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


the District is the old common law.
The severity and injustice of the com
mon law in this matter have been in
some degree or another modified in
the majority of our states, and the
only Jurisdiction under the exclusive
control of the congress should be
ahead and not behind the states of the
Union in this respect. 4 comprehen-
sive employers liability law should be
passed for the District of Columbia.
/ renew my recommendation made
in previous message that half holt
! days be granted during the summer to
all wageworkers in government en-
| ploy
l also renew my recommendation
/ that the principle of the eight hour day
| should as rapidly and far as prac-
/ ticable be extended To the entire work
being carried on by the government.
/ The present law should be amended TO
/ embrace contracts on those public
works which the present wording Of
/ the act seems to exclude.
| The Courts.
| | most earnestly urge upon the con-
gress the duty of increasing the totally
| inadequate salaries now given 10 our
| judges. On the whole. there is no body
! of public servants who do as valuable
work nor whose moneyed reward is so
inadequate compared to their work.
| Beginning with the supreme court, the
/ judges should have their salaries dou-
bled. 1t is not BETTING the dignity Of
the nation that its most honored public
servants should be paid sums SO small
compared to what they would earn in
private life that the performance of
public service by them implies an eX-
ceedinCly heavy pecuuiary sacrifice.
| 1t is earnestly to be desired that
some method should be devised for do
! ing away with the long delays which
now obtain in the administration of
| justice and which operate with pecul-
lar severity against persons of small
! means and favor only the very crimi-
mails whom it is most desirable to pun
| ish. These long delays in the final
decisions of cases make in the aggre
gate crying evil. and remedy should
be devised. Much of this intolerable
delay is due to improper regard paid to
technicalities which are Il mere him
drance to justice. In some noted re-
cent cases this oyerregard for techni-
calities has resulted in u striking denial
of justice and fragrant wrong to the
body polite.
At the last election certain leaders
| of organized labor made a violent and
sweeping attack upon the entire jul
dietary of the country, an attack
couched in such terms as to include
the most upright, honest and broad
minded judges no less than those of
narrower mind and more restricted
outlook. 1t was the kind of attack ad-
mirably fitted TO prevent any success
full attempt to reform abuses of the
judiciary, because it gave the cham
pions of the unjust judge their eagerly
desired opportunity TO shift their
ground into championship of just
judges who were unjustly assailed.
Last year before the house committee
on the judiciary these same labor lead
ers formulated their demands, specify
ing the bill that contained them, re-
fusing all compromise, stating they
wished the principle of that bill or
nothing. They insisted on a provision
| that in Il labor dispute no injunction
should issue except to protect a prop
erty right and specifically provided
that the right To carry on business
should not be construed as property
right, and in a second provision their
bill made legal in labor dispute any
act or agreement by or between two
or more persons that would not have
been unlawful if done by Il single per-
son. In other words, this bill legal
lied blacklisting and boycotting in ev-
cry form. legalizing, for instance, those
forms of the secondary boycott which
the anthracite coal strike commission
so unreservedly condemned, while the
right to carry on Il business was ex-
plicitly taken out from under that pro-
lection which the law throws over
property. The demand was made that
there should be trial by jury in con-
tempt cases, thereby most seriously i'm
pairing the authority of the courts
All this represented a course of policy
which. if carried out, would mean the
enforcement of class privilege in
its crudest and most brutal form and
the destruction of one of the most es-
sential functions of the judiciary in all
civilized lands.
The violence of the crusade for this
legislation and its complete failure IL
Iustrate 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 crude
and vicious attack upon the courts,
even if it were temporarily successful,
would inevitably in the end cause a
violent reaction and would band the
great mass of citizens together, forcing
them to stand by all the judges, com
petent and incompetent alike, rather
than TO see the wheels of justice
stopped. A movement of this kind can
ultimately result in nothing but dam
age TO those in whose behalf 1t Is
, nominally undertaken. This is q
. most healthy truth, which ii is wise
for all our people to learn. Any move.
ment based on that class hatred which
, at times assumes the name of .'class
; consciousness" is certain ultimately to
. fail and, if it temporarily succeeds, to
do farreaching damage. Glass con.