Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-08-17
MONOPOLY JUDGEs.
DOING THE DIRTY WORK OF COR
6PoRATloNs WITH lNJuNcTloNs.

operations WITH !NJuNcTIoNs.
Rsderaiy Courts the Fortress Of Plutoora-
-LeeislatdreA State Courts and, the
People Have No Rights That Railway
Corporations Need Respect.
$3.50. It. now seems that the clique Of Wall
street brokers has triumphed over the
people Of indianapolis in the matter Of
cent car fares 1t will be remembered
that the legislature Of Indiana reduced
the car fares from cents toy 8. The
corporations resisted the law by force Of
arms and when the courts Of, Indiana
decided against them they went 70 the
federal judiciary and got an injunction
restraining the state and city officials
from enforcing the law The stats
officials appealed to the supreme court
gof Indiana. which decided that the state
had perfect right to enforce a, 3tcent
car fare. g 1tlwas then in order fol the
federal judge to dissolve the injunction
he had issued. This federal judge il the
we'll known corporation. expert Sho-
walter of Chicago Herhas just decided
that it makes no difference what the su-
preme court Of Indiana has decided and
he has refused to- dissolve his injuno-
ton in favor Of 5 cent fares @ He rem
Idered a decision about q month or more
ago to. the effect that q s cent fare i'd
constitutional and any car fare less than
that violates the constitution of the
United States.aq He has now rendered
another decision reiterating tho same
solemn fact! y The remarkable thing
about these decisions i'd that the learned
Judge has to, I'LL So many pages of type
writing to prove this simple fact. His
decisions would each fiji q whole news
paper page, As for. the doctrine laid
down by Judge, Showalter, It is. to uss
the mildest expression possible, curious.
The people off tIndianap and their, state
officials and their state courts are inn
| potent,in the face Of his injunction.
| And Judge Showalter is himself IAN in-
| ferior federal judge one of the rank
/ and file. Local self government has al
ways been, supposed to be one Of the
dearest rights Of ! Americana, but here
10 a judge in, another state, appointed
for life and responsible to- nobody, 90
tually governing the whole state, Of In.
4 'diana.eb YlniRin}g naN AoGbay, itf
+ OF course this sort of thing cannot be
permitted TO endnret 1t would be inf
nitely better that all the states and all
4 the rulers and all the property in the
country persisted from the face Of the
earth than that the theory Of govern
mentt laid down by, this little federal
4 judge should be countenanoed, tits for
tunate that the measures of these little
fellows invariably react against the
very ideas they expound. The arrogance
Of the corporations is founded upon the
decisions OF men like Showalter, and the
longer the corporations are tolerated the
more arrogant they become. But this
arrogance in turn is the destruction o1
corporationism.' The officials Of the
i state governments intend to appeal the
case to the supreme court of the United
States, but 1t is scarcely likely, in view
| OF the Debs decision, that the highest
court in the land will reverse Judge
Showalter in this matter On the con-
trary, it seems, to us most likely that he
q
The intense joy of the street railway
4 magnates at the decision is natural
1t means that any attempt to reduce car
/ fares from 5 cents to 8 cents will be re-
sisted by the corporations, and that the
4 federal Judiciary will step in and par
alyze an entire state government. The
state governments have, in fact, at last
met the fate predicted BY Jefferson,
\ when he first attacked the federal judi
oiary. jefferson 3. fear was that the
state governments would iibe utterly de-
stroyed or atrophied by the growing
1 usufpations Of the national government
Those who understand the despotio
tendency of Capitalization in govern
ment will appreciate, the alarm 81, JEFF
ferson on this point, . The usurpations Of
the federal Judiciary are making the
federal government omnipotent. and a.
the federal government is despotio. the
consequences are easily seen..tl i4
4 1t is not difficult to account for the
origin Of Judge Showalter's theory Of
A the constitution He was for many
years before going on the bench one Of
the leading counsel for the very ring Of
corporation .magnates now headed by
the great Yerkes He made thousands
A of dollars by means of the reorganiza-
ton of railroads and street car lines,
I and just prior to, his appointment to
the federal bench he received fat fea
for the part he took in the street rail-
/ way combines consolidation These
facts are very we'll known, in Chicago.
where Judge ,Showalter's decisions in
i favor Of corporations have from time to
time created astonishment even in the
4 minds. of those whom they favored. The
| judge is himself stockholder in COR
| porations Of the street railway oharac-
ter, or he was last year, and it is fair
to presume is SO still OF COURSE one
cannot expect very much from the
I judges Who find their way to the fed
i, ,eral bench nowadays, but even the most
4, yenal magistrates are at; times open to
! the. consideration of, delicacy. Judge
Showalterr had no jurisdiction in In
y diana. The law allows him none, He
u entered the state at the invitation Of q
federal judge who was afraid to under
4 take the dirty work Of the combine in
/. q