The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-10

 to the state courts only. Such a doctrine has been time and again repudiated by the supreme court of the United States. It has repeatedly held that whenever a citizen of d state may go into the courts of a state to defend his property against illegal acts of it's officers, a citizen of another state may invoke the jurisdic- ton of the federal court in maintaining a like defense The state cannot tie up the citizens of another state having prop erty within it's territory, invaded by un- authorized acts of .,s officers, to a suit for redress in its own court. Given a case where suits can be maintained in the courts of a state to protect property rights, a citizen of another state can in- yoke the jurisdiction of the federal court
 No court whose officers are sworn to obey the constitution of the United States, can declare that any amendment Is unwise or should not have been adopt ed. 1t suffices for the court that the amendment Is the supreme law of the land. The declaration that No state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within Its Jurisdic- ton the equal protection of the laws, was not born of sectional passion. It had its birth centuries before our late un- happy struggle. It is but the crystaliza- tion of great principle of liberty for which all English speaking people have struggled and sets bounds to the power of those who govern. Ever since Ala bama has been a state its constitution has reaffirmed this great principle of Magma Charta, and has always embodle in its fundamental law equivalent pro- visions, which are now found in section B, which declares that All courts shall be open, and that every person claiming injury done him or his goods, lands or reputation. shall have a remedy by due process of law, and that right and jus tice shall be administered without denial or delay It is, therefore, new and startling doctrine to proclaim among free men, when a citizen brings before any court in this country the settlement of a controversy for which that court was provided by the law of the land, that he thereby defies the authority of the state. and should be terrorized and pen alized to prevent his securing the protec- tion which the law of the land com mands the court to afford him in the particular case.
 Leads to Anarchy.
 Some who reck little of the real welfare of the people, insist that the benefcent principle, that the court which first ob- tained jurisdiction of a case should main tain 1t to the end and make all proper orders therein. and that no other court can rightfully interfere, should now be broken down. and that the courts of the state should be used. although a federal court has first obtained jurisdiction, to undermine and nullify the remedies which that court may give for the protection of a right Such a contention leads to noth- ing but anarchy, and has been repeated ly condemned by that august tribunal which is the final arbiter of every right which can be asserted under the con stitutlon and laws of the United States.
 Courts may err, as all human insti- tutons do. Of so, the law provides remedy and that Is by appeal or re- vision in the mode provided by law, to the higher tribunals of the power which creates the courts. If in these cases, this court had erred. the remedy was open by an appeal within thirty days to the court of appeals, and thence to the supreme court of the United States or it may be, by writ of prohibition, from some higher judge, to desist from ad- Indicating the right, If ths court was wtnout power to entertain it.
 'The power of courts is largely moral. and their decrees and orders in this enlightened country are acquiesced in un- til reversed in the mode provided by laJ. because the law-abiding, liberty loving American feels that without such obedience to the orders of the courts the stability of our institutions and the lb- critics they are designed to protect would inevitably be lost. It Is a wicked thing to excite the passions of the people against the authority of the courts, and wh atever the end soupght to. be obtained thereby, if procured by overawing them or preventing the execution of their or ders that end Is accomplished at fear ful cost and inflicts a fatal stab upon the l'erties of the people. No one with any sense of responsibility for their utter aAces will deny that this complainant had the right under the constitution and laws to appeal to this court for the protec- ton of the right it claims No one will deny that it's bill presented a ease in equity of which the court had undoubt- ed Jurisdiction under the constitution and laws yet some have urged, to fan the passions of the people that the great principle of equity should be bent to the pressure of the hour, and that in this case, at least, a court of equity should not preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable injury while the final right is being ascertained as well as
 
 court of equity cannot have one rule for one person and ono for another. IT cannot say that a suitor shall not be pro- tected from irreparable damage by pre- llmlnary injunction in a suit concerning rate regulation, while it must freely grant it under like circumstances to all other suitors In like cases If if did tbat 1t would not administer justice without respect to persons, but would tear down and shelter justice itself. The fact that rate is involved does not absolve the courts from obedience to the constltu- tion or deprive suitor of a right it gives him.
 It is passing strange. indeed, that In or der to deprive this sutor of his rights in court. a novel doctrine is preached among the people that no order of the inferior court, whether federal or state. ought to be obeyed by local authorities until the highest court of appeal has fin- ally passed upon the right Such doc Urine wipes out and destroys the inferior courts and strikes down the jurisdict 'cn which the constitution gives them To say that they shall not exercise such tur- isdiction in such cases, but should act mere referees for the preparation of cases, when the supreme court is ready to try them. is to declare that no legislation, no matter how destructive to the rights and liberties of the citizens, shall be arrest ed in any court until the citizen has beer ruined it may be, while the unconsti- tutional law is being enforced pending q decision of the higher court. It would make the legislative power, in spite of the limitation in the constitution, the ab- solute master of the liberty and property of the citizen during the long delay re- quisite to get the decision of the highest