The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-03-31

fHEAM bbLE.
In their organized efforts to secure
the untrammeled enjoyment Of their
inherent personal rights labor organi-
izations, farmers and other producers,
are often defeated by power that
ought to be one of their potent
defenders and helpers, the Ma
tional and State Courts. No.
one can study the trend Of judi
cial decisions without realizeing
that their general effect has long
been to strengthen the most un-
scroupulous portion of the capitals
tic element, and to make it more diff
ficult for the weaker classes to secure
that Equality of Opportunity
which is God Given-and therefore
inalienable-right of all.
From the time of the Dartmouth
Colleg decision, the, pretense of
judicial decisions been so extended
that a continuing wrong can hardly
be so fragrant as not to be transform
able by some court into vested
right
For generations the u S. supreme
court held that the constitution en-
powered congress to levy an income
tax, but quite lately, altho that in
strument still reads as before, the
change of mind Of one out of nine
judges suddenly nullified this right,
the cold fact being that by this decis-
ion, the court amended the organic
law
during an equal period the same
court held that state legislatures had
the right ito fix minimum rates for
transportation for common carriers;
but, only a few years ago, it amended
the constitution, by assuming that 1t
covered a previously unseen and un-
heard of condition that practically
nullified that right. :,
Ever since the Declaration of In
dependence, wherever our flag floats,
free speech, the use of the mails and
the occupancy of the highways has
been recognized as birthrights Of all
American citizens indeed, Of every
human being, but even here upon ap-
plication Of some Of the "organized
capitalists who wish to make it i'm
possible for organized workers to act
together effectively, judges have is
sued more and yet more stringent in
functions, the purpose and effect of
which are to tie the hands of those
who have nothing but hands with
which to work and to defend them
selves with, and to practically compel
them to labor for, and to do the bid
ding of, that class of employers who
wish to eat bread in the sweat Of 9TH
er mems faces.
| And within few days, we have
witnessed the astonishing spectacle,
for America, of a court actually fin
ing and imprisoning members of la
Dor union for persisting in persuading
! other craftsmen to unite with them
/ in a movement for an eight-hOur day
altho, to do this it had to assume the
, purpose of the enjoined persons and
organization was criminal, or land
; this without evidence) that criminal
acts were intended-thus boldly de-
! flying the principle that everyone is
i to be deemed innocent until proven
\ guilty
1t is not charged that the courts
| have always intended to erect bull
warks around the persons, posses
sions and operations OF the already
strongest and most grasping and un-
scrupulous of the accumulatOrs of
wealth, and the breaking down of
those that were built by our fore
fathers for the protection of the
weaker classes-nor that all of those
\ who have illegally assumed the right
to render such enslaving decisions
are personally corrupt. On the con-
trary, these usurpations are largely
due to the fact that the laws of all
Anglo-Saxon countries have always
been partially formulated by the
courts, and that for a long time, our
chief judges have been, to large
extent, selected by that class of peo-
pie whose interests require that self
evident wrongs shall some way be
| white washed into vested rights
| and who have naturally selected men
whose mental bias was in the right
direction.
| 1t is not surprising that, entrusted
with the duty of deciding what the
language of the constitution and law
expresses, judges thus chosen, have
from time to time enlarged or en-
smalled their scope, or radically
changed their meaning-by the
method called Interpretation. With
most judges presidents are both law
and gospel, and consequently, when
| one court decides in favor of the cap
ita1istic element another is very likely
to follow in its walks and go a step
further, and in little while, the in
depreciation is accepted as established
law
The late decision of the Kansas su-
preme court multiplying the oil refin-
cry bill is another illustration Of the
not uncommon court practice OF first
amending q clause Of constitution
or law and then declaring the amend
.5E N. /,