The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-09


cent years, in what mas amounted 10
a social and industrial revolution
has been as regards some Of these IN
dividuals made possible only by the
improper use of the modern corpora
ton. A certain type OF modern cor
poration. with it's officers and agents.
IFS MANY issues of securities, and It's
constant consolidation with allied IN
dertakings, finally becomes an lnstru-
mept so complex as to contain
greater number of elements that, I'M
der various judicial decisions leho
themselves to fraud and oppression
than any device yet evolved IN the
human brain. Corporations are neces-
sary instruments of modern business
They have been permitted to become
a menace largely because the govern
mental representatives of the people
have worked slowly in providing Tor
adequate control over them.
The chief offender in any given case
may be an executive, a legislature OF
a Judge. { Every executive head VINO
advises violent, instead Of gradual, ac-
ton, or who advocates ill-cons1dereo
and sweeping measures of reform les
pecially if they are tainted with Vln-
dictiveness. and disregard for the
rights of the minority is particularly
blameworthy The several legislatures
are responsible for the fact that our
laws are often prepared with sloVenIy
haste and lack of consideration.
Moreover, they are often prepared
and still more frequently amended
during passage, at the suggestion OF
the very parties against whom they
are afterwards enforced. Our great
clusters of corporations, huge trusts
and fabu1ously wealthy mult1m1li1on-
aires employ the very best lawyers
they can obtain to pick flaws in these
statutes after their passage; but Lhey
also employ a class of secret agents
who seek, under the advice OF ex-
perts, to render hostile legislation in
nocuous by making 1t unconst1tutlon-
al. often through the insertion OF
what appear on their face to be dras-
tic and sweeping provisions against
the interests of the parties inspiring
them; while the demagogues, the cor
rupt creatures who introdue black
mailing schemes to strike corpora
lions, and all who demand extreme,
and undesirably radical, measures,
show themselves to be the worst enc
mics of the very public whose loud
mouthed champions they profess to
be. A very striking illustration of the
consequences of carelessness in the
preparation of a statute was the en-
employers liability law of 1906. In
the cases arising under that law, four
out of six courts Of first instance held
it unconstitutional; six out of nine
justices of the Supreme Court held that
it's subject-matter was within the pro-
vince of congressional action; and
four of the nine justices held it valid.
1t was, however, adjudged unconst1-
tutional by a bare majority of the
court-five to four. 1t was surely a
very slovenly piece OF work to frame
the legislation in such shape as to
leave the question open at all.
Real damage has been done by the
manifold and conflicting interpreta-
lions of the interstate commerce law.
Control over the great corporations do
ing interstate business can be effec-
tive only if it is vested with full pow
er in an administrative department, a
branch of the Federal executive, car
rying out a Federal law; it can never
ho off nv
is left in both the States and the Ma
ton; it can never be effective if left
in the hands of the courts to be de-
cided by lawsuits.
The courts hold a place of peculiar
and deserved sanctity under our form
OF government. Respect for the law
is essential to the permanence of our
institutions; and respect for the law
is largely conditioned upon respect
for the courts. 1t is an offense
against the Republic to say anything
which can weaken this respect, save
for the gravest reason and in the
most carefully guarded manner. Our
judges should be held in peculiar hon
or; and the duty of respectful and
truthful continent ana cTlJlClSIn,
which should be binding when We
speak of anybody, should be especial
ly binding when We speak of them.
On an average they stand above any
other servants of the community, and
the greatest judges have reached the
high level held by those few greatest
patriots whom the whole country de-
lights to honor. But we must face
the fact that there are wise and I'M
wise judges, just as there are wise
and unwise executives and legisla-
tors. When a president or a COVER
nor behaves improperly or unwisely,
the remedy is easy, for his term is
short; the same is true with the leg
islator, although not to the same de-
gree. for he is one of many who be-
long to some given legislative body,
and it is therefore less easy to fix
his personal responsibility and hold
him accountable therefor. With a
Judge, who, being human, is also like
ly to err, but whose tenure is for life,
there is no similar way of holding him
to responsibility. Under ordinary
conditions the only forms of pressure