The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-02-26
A ECKLE LAW K

.L. -
Senator Mahon seems to be compla
cent and obliging to a degree that il
liable to lay him open to suspicion il
the minds Of the people of the state
Although Mr.. Heinze has his persona.
representative in the lower house. sen
ator Mahon very obligingly consented
to present in the senate a bill which
the young Leonidas was particularly
anxious should become a law. 1t was
probably his great desire for success Of
the measure that caused him to have
it introduced in the senate, being dip.
lomatic enough to realize the danger
attendant upon any attempt at its in
PRODUCTION in the lower house by his
own particular member. But the
scheme, ~cleverly conceived as it was,
failed and the bill was promptly
throttled when it came before the
senate on a vote for its adoption.
The bill was for a law doing away
with the right of appeal from an order
of court granting an injunction and
was evidently solely framed for the
purpose of assisting Mr.. Heinze in his
present litigation. Thus, had it
passed, his hand would have been
strengthened materially and he could
have continued his present policy of
embarrassing the numerous persons
and concerns with which he is con
tinually at law. AS the record shows
it seems to be a very easy matter
for Mr.. Heinze to secure injunctions
in Silver Bow county that have the
effect of throwing hundreds of men
out of employment, and secure them
npon presentations that others courts,
among them the supreme court, have
declared to be insufficient. But, of
course, that is his business, as his
physical condition is not such as to
require him to breath the rariied
atmosphere of Butte, be is there for
another purpose than to conserve his
health.
It is Senator Mahon who has laid
himself open to censure. According
to his own admission he did not know
the purpo1t of the bill and also refused
to say where it came from. By his
confession he has shown himself to be
extremely careless, to put it mildly,
and not entitled to trust or confidence
as legislator. No man should be
elected to a seat in a law making body
so careless Of the interests of his con-
%stituents as to be willing to introduce
measures without knowing their pur-
port or object. Had the other sena-
tors been as careless and ignorant as
himself they would have given their
endorsement to a measure that would
have given to the lower courts power
and authority greater than the ve1y
genius Of American jurisprudence con-
templates they should have. It would
have deprived a certain class of liti-
giants of the right guaranteed them by
all the organic and statutory law of
the land, namely the right to appeal
whenever they feel themselves
agrieved. A law such as the one Mr..
Mahon was willing should be placed
on the statutes of 1.-THE state would
in effect do away with the supreme
court i'll certain classes of litigation.
as it would deprive it of the power of
passing upon matters of import trans
acted in the lower court and leave the
aggrieved parties without redress.
Leaving Mr.. Heinze and his desires
out of the question entirely, it was a
bill that should never have been in
PRODUCED and the wonder is that any-
body could be found willing to urge
it's passage.