The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-12-08


hatred have emphasized their sound
patriotism and Americanism. The
whole country has cause to feel pride
in this attitude of sturdy independ-
ence. in this uneompromising insist
enee upon acting simply as good citi-
zens, as good Americans. without re-
gard to fancied and improper class in
terests. Such an attitude is an object
lesson in good citizenship to the en-
tire nation
But the extreme reactionaries, the
persons who blind themselves TO the
wrongs now and then committed by
the courts on laboring men. should
also think seriously as to what such a
movement as this portends. The
judges who have shown themselves
able and willing effectively to check
the dishonest activity of the very rich
man who works iniquity 10y the mis-
management of corporations, who
have shown themselves alert TO do
justice TO the wageworker and SYM
pathetic with the needs of the mass
of our people So that the dweller in
the tenement houses, the man who
practices a dangerous trade, the man
who is crushed by excessive hours of
labor. feel that their needs are under
stood by the courts-these judges are
the real bulwark of the courts: these
judges. the judges OF the stamp of
the president elect. who have been
fearless in opposing labor when IL has
gone wrong. but fearless also in hold
ing TO strict account corporations that
work iniquity, and farsighted In see.
ing that the workingman gets his
rights. are the men of all others TO
| whom we owe ii that the appeal for
such violent and mistaken legislation
has fallen on deaf ears. that the agi-
tation for its passage proved TO he
without substantial basis. The courts
of these federal and state judges who
show inability or unwillingness to put
a stop to the wrongdoing of very rich
| men under modern industrial condi-
tions and inability or unwillingness To
give relief TO men of small means or
wageworkers who are crushed down
by these modern industrial conditions,
| who in other words. fail to under
stand and apply the needed remedies
| for the new wrongs produced by the
new and highly complex social and
| industrial civilization which has
grown up In the last half century.
| The rapid changes in our social and
| Industrial life which have attended
this rapid growth have made it neces-
sary that in applying to concrete cases
the great rule of right laid down In
our constitution there should be full
understanding and appreciation of the
new conditions to which the rules are
J to be applied. What would have been
an infringement upon liberty half a
| century ago may be the necessary safe
guard of liberty today. What would
have been an injury to property then
may be necessary to the enjoyment of
property now. Every judicial decision
| involves two terms-one an interpreta-
| ton of the law, the other the under
standing of the facts to which it is to
| be applied. The great mass Of our jul
dicial officers are, / believe, alive To
these changes of conditions which so
materially affect the performance of
their judicial duties. Our judicial sys-
| tenn is sound and effective at core, and
it remains and must ever be main
|
ciples of liberty and justice which
stand at the foundation of American
institutions. for, as Burke finely said
when liberty and justice are separated
neither is safe There are however
some members of the judicial body
/, who have Jagged behind i'm their I'M
Outstanding of these great and vital
changes in the body polite, whose
minds have never been opened to the
new applications of the old principles
made necessary by the new conditions.
Judges of this stamp do lasting harm
by their decisions, because they con-
| vince poor men in need of protection
that the courts of the land are pro-
foundly ignorant of and out of sym.
pathy with their needs and profoundly
Indifferent or hostile to any proposed
remedy. To such men 1t seems a cruel
mockery to have any court decide
against them on the ground that IL de-
sires to preserve liberty in a purely
technical form by Withholding liberty
i'm any real and constructive sense. 1t
is desirable that the legislative body
should possess and. wherever neces-
sary, exercise the power TO determine
whether in given case employers
and employees are not on an equnl
footing, so that the necessities of the
latter compel them to submit to such
exactions as to hours and conditions
of labor as unduly to tax their
strength, and only mischief can result
when such determination is upset ON
the ground that there must be no ..in-
reference with the liberty to CON
tract"-often a merely academic Glib
erty," the exercise Of which is the ne
CATION of real liberty.
There are certain decisions by va
rious courts which have been exceed
ingly detrimental to the rights of
wageworkers. This is true of all the
decisions that decide that men and
women are by the constitution guar
anteed their liberty" to contract to
enter a dangerous occupation, or to
work an undesirable or improper num-
Der Of hours, or TO work in unhealthy
surroundings. and therefore cannot re-
cover damages when MANNED In that
occupation and cannot be forbidden
to work what the legislature decides il
an excessive number of hours. OF to