The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1898-08-16

something worse.
again it is a well recognized
principle of universal applica-
ton that when statute of q
state has been construed by the
higher courts of that and is
adopted as the law of another
state by statutory enactment it's
construction is deemed to go
with it.
1.-THE law of Idaho in reference
to the foreclosure of mortgages
was borrowed from California,
and is also the law of Utah and
Montana, and in all those states,
and in the supreme court of the
United States, it has been uni
formly held that there was moth
ing in it to prevent a valid sale
under a deed of trust, and upon
this principle, and on the strength
of these decisions the best lawy-
ers in the state have always adj
vised their clients that such sales
were valid, and so large amounts
of valuable property have been
sold in good faith. Now after
this construction of the law had
become a rule of property the
inevitable inner consciousness of
the infallible court, again comes
forward, and in the case of
Brown VS.. Bryan, recently de-
cided they hold that all the rest
of the courts are wrong, and
they alone are right, and thus at
one fell blow overthrow hundreds
of titles that have been acquiesed
in for years, and open the door
to endless confusion and litiga-
ton.
Again the statute of Idaho
says compound interest is not
but it nowhere says that COM
pound interest is 'usury,' and
every court in the country that
has considered the question has
held (that according to the com
mon sense view that in any case
compound interest is not usury
unless it has the effect of making
the total interest rate exceed the
highest legal rate.
But the infallible court again
shows it's superiority over every
thing; and in the case of the Yer
mont Loan and Trust Company
VS.. Hoffman, it decides,
'1st, That judge-made law is
bad law;
''2nd, That nothing is usury
except what the statute declares
to be usury; and finally that any
contract to pay compound inter
est, no matter how low the rate
may be, is usurious, in spite of
the fact that the statute does not
say so at all, and that the decree
of confiscation which they there
in pronounce, is nothing but the
grossest kind of judge-made law.
They hold, in short, that if
person loans money at one per
cent per annum, interest payable
annually, and also agrees that if
he does not pay the interest
at the end of the year, it shall
draw interest at the rate of one
per cent per annu; that is usury,
and forfeits the whole interest
while the usury law itself says
that contract for eighteen per
cent or nearly eighteen times as
much, is not usurious.
1--WE could go on, almost indef-
nitely, multiplying instances of
such judicial monstrosities that
have made the name of Idaho
synonymous with state without
law; made it's supreme court
laughing stock for the bench
and bar throughout the entire
length and breadth of the land,
but we forbear-anyone desiring
to pursue the subject further can
find abundant material in the re-
cent numbers of the Pacific Re-
porter.
"But what we want to get at
is this The supreme court
should be either reformed, or
Unfortunately all of its memb-
ers do not go off the bench next
January, but one of them does;
and it is of the highest impor-
lance that his place be filed by
a good strong, level-headed law
yer, who will abide by the law,
as it is written in the books, who
will renounce the doctrine of in
fallibility; and who will be con-
tent to leave the enactment of
laws to the legislative depart
ment of the government where it
properly belongs.
Government by injunction is
bad enough; but government by
notification is worse, Let us
have neither, but if there are
thraa ablo ahlo and honac 1am1y