Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-05-27
JUDICIAL AurocRAcY.

When the authors of our constitution
framed that instrument, they did not
realize to what base uses it would be
put IN the closing decade of the Nine
teenth century. They did not know
that they were creating branch in the
system of this government that would
make nine men the rulers of seventy
millions of people and that Liberty her
self was doomed to cold and unfeel-
ing ASSASSINATION IN the name of JUS
tice. When they inserted that clause
in the constitution which says that a
judge of the supreme court shall hold
his position during life, they had in
mind the man of courage, the man of
noble impulse. the man of power, the
man of honor! The thought of poor,
week, biased corporation attorney and
monopolistic Eireling assuming the
dignity of Uuited States supreme
judge, did not, seemingly, enter their
minds. The selection of the men who
were to occupy the responsible station
as the highest judicial authority of the
land, was left to the wisdom of the
president and senate of the United
States. They did not even dream of
the future moral degeneracy of Ameri-
can statesmen and little did they
think that in freedom America which
had cost so much blood and privation
to establish, the people would be af-
fiicted with president and senate that
would select the foes of liberty and
common justice to bef6dl the ermine
of the bench.
But the die is cast, Our eonstitu-
tional fOrefathers are not to blame;
they were actuated by patriotic mo-
tives and they expected posterity to
make the changes that future times
and conditions might demand. If the
people of today permit capitallstic
greed and tyranny to rule and ruin
this country, they have their own
stupidity to blame. Five years ago
we attributed our perniciOus laws
more to our legislatures than any other
ed that the supreme court IS at the bot
tom of it all. Acting upon the sup
position that all men are innocent un.
til proved guilty, the people succeeded
in having laws enacted few, though
they were) favorable to the masses,
but the avarlce of wealth appealed to
the court of final jurisdiction and the
VIII of the people was ANONYMOUSLY
slaughtered. The supreme court has
degenerated; it is a mere machine
through which the wants of Plutocracy
are made law and by which the hope
of liberty is destroyed.
The most glaring depreciation com
mitted by any body of men against the
sacred rights of free people was the
annulling of the income tax law by the
supreme court, which makes capital
exempt from taxation and labor liable
for the burden. Next comes the recent
decision in the equity redemption act,
which reverses the supreme court of
seven state and which destroys one of
the fundamental purposes for which
the law was created. The arbitrary
action of this autOcratic court in this
instance will turn hundreds of families
out homeless upon the world without
any visible means of securing life's me-
ceSsitieS.
Of what use are our legislative bod
les if live men Ia majority of the SUI
preme cOurt) can destroy every law on
the statute books2 Isn't it about time
that the power of these few bloated ar
istocrats be abridged and the rights of
the people restored? The first thing
to do in order to bring about these re-
suits is to abolish the life tenure
clause of supreme judges in the consti-
tuition. Put the courts under the d.
rect control of the people and teach
them that their station is not that of a
Car, but that they are servants of the
people. The supreme court of the
United States is an institution which
must be fumigated, as it were, and the
| rogues must be driven out before the
| people will have chance to be free
and independent. The constitution is
| badly in need of an amendment which
will restrain the judicial department;
and the only way to do it is for the peo-
pie to take the matter in hand and ell
| ect such men to our legislatures, ma
tlonal and state, who will represent
the people fairly IN this respect. Let
the supreme court sovereignty be ami
| hilated.