Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-12-25
BOASTS THE COURTS:
EUGENE ". DEBS DISCUSSES
THE WAYS OF JUSTICE.
Judges Are Often Corrupt Creatures
Jay Gould Said, when Want .
Judge 1 Buy HIm"-Despotism Pure
and Simple.

dent-that all men are created equal
that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit Of ppiness.-Declaratio Of
Independence.
1t has been held that in the political
institutions of the United States there
are two fundamental facts recognized
the sovereignty of tho people and the
equality OF conditions. 1t Is held by
eminent Jurists that these facts are or
iginal. perfect, and uncomfortable.
In the formation Of the government
under which we live certain rights of
the individual are surrendered, but
never an inalenable right, never the
right OF life. liberty, and the pursuit Of
happiness.
To Invade such rights, to strike them
down. Is despotism pure and simple.
1t does not matter by what method
such rights are abridged or destroyed;
1t does not matter under what circum-
stances the rights are murdered or who
the assassin may be; 1t does not mat
ter whether vandal court, a savage, or
sultan perpetrates the crime, nor by
what juggling lies are clothed in robes
OF truth nor does II matter what high
6fhcials surround the bier upon which
a dead right is borne to its grave, or
what Marc Antony orations embellish
the funeral, the occasion simply cele-
brates the death of rights essential to
freedom, and when they cease to exist,
AHntt0L haV
wave and eloquent tongues glorify law;
the three cardinal rights-life, liberty;
and the pursuit Of happiness-lie dead
III the presence of the people, and the
sovereignty of the people" and the
Equality of conditions" go down to-
gether.
It is not to be expected that despot-
ism is to be proclaimed from the house
tops and that the rights OF the people
are to disappear as when earthquakes
swallow down cities. The approach Of
the calamity will be insidious. The
subtle and treacherous enemies of lib
erty will inject into some law provi-
sion to be vitalized at the proper time
and made the weapon of those who
espouse the cause of wealth against
labor.
Such reflections are largely within
the boundaries of facts now in course
OF development, and provisions which
are claimed to answer the demands of
the friends of despotlc power are said
TO exist in what are known as the inter
state commerce law and the antitrust
law, which, as they are interpreted by
the courts, uproot and scatter to the
winds the right OF railroad employees
to decide for themselves whether they
will continue or abandon work, as they
may elect, because. forsooth. thus work
IL Of a public or "semi-public" char
acter, and hence the public. more prop
erly the government, under the laws
which the government enacts. at once
reduces the employe to a servitude that
must inevitably. unless all sense of lib
etty and independence is crushed and
dead, result in revolution.
One of the astounding phases Of the
controversy now going forward. involv-
ing the inalienable rights of citizens, Ii
the autocratic power exercised by the
courts. 1t is dificult to find words fol
the proper characterization of this
power. In such discussions 1t becomes
necessary to refer to the debasing meth.
odB by which certain mental and
moral infirmities find their way to the
bench and are permitted to don the
robes Of office. They are often the crea
lures of corrupt appointing power anC
are selected because of their willingness
to do the bidding of those who are ablt
TO pay the price of their treason to jus
tice. Having gained notoriety as cor
poration lawyers. their study and am
bition having been to find law for tn,
protection of the iniquitous practices o
corporations. they go upon the benel
to continue their corporation practice
until men who have the means are dis
posed to follow the example Of ia.
Gould, who said: When / want judg
buy him." and this debauchery o
courts has reached a pass that a ma
jority Of the people regard courts, thei
orders, and decisions. with profoun,
suspicion and contempt: and this de
bauchery, this stupidity which distin
guishes certain judges, creates in tn
public mind continually intensifie
scorn, because the people behold in sue
things only the mockery of justice. The
see a petty tryant called Judge issu
ing dynamite orders designed for tn
destruction of the rights OF working
men and their organizations.
The practices of corporations to de
spoil workingmen are never so much a
hinted at; only the rights of corpora
tions to throttle, gag, crush. and de
grade their employees receive attention
It were useless to attempt to obscur
the facts. Sophisms and chicane hav
had their day, and 1t is seen that a
EFFORT Is being made by the courts I
subject employees to conditions such a
in former days aroused men to denounc
the starry ensign Of the nation as
''haunting lie."
It Is held in certain quarters ths
the courts are not deciding that strike
are always and everywhere illegal, br
only that striking must be done in sue
a way as not to perpetrate an arbitrar
and grievous wrong upon the public.
A strike of railroad employees engage
in the train service necessarily and a
ways subjects the public to inconver
ience, which is called "a wrong" henC
the intimation of the courts and tn
conclusion Of corporations that sine
quitting employment on the part of en-
plCysg peypstrates this wrong" thi