
receipt of any compensation whatever was a
crime; for an act of congress expressly pro-
vides that 1.-The following and no other com
pensation shall be taxed and allowed" to the
United States marshals, and therefore fixed
specific fees for specific services Any charge
for anv service not so specified must be ille-
gal The obvious fact was that these men,
armed with Winchester rifles, were not ap
pointed to perform any duties az deputy mar
shals. but we're distinctly understood to be
combination Of policeman and soldier acting
under judicial sanction, as the mercenary re-
tanners of certain railroad companies engaged
through their receivers in operating the fed
eral courts. No attention whatever was paid
ously made of him for the assistance of the
militia The chief magistrate of the SOVer-
consideration than were the 'vernors OF the
confederate states b they generals of the con-
federate army coming for she avowed purpose
of subJugat1on In time OF war. 1t was
what Gerry protested in the constitutional
convention when the proposal was made to
allow it; it was letting loose the myrmidons
of the United States on a state without its own
consent" Worse than that for the horde Of
alleged deputy marshals was the dawn of ju-
dicial usurpation. 1t has been hitherto sup
posed that armies are to be raised by the leg
fslature and commanded by the executive de-
partments of government; and that courts
having heard and decided, the executive is
charged to see that the laws are enforced If
a federal Judge may raise. force of ten men,
he may raise a force of 10000 and arm and
command them for if the power exists, he
alone is the judge of the extent to which it
shall be exercised. This is not partisan
matter, but a patriotic one, and q protest
should be made against these usurpatIons IN
language so plain ana SO emphatic That 1t
shall be understood by congress. To excite
prejudice and drown the voice of patriotism,
those benefited by these outrageous Indlgn1-
ties to sovereign states, had recourse to the
suggestion that the doctrine of states rights
went down in the civil war Are we to under
stand then, that the states are no longer SOW
ereign to their own territory and their own
internal affairs? Are they to the government
at Washington only as wards to a city? The
doctrine disposed of by the fortunes of war
was the rip hi of a state to secede and assume
to be independent of the Union; to throw off
its allegiance to the federal government The
doctrine of internal state sovereig nty was not
invalidated. On the contrary, the reconstrue-
ton acts proceeded upon the theory that the
victorious Union was made up. not of a con-
solidated people, but of sovereign states
Regardless of party, all true. loyal citizens
of the monwealth that venerates b own
of Osawattomie. and treasures in its histori-
cal society COLLECTIONS the remem ORANGES OF
other days when federal troops over-run its
soil at the behoof of another Oligarchy, should
speak so vigorously that the dullest official
ears shall hear. and understand that such
indignities will be tolerated in the future.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Perhaps no episode IN contemporary public
affairs has been so grossly misrepresented
and so egregiously misunderstood as the Kan
sas legislative struggle of two years ago and
brief account of that conflict is due to you
and to the people.
The Peoples party elected in 1892 its entire
state ticket and clear maj ority of the senate,
but the state board of canvassers issued GER
tifcates of election to enough republican
members of the house to give them a quorum
and enable them, if their certificates were con-
elusive, to organize the house. The conduct
of that canvassing board was so extraordinary
that 1t publicly and severely rGbuked
even by leading republican newspapers, and
in written protest from Hon. Cassius G.
Foster, the federal Judge OF this district The
majorities claimed for several of the persons
to whom certificates were thus issued ranged
from to "a votes; and in at least four in
stances the ballots themselves showed that
even these majorities had been obtained by
means of false precinct returns. Ballots en-
tirely blank as TO the Office of representative
had been counted for the republican candf-
dates, as had also ballots bearing the name of
the candidate of the Peoples party. In one
district. WHARF no doubt could exist as to the