The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-10
Judge James Sounds Note Of
 Warning on Public Passion.

the increased cost of the ,necessaries | of life. Mines. manufae lures, furn- | aces and shops dependeht upon the use | of the railroad would pe closed. and | thousands of workmen in them thrown into enforced idleness.
 l Kindred and friends in one locality | could not visit the sick or attend the | dying in another locality without first l going to the State line and thence re- | turning to the place where duty or af- l lection called them.
 All enjoyment of intercourse by the people in one part of our State with the other people at other points in Ala | bama along the lines or the roads, whether for recreation, necessity. bus | mess, or industry, would either be ab- solutely destroyed, or so hampered by the obstacles which this statute puts upon the enjoyment of their liberties in this respect, as to render them al most valueless.
 Aside from the dire consequences to the public, the statute would prac- tically confiscate the right of the car rier to do domestic business. If it at tempted to carry on it's local business, as 1t Is obliged to do by the obliga tion under which it acquired its prop erty. and which is not changed by this statute, which has no constitutional validity, and the State authorities at tempted to enforce the statute, 1t would result in endless and harrassing con ditions, which would render the cf fort to do a domestic business worse than vain.
 Agents of the carrier would be liable to arrest and Imprisonment for their local transactions. It would be deluged with suits. Engineers and conductors and ticket agents would be snatched from their posts at any point, at any time to the delay and injury of the travelling public. The arrests would necessarily interfere with inter state commerce and delay United States mails.
 '"The lives and safety of men. women and children upon the trains would be imperiled for the orderly movement of their trains would no longer depend upon the control of the train dis patcher, but rest upon the comity of constable or sheriff as to the time of an arrest at any stopping point along the route.
 No Imperial Power.
 Does any one who really loves the people of Alabama believe the court should have allowed such a state of things brought about? The right and duty of a court of equity, whether State or Federal, to interfere under such circumstances and protect the public and SultOrS against Such ConSe- quences,. is plain, and has never been doubted since the judgment of Chief Justice John Marshall in the great case of Osborne against the Bank.
 The power of a court of equity to restrain the enforcement, of an uncon- stitutional statute is as effective against one clothed with official au- thority as against the private indi- vidual. Prout vs. Starr. supra, This is a Government of laws and not of men. There is no imperial power stalking abroad in the land of ours which can trample down the law as construed by the courts, and no person so humble or despised as to be without their protection.
 We cannot too often recall the mem orable words of the most august judi cial tribunal on earth, when 1t dis charged the citizen Milligan, illegally held under the order of the President and waiting execution after sentence and trial by military commission just at the close of the Civil War, because the Constitution of the United States is the law for rulers and people equal ly, in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times. and under all circumstances" Ex parte Milligan l 4 Wallace 12O.
 Court Has Been Defamcd. 'In spite of these plain principles so often declared by the courts of the country, the action of the court in