The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1903-12-05
CORPORATIONS AND
MONTANA JUSTICE.
From the Literary Digest.

From the Literary Digest.
The decision of Governor Toole Of
Montana to cal the Legislature in extra
session, SO as to end the copper war in
that State is, so the New York Evening
Post thinks, an event that may affect
the whole theory of Democratic govern
ment in the United States. Judge
Clancy of Butte recently rendered a
decision against the Amalgamated Cop
per Company, whereupon that company
closed its mines, thr owing fully 10000
men out of work. The company de-
manded as condition of reopening the
mines that the Legislature be summon
ed to pass "fair trial law" providing
that mining cases may be transferred
from one court to another, when the
judge before whom they are brought
has shown prejudice; and the Governor
was flooded with petitions asking that a
special session be called for that pur-
pose. Governor Toole yielded, and the
mines resumed operation. He also enter
ed a protest against such law. and de-
cared that it would be better for the
State to have the calamity" continue
indefinitely than to establish the pre-
cedent that Legislation of given kind
should be made condition precedent
to the doing or commission of any act
by any corporation or individual in
this State" He remarked that no
other conclusion was consistent with
the genius and spirit of our Govern
ment, which demands the free and un-
trammeled action of its legislative de-
partment."
cit certainly is most amazing con-
dition of affairs" says the New York
Commercial Advertiser, "where the
people of State, dissatisfied with the
unpleasant rulings of a particular judge,
propose to take steps whereby the ac-
ton of the judiciary in the future will
be subordinated to the popular will.
"1t looks as though the real governing
power in Montana was the Amalga-
mated Copper Company, or likely to be-
come so," declares the New York
Journal of Commerce; and the Evening
Post. mentioned above, remarks:
Montana is, of course. merely a
mining camp which few capitalists
carry in their pockets Bnt it is not
the only State controlled directly by
large corporate interests. or by political
bosses from whom favors in specific
matters can be bought at any time. 1t
is, to be sure, logically fitting that such
a wide departure as the present in the
direction of open bargaining (accom.
panied by threats) between great cor
porations and State governments should
first be made in Montana. But the
specter of the precedent should and
will trouble other minds than Governor
Toole's. Universal suffrage has led
many to claim that the people of the
United States can have any kind of
government they desire. And it is also
contended that our educational and
other processes will increasingly tend
to make the people desire the best kind
of government. But how far is this
tendency in danger of being counter
acted by the coercive influence of large
corporations applied to purely selfish
ends? There is no denying the fact
that the Amalgamated Company had
the industrial situation in Montana by
the throat. Man must first of all eat.
But it is not pleasant to see his neces-
sites of this nature dominating his
political functions quite so powerfully
as they are now doing in Montana"