Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1903-07-30
BY I'M NOTION
SANCTIONED BY JUSTICE BREWER
OF THE SUPREME COURT
In An Address Before the State Bar AssOcia.
ton Of Iowa. 1.-THE Public" Of Chicago
Criticises the Remarks Of the Justice. in
a Sharp Manner.

Government by injunction is sanction.
ed as a thing accomplished, by no less a
parsonage than Mr.. Justice Brewer, Of
the supreme court of the United States,
who in an address on the 18th before the
State Bar Asso cation Of Iowa, predicted
that the popular cutlery against it "will
spend ITSELF"
In the diving out OF the popular protest
against this arrogation OF governmental
powers by the judiciary, Justice Brewer
found reason for congratulation. Never
was there time, said he, when govern.
ment by injunction meant more to the
nation than in our time. What is need
ed now, he argued, is prevention rather
than cure,-the staving or preventing
of wrong. rather than only the punish-
ment Of wrong.
That this is modern need may be
conceded without conceding Justice
Brewers conclusion in favor Of govern
ment by injunction. Even if preven-
ton of wrong is the great need of the
time, it does not follow that the courts
may take the matter into their own
hands and supply the means of pre-
vention, without authority from the
people and in total disregard of estab-
lished safeguards for accused persons.
Yet that is what government by injunc.
ton, which Justice Brewer approves,
actually does.
Government by injunction is more
than preventive substitute for the PEN
allies OF criminal law, as Justice Brewer
describes it. 1t is a device that ongi-
mates not with the people but with the
judiciary; one which has been adopted
contrary to custom, even judicial Gus
tom, and without statutory sanction !;
one which enables judges to enact
special legislation in their own discre-
ton for each case as it comes up before
them; and one which deprives persons
falsely charged with wrongdoing Of at
least five elementary rights-the right to
an inquiry by grand jury, the right to
be confronted in open court with hostile
witnesses and to cross-examine them,
the right to know in advance the penal.
ty they incur, the right to trial by jury,
and the right to be tried only once for
the same wrong.
When justice OF the supreme court
sanctions judicial revolution which in
wolves the abrogation of such rights,
especially when that supreme court
Justice is on record in an address before
another bar associat on some years ago,
as having urged the future Importance
OF the judiciary to The privileged classes
as their protection againft hostile leg
islation, the progress Of government by
injunction may fairly be regarded with
even mere alarm than its own inherent
iniquity might warrant. What may be
the limit OF judicial usurptlon ? becomes
in those circumstances a burning
question. If the judiciary may so far
depart from its legitimate function Of
interpreting and applying the laws that
the people enact through their law-mak-
ing representatives. it may depart
from that function s far as to set aside
the very fundamentals OF laws so sane.
toned and to enact new system to suit
its own ideas OF what the new times
: need, then how far in the way Of usurpa'
ton may it not go? Verify that was
long-sighted and wise advice which JET
ferson gave to his countrymen when he
warned them, over hundred years ago
that it is OF the nature Of courts to draw
autocratic power to themselves.
In futher verification of Jefferson's
warning, we are beginning to find that
no sooner has the judiciary assured it.
self that the cutlery against government
by injunction "will spend ITSELF" than /,
, proceeds boldly to draw to itself further
power through receiverships. Originally
( receiverships were innocuous devices Of
chancery practice for the purpose OF con.
, serving and distributing imperled funds
: They were not intended to involve the
courts in the management of business
But step DV step the recelVersnlp lunCtlOF
has been extended, until now all man
ner Of businesses are managed indei
nitely by the courts,-an evolution
- which socialists very properly welcome
as socialistic. This reaching out TO
= judicial power has gone SO far in one di
rection that the supreme court OF New
York has actually managed notorious
brothel through receivers unknown t.
, the court, to be sure. though not to tn
: receivers), while in another direction tn
courts are grasping at the governmental
1 powers Of legislation and administration
a Now all this extension Of judicial author
ity may be needed by the changed col