The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1906-04-10

1850 "a " - ia R8@t=-
cd on those who work for wages. You
beIeFe, If | am not mistaken. tina
labor is directly dependent on CAPT
tai, and that unless capital is encour-
aged labor will be the greater suffer
or.
You have a perfect right TO this
belief, ana 50 long as you hold Il
seat in the Senate it is not only your
privilege, but perhaps your duty to
oppose any measure OF policy which
challenges the supremacy Of vested
interests. but permit me to say THAI
there is q large and growing faction
which holds that money has too great
an advantage, which believes that
vast and ambitious corporations are
q danger, ana that the future de-
mands, not the piiing up Of greater
fortunes. but a wider and more equal
distribution Of the wealth annually
produced.
Here is a matter on which men
can honestly disagree. The man who
stands appalled, at the growth of Il
against the dominionshrdluaoinrdI
against the domination of corporate
Influences N your Senate is not per sc
a GOcialiSt or Il leVeller. 1t is his po-
htical privilege to ally himself With
a party which demands the curtail-
ment of Wealth'S pr~erogatives, and in
Waging a ballot campaign against or
sanized capital, he is not warning
against society" Men of your envi-
rcnment are apt to confuse az
gressive and defensive wealth with So
ciety and to assume that an attack
against the first makes a social GRIM
inal Of the asSailant.
| Will call you attention to the
fact that the writers who have aroused
your anger are Americans. Most Of
them can trace their ancestry back as
far as You can. They have as much
right TO devote their talents to a graph
ic delineation of abuses as you have
TO devote yours TO a railroad cOrOra-
ton in our capacity as q lawyer, and
it is their misfortune that their pay
is less and their prestige with finan-
clal interests less secure.
@ say of them hat ''they will not
end in the pillory as Titus Oates did,
because the pillory has been abolish
ed" 1t occurs to me that a gentle
man Of your influence should not find
it difficult to secure the re-establish-
ment of the pillOry. | would gladly
take my place in one for the privilege
of learning and printing the exact
truth about some Of the men you have
hOnOred by q defense.
You say it is the law of politics not
to assail the courts, and o score IN
ter-State Commerce Commissioner
PrOuty for stating that the courts and
other public bodies are owned by the
railroads. o say that o "appre-
bend grave dangers now lurking in
the readiness to criticise the institu-
tons of government and the courts
which administer our JUSTICE
Surely, senator Lodge. there can be
no serious danger from the scribblings
of a set of irresponsible magazine
writer's" Has it come to a pass that
a mere man can be hired for a few
hundred dollars to write an article or
a series of articles which will shake
our government to its foundations? |
refuse to believe it.
Will you please be so kind as to in
form the people of this nation why
the judiciary shall forever be immune
from discussion or criticism? Do you
contend that a court is like a king in
that it can do no wrong? Do you
hold hat it is impossible that the
Judiciary can OVerreach its just scope.
Do you stand on the proposition that
there is in our judiciary an impeccable
Inodesty and restraint which makes
the u~SurpatiOn of courts impossible?
what food do our judges feed
that they are bevond the whisper of
suspicion and outside the circle of
honest discussion and investigation?
Let it be admitted from the start
that every judge who sits on q bench
is absolutely honest, and that he is
con~scientiously committed to holding
even n scales of justice. Let US
refuse to listen to the %insinua-
ton that railroads and other corpora
tons use their influence to secure the
nomination, election and appointing Of
Let us ignore the state
ment that judges pay large campaign
assessments. and let us consider our
judiciary as an institution absolutely
removed from the suspicion of de-
cisionS based on expectation of per
sOnal gain.
But we must consider a judge as a
human being. Cur judge must first
serve a probationary term as q law
yer, and l believe, Senator Lodge,
the records will s~ubstantiate my
that most judges are not
chosen until they have first won stand
as corporation lawyers. Do you
of any Supreme Court or Fed
aral judge who was not formerly a
corporation lawyer? Is it not n fact
that skill as a corporation lawyer ad-
fits one to serve as a Judge?
do not believe that this question will
be answered in the negative.
Since the great ulk of the litigation
coming before our higher courts has
to do with disputes arising between
Orporations or etWee a
ion and an individual. it is fitting that
I Judge should have been SchOOled i'll
corporation practice. But is it not fair
o assume that years spent in the SER
vice of corporations will establish in
he minds Of most men q perfectly
natural and honest bias in favor of
corporations as against the general
public interest which is often in con-
lict with them? The soldier is biased
n favor Of his profession, the trained
in favor of his. and | believe
+ reasonable to assume that twenty
Or thirty years spent in the pay of ag-
corporations Will leave an
.mpress on the mind of a lawyer even
1fter he has been translated from his
office to the bench. Mind you, [ do
,ot saw hat this is so, and even if
+ be so it does not in the least re-
1ect on the honesty Of the individual
Judge. but | suggest that it seems
to assume that a corpora
ion lawyer will ever remain a cor
lawyer.
] am one of those VINO pelleFe tlat
-ba Constitution of the United States