Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-01-14

lVU4 st. Lou
out the power on the part of any
other branch of the State govern
ment to afford relief.
The man who steals a horse
knows that he may have to face a
certain term of years in the peni-
Tertiary. He knows that the law
has fixed his punishment within
certain limits, beyond which the
court cannot go; he knows that the.
man from whom he stole the horse
will not sit upon the jury that tries
him, and that if he is convicted
and given the limit of the law, the
Go yernor has power to pardon him
and that executive clemency will
probably be extended to him if his
conduct deserves it. But the man
who sits down to write an article
commenting upon the Supreme
Court enters upon the navigation
of unknown waters without chart
or compass. If he offends that
body his whole property may be
swept from him at a blow, and in
addition thereto he may be COM
PEELED to endure a term of i'm
prisonment, the length OF which
may be fixed by the caprice, pas
sion or prejudice of the court. The
men he offends constitute the whole
jury that tries his case. They
create the law, interpret it, pass
upon the facts and afiix the punish
ment, and there is no power to
grant relief if they should perpe-
trate an injustice. An act COM
mitted to-day which was per-
fectly proper yesterday, may be
declared to be contempt tomorrow
and the punishment inflicted at the
will of the court. The man who
comments upon the acts of the
public servants he has helped place
in the General Assembly, may do
SO without fear of any other pun
ishment than the loss of the esteem
of good men, if his comments are
scurrilous or unjust; or, il his
charges are libelous, by punish
ment according to the statute after
a fair trial before q disinterested
judge and conviction by a jury of
his peers; but the man who COM
ments unfavorably upon the men
he has helped to enrobe with the
judicial ermine imperils both his
property and his liberty.
1t is true that the court declares
that it has nc objection to proper
comments upon its actions, but it
reserves to itself the power to say
what are proper and what are i'm
proper comments. The power over
the life, liberty and property of
the people of this State, which the
~
Supreme Court has arrogated to
itself, is as arbitrary and despotic
as any ever claimed by Philip the
Second Of Spain, or Charles the
First OF England. The position
taken by the court is wholly sub
versive of a Republican form of
government and cannot be per-
mitted to stand. The contempt
powers of our courts will have to
be limited and defined, the same
as the powers of other branches of
our State government. In our
efforts to take Jul Supreme Court
out of politics we have made it
practically an irresponsible body.
In trying to create an impartial
judiciary we have forgotten that
our judges are men as liable to be
eaten with lust for power as other
men are.
There are two methods of pre-
venting the court from exercising
unwarranted and arbitrary power
in contempt cases; One is for the
Governor to refuse to permit the
executive power OF the State to in
flict a punishment for contempt
greater than that fixed by statute.
Tho other Is to pass a constitu-
tional amendment empowering the
: Legislature to define and provide