Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-08

century Ago may bes-the necessary safe guard of liberty today. What would have been m injury to property then may be necessary to the enjoyment of property now. Every judicial decision involves two terns-one an interpreta. ton of the law, the other tho under standing of tho facts to which 1t is to be applied. Tho great mass of our Ju- dicial officers arc. believe. alive to these changes of conditions which so materially affect the performance of their judicial duties. Our judicial sys- tenn k sound and effective at core, and 1t remains and must ever be main tained as the safeguard of those prin- 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. Therc are, however, some members of the judicial body who have Jagged behind in their un' derstanding of these great and vital changes fin the body polite. whose minds have never been opened to the now 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 it seems | cruel mockery to have any court decide against them on the ground that 1t de- sires to preserve liberty" in a purely technical form by withholding liberty in any real and constructive sense. It is desirable that the legislative body should possess and, wherever neces- sary, exerGse the power to determine whether in a given case employers and employees are not on an equal footing. 50 that the necessities of the latter compel them to submit to such exactlons 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 fin terference with the liberty to con- tract"-often merely academic lib erty," the exercise of which is the ne gation of real liberty.
 There are certain decisions by va rious courts which have been exceed lngly 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 dangerous occupation, or to work an undesirable or improper num- her of hours, or to work in unhealthy surroundings. and therefore cannot re- cover damages when malmed in that occupation and cannot be forbidden to work what the legislature decides is m excessive number of hours, or to carry on the work under conditions which the legislature decides to be un- healthy. The most dangerous occupA- tons arc often the poorest paid and those where the hours of work are longest, and in many cases those who 60 Into them are drfven by necessity 50 great that thsy have practically no alternative. Decisions such as those Alluded to above nuilify the legislative pnfort to protect the wageworkers who most need protection from those em- ploycrs who taEe advantage of their grinding need. They halt or hamper the movement for securing better and more equitable conditions of labor. The talk about preserving to the mis- cry hunted beings who make contracts for such service their liberty" to make them is either to speak in a spirit of heartless irony or else to show an utter lack of knowledge of the conditions of life among the great masses of our fellow countrymen. a lack which units a judge to do good service just as it would unfit any e1- ecutive or legislative officer.
 There is also. think. ground for the belief that substantial injustice is often suffered by employees in conse- Quence of the custom of courts issu- ing temporary injunctionstwithout mo- tice to them and punishlng them for contempt of court in instances where. as a matter of fact, they have no knowledge of any proceedings. Out side of organized labor there is wide spread feeling that this system often works great injustice to wageworkers when their efforts to better their work ing condition result in industrial dis putes. A temporary injunction pro- cured ex parte may, as a matter of fact, have all the effect of perma- nent injunction in causing disaster to the wageworkers' side in such a dis pute Organized labor is chaflng un- der the unjust restraint which comes from repeated resort to this plan of procedure Its discontent has been un- wisely expressed and often improper ly expressed, but there is sound basis for 1t, and the orderly and law abiding people Of community would be in a far stronger position for up holding the courts if the undoubtedly existing abuses could be provided against.