The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-10-27
NARROW IDEA OF POWER
GOVERNMENT IS CAUSE
Is Chief Means of Protection
of Great Money Interests,
Says Roosevelt.
No Matter How Obsolete or
Impracticahle the Law is
Sufficient for Today.

In the admirable speech Of Presi-
dent Roosevelt at the dedication Of
the capitol at Harrisburg, Pa, last
week, among other things he said: ..
1T is the narrow construction Of the
powers of the national government
which in our democracy has proved
the chief means Of limiting the ma
tional power to cut out abuses, and
which is now the chief buIwark of
those great moneyed interests which
oppose and dread any attempt to place
them under efficient governmental con-
troll"
Here then, says the United Mine
Workers Journal, President states con-
c1sely the complaints so often voiced
by organized labor, viz, that the ju-
dietary administer laws that are ana
chronisn1s and that have long since
become comatUse in the nations which
first ordained them.
The judiciary treat our present in
dustr1al and commercial relations as
they were treated before Watt rubbed
MS canny Scotch noodle and harnessed
the geni1 Of steam. The judiciary sees
no change In the relations Of empl0ver
ana employe and treats them as il
they now exist as the worker existed
When he was taken into his EMPLOYERS
nome, taught trade solely performed
oy manual labor and primitive tools
ana virtually treated as one of the
family. They crib and conf1ne" the
era OF the locomotive with the laws
mat existed when the "ship Of the des-
ert' was the largest system of travel
and transportation. It is not an answer
to point to the Ten Tablets ~
stone and allege that the antiquity of
law loes not lessen it's value. That
Is only an attempt to conjure with the
moral FOR the material; to confuse
human nature with human endeavor
and achievement.
Everything has met the change save
the judiciary. A precedent a. tho,,sa nd
years OLD is of greater sanctity and
tney nold 1t OF greater value than a
living, sentient fact of today. No mat
ter how obsolete or inapplicab1e tn +ha
present needs law may be, they use
IL as a oulwark against progress. nb-
erty, changed conditions. If it is dup
from its enbalmment among the hoar1,
forgotten past its user is quoted 90
learned,' as a student" as "remark-
aole Tor his knowledge of law"
Progress has made it's way not be-
cause of modernized judiciary h,,+
IN spite Of its petrifcations.
But 1t cannot and must no+ ,os+
great while longer. The incnh,,s ~
a stagnant judiciary is going to he
pried off. We
IT Is true that when President Rooso
Velt frankly criticized Judge Hum
phreys OF Chicago for his decision n
the Carbon trust case that the da,11,
press rebuked him for his utteranoe
out IL did not term him an lana rchi.+ ~,
as they always do the membership ~
organized labor when thew saw +ha
same Things as frankly as he did
When President Roosevelt stated ~
harrisburg that the Judiciary ",s nou,
the chief bulwark of the rnonevod =,
terests," he merely stated a fact na+en+
to all.
Every wrong that f1ourishes against
person. liberty and property does so
under Judicial sanction, judicial nro-
lection and judicial inan1ty.
Respect the judictary?" Resnect
comes voluntarily to those deserving
It; you cannot command it with .
cannon,