Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-09

ganized labor made a violent and sweeping
attack upon the entire judiciary of the coun-
try, an attack couched in such terms as to
include the most upright, honest and broad
minded judges. no less than those of mar
rover mind and more restricted outlook. 1t
was the kind OF attack admirably fitted to
prevent any successful attempt to reform
abuses of the judiciary, because 1t gave
the champions of the unjust judge their
eagerly desired opportunity to shift their
ground into a championship Of just judges
who were unJustly assailed. Last year, be-
fore the house committee on the judiciary,
these same labor leaders formulated their
demands, specifying the bill that contained
them, refusing all compromise. stating they
wished the principle of that bill or nothing.
They insisted on a provision that in a la
Dor dispute no injunction should issue ex-
cept to protect a property right, and spe-
officially provided that the right to carry
on business should not be construed as a
property right; and In a second provision
their bill made legal in a labor dispute any
act or agreement by or between two or
more persons that would not have been un-
lawful II done by a single person. In other
words, this bill legalized blacklisting and
boycotting in every form, legalizlng. for
instance, those forms OF the secondary boy
colt which the anthracite Goa. strike COM
mission so unreservedly condemned; while
the right TO carry on a business, was ex-
plicitly taken out from under that protec-
ton which the law throws over property.
The demand was made that there should
be trial by jury In contempt cases, thereby
most seriously impairing the authority OF
the courts. All this represented a course
of policy which, IL carried out, would mean
the enforcement Of class privilege in It's
crudest and most brutal form, and the de-
struciton of one OF the most essential func-
tions of the judiciary in all civilized lands.
The wageworkers, the -workingmen, the
laboring men Of the country by the way
in which they r~epudiated the effort to sget
them to cast their votes in response to an
appeal to class hatred. have emphasized
their sound patriotism and Americanism
The whole country has cause to feel pride
in this attitude of sturdy independence, H..
this incorporating insistence upon acting
simply as good citizens, as good Ameri-
cans, without regard to fancied-and i'm
proper-class interests. Such an attitude
is an object lesson in good citizenship to
the entire nation.
Extremtats Are Wrong.
But the extreme RIGHTEOUSNESS, the per-
SONS VINO pima 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 por.
tends. The judges who rave shown them.
selves able and willing effectively to check
the dishonest activity of the very rich mar
who works iniquity by the -mismanagement
of corporations, who have shown them
selves alert to do justice to the wage.
worker. and sympathetic with the needs
Of the mass of, our people. so that the
dweller in the tenement houses, the mar
who practices a dangerous trade, the mar
who is crushed by excessive hours of labor
feel that their needs are understood by
the c~ourts-these judges are the real hui
wark Of the courts; these judges, the
judges of the stamp of the president-elect
who have been fearless in opposing Labor
when It has gone wrong, but fearless alsc
In holding to strict account corporations
that work ~iniquity, and far-sighted In
seeing that the -workingman gets his rights
are the men of all others to whom WI
owe it that the appeal for such violen.
and mistaken legislation has fallen on deai