The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1897-09-25
INJUNCTION is NECESSARY.
Judge Peter $. GroSscEr of the L.
5. Court Says it is Necessary to
Protect the Rights OF Pro-
perty and Personal
Liberty.
(From the Chicago TimeS-HcraldO

| StItutlOHs- 1HS pONtI IL useb, ust!dlIN
to protect some property or personal
right against a wrong which would other
wise be irreparable. 1t is a power in
aid of civil and individual liberty.
/ Ex-Governor Altgeld, in his phila-
delphia speech, repeatedly asserts that
where legislation covers arr subject no
/ injunction is needed, but where there
IS no legislation the supplied injunction
is simply court-made law. 1t requires
a good deal of charity to believe that
/ the ex-governor, who is also a lawyer
and an eN-iudge, does not know the ut
! ter inadequacv Of this reasoning. Legis-
/ latlOn is not the only source of personal
and property rights; legislation has
aided and nourished these rights, but
| the main root of these rights comes
/ from the fundamental nature of govern
ment. The time-evoived law that lies
at the basis of all government-the
! right of an American to hold property.
! or 10 speak freely his mind-runs back
| for its germ to no statute of congress or
! parliament; they are among the natural
| rights of man that the English speaking
race has always recognized.
The ex-governor assumes, too, that
| the purpose of an injunction is to create
a law or right. Iniunctions have no
such function; they are mere executive
remedies; they are simply method to
enforce some property or personal right
which the courts find the aggrieved
person already has by virtue Of the law
of the land
No lawyer has ever disputed the right
and duty of courts, where The impend-
ing wrong would be irreprrable, to re-
strain, for instance, Illegal encroach-
ments upon land; the commission of
waste; the creation or maintenance of
nuisance; official oppression Of all
kinds committed by public officers I'M
der the color Of their office; or, under
some circumstances, the collection of
judgments at law obtained by credi-
tor against his debtor. None of these
injunctions make any new laW-they
simply declare the existing law appli-
cable to the particular situation, and
| then proceed to enforce it in the only
way that would do the aggrieved person
any good.
The Injunction, therefore, is oId-an
indispensable power of judicial usefu'-
! is much newer. New conditions have
arisen to which the law has been apply
! ing old remedies, and this mjsleads some
very good people, and some very bad
ones, too, into Mysteries oyer govern
ment by injunction.
a few automatic principles of govern
ment must be kept in mind while con-
sidering this subject One of these is
that our government is, in no sense, So
cialistic, but, on the contrary, encour.
p! ages every person to acquire property
and in his individual capacity to hold
and manage it against all corners.
The other is the guarantee that indi.
vldual men and women, so long as they
do not become burden upon the com
! patton, when, where and at whatever
wage they see fit, and may maintain that
right against all intrusion. The ldivIduaI
his right to work and acquire-is ihe
unit of our institutions. Tpon this is
/ builded the entire framework of gov.
eminent. The right of individual isola.
tiOn-of being kingdom unto himself
within limits not interfering with the
rights of others, is tie root principle OF
Anglo-SaXon law and cannot be dug out
or cut into, without destroying the en-,
tire governmental growth,
The first of these principles secures
rights of personal liberty. Another
| principle of government, not so old, but
now equally we'll anchored, is the right
of men in common callings to associate
for the common good. Men or corpo-
rations engaged in the larger enter
| prises must employ, not only mechani-
cal facilities but live men, to operate
them; all these, managers, men ana ma
chircry, become parts of a unitproduc-
inc venture. This venture meets its
councillors and can only outdo them
bv cutting down the cost Of production.
The ak usually falls upon the weakest
part of the usually, too,
upon the men working for wages. To
strengthen these weak points by the
proper organization of its forces is the
true function of every waoe-carner'e
organization. Reason, sympathy, in
struction, exhortation, every Legitimate
aid toward consolidating human inter
est and purpose are lawful means in the
hands of those organizations and their