The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-07-21
JUDICIAL USURPATION.

/
accapta,ion that eternal vigilance Is
the price of liberty 1t is ever by
slow. successive steps that the citadel
Of tile peoples sovereignty Is won. IRE
they know it. it is lost With us the most
irsidious foe. as Mr.. Jefferson pointed
out, has been the ''sapping and mining
of the Judiciary. A HANDFUL of life
judges. appointed mostly by corporation
influences. are assuming the sovereignty
instead of the people, and power Is
steadily slipping from the many to the
few
None can deny that the people. us the
sovereign POWER. have the right to fix
charges of railroads and of all others
iischarging quasi public duties and to
decrease the rate and assessment for
taxation. When Federal judge asslm-
cd to issue an Injunction against the
railroad rates fixed by Railroad Com
mission. he simply las Judge Caldwell.
CT United States Circuit Court has said
Substituted his opinion rof the reason
ablencss Of rates for that of the Legis-
lature or the Commission created by it,
lie made himself the sovereign instead
OF the lawl
When Judge Sihlonton went further
recently and issued his injunction
against the valuation of RAILROAD prop
efy as was made .hy the Commission,
he simply substituted his. opinion that
the rate IS 600 high for that Of the Com
nisioners created by the law making
power.
Ii theses usurpatilnss Of power could
stand Che test of an appeal to the
United States Supreme Court (which we
feel suresfhey cannot then the supreme
power iIlaNorth Carolina is not the peo-
PIE. acting through their freely elected
Representatives. but the Federal judge.
No RAILROADS need reduce their rates or
Pay any taxes they do not volunteer TO
pay if they can find a Federal judge TO
agree with thenl-a not very difficult
thing in these days when rarely any one
except a. railroad attorney is appointed.
This hast injunction is besides con-
trary to beth statute and common law;
for, by the latter. no injunction can issue
except to prevent irreparable injury, ana
where is the irreparable injury in
ION hn f.vn
ed. and seeking to recover any excess
as all others do in cases Of alleged ex-
cessive valuation! His action is also
against the express statute in this State,
which ferbids any injunction against
the assessment or collection Of taxes.
ard prescribes that they must be paid
in full as assessed and gives a remedy
for the recovery of the excess, if on
judicial investigation any is adjudged.
If IA Federal judge is sovereign over
the lawmaking power Of the State as
to regulating the charges of railroads
and the amount of their taxes. then
there is no other subject as to which
by the same reasoning the opinion and
Judgment of these appointive judges
is net equally superior to the Legisla-
ture its statutes and its Commissions.
We have simply subsidized again into
District No. ." and Simonton instead
Of Gen. Candy is the sovereign. In vain
has been the Declaration at Mecklen-
burg. the sacrifices from Bunker Hill
to Yorktown. the teachings from Jeffer-
son to Bryan.
The sovereignty no longer resides in
the people when Federal judge at his
will can set aside their action.
II is strange that IN his day of news
Uapers. when the results of strikes il
various parts of the country are know
to everybody, the New York street rail
way employees should not have Learned
that brickbats and dynamite are abou
the poorest arguments that strikers cal
employ. Those who resort TO them re
ceive very little sympathy and supper
from the public, however great thei
wrongs.
Mr.. Pingree's street railway schein
having turned up its toes the kind-heart
cd will Lonp that the. Weld of NOT