The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-12-08


them, refusing all compromise, stating
they wished the principle of that bill
or nothing. They insisted on a pro-
vision that in a labor dispute no in
junction should issue except to pro-
tect a property right, and specially
provided that the right to carry on
business should not be construed as
property right; and in a second pro-
vision their bill made legal in la
| Dor dispute any act or agreement by
or between two or more persons that
would not have been unlawful If done
| by a single person. In other words,
| this bill legalized blacklisting and
boycotting in every form, legalizing,
for instance, those forms of the secon-
Diary boycott which the anthracite coal
strike commission so unreservedly
condemned; while the right to carry
on a business was explicitly taken out
| from under that protection which the
law throws over property. Tho de-
mand was made that there should be
| trial by jury in contempt cases, there
by most seriously impairing the au-
thority of the courts. All this repre-
sented a course of policy which, If
carried out, would mean the enthrone-
ment of class privilege in its crudest
and most brutal form, and the des-
truction of one of the most essential
functions of the judiciary in all civiliz-
ed lands.
The violence of the crusade for this
legislation, and its complete failure,
| illustrate two truths which it is essen
tial our people should learn. In the
first place, they ought to teach the
workingman, the laborer, the wage
worker, that by demanding what is
improper and impossible he plays into
the hands of his foes. Such a crude
and vicious attack upon the courts
even if it were temporarily. successful
would inevitably in the end cause
violent reaction and would band the
great mass of citizens together, fore
ing them to stand by all the judges,
competent and incompetent alike, ra-
Their than to see the wheels of justice
stopped. A movement of this kind
can ultimately result in nothing but
damage to those in whose behalf it is
nominally undertaken. This is a most
healthy truth, which it is wise for all
cor people to learn. Any movement
based on that class hatred which at
times assumes the name of "class con-
seriousness" is certain ultimately to
fail, and if it temporarily succeeds, to
do far-reaching damage. "Class con-
sciousness,' where it is merely anoth-
err name for the odious vice of class
selfishness, is equally noXious wheth-
err in an employers association or in
workingman's association. The
movement in question was one in
which the appeal was made to all
workingmen to vote primarily, not as
American citizens, but as individuals |
of a certain class in society. Such
an appeal in the first place revolts the
more high-minded and far-sighted
among the persons to whom it is adj
dressed, and in the second place tends
to arouse a strong antagonism among
all other classes of citizens, whom it
therefore tends to unite against the
very organization on whose behalf it
is issued. The result is therefore I'M
fortunate from every standpoint. This
healthy truth, by the way, will BE- |
learned by the socialists if they ever !
succeed in establishing in this coun-
try an important national party bas- |
ed on such class consciousness and |
selfish class interest.
The wageworkers, the workingmen,
the laboring men of the country by |
the way in which they repudiated the
effort to get them to cast their votes
in response to an appeal to class ha-
tired, have emphasized their sound pa
riotism and Americanism. The whole
has cause to feel pride in this
attitude of sturdy independence, in
this uncompromising insistence upon
acting simply as good citizens as good
Americans without regard to fancied-
and imprOper-Class interests. Such
an attitude is an obpect-lesson in good
to the entire 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
he dishonest activity of the very rich
nan who works iniquity by the mis-
of corporations, who
nave 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 MN
who is crushed by excessive hours of
abor, feel that their needs are under
stood by tn courts-these judges are
he real bulwark of the courts; these
Judges, the judges of the stamp of