Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-09-09
ABLE SPEAKERS HEARD
AT ANT|-SAL00NRALLY
Hon. Per|ey A. Baker and Rev. Dr.. Hill
Deliver Stirring Addresses in Inter-
est Of Pfohibitory Law Of Maine.

our land, where men SequeStered from
political concerns and political ambi
tons holding the scales of justice be-
tween contendng passions and con-
tending rights, decide for their fellow
citizens the law. For more than one
hundred years the Supreme Court of
the United States has sat in that ex-
allied position midway in the capital
of the nation between the Senate and
the House of Representatives. typi-
cal object lesson of its power and of
its sublime capacity of restraining
either, and has done more to conduct
this government to the high plane
which it occupies than all other forces
combined. But in 1895 the Democratic
convention did not hesitate to strike
at that court-to strike at all courts
to announce its malign principle of the
reorganization of orr courts, as vehi-
clcs for the fitful. passionate, misguid-
ed and revolutionary edicts of unbal-
anced and dangerous men; and in 1908,
akin to the serpentine spirit which
hissed in the Organized nest of 90. we
discover this same hostility to the
Courts, this same undated determine
ton to undermine the stability of the
protection of person and property. and
this same stealthy invasion of the
judicial prcrogatives.
My fellow citizens at the close of
that remarkable campaign which re-
suited in the election of William Me-
Kinlcy, we thought we had killed this
seditious serpent in the sea of Ameri-
can politics, the serpent that coiled in
the popocratic platform of 1896.
ITO kill twice dead that horrid snake
And off his scaly skin to take
And through his head to drive stake,
And every hone within him break,
And of his flesh mnce meat to make:
To burn to scar to boil to bake
Then in heap the whole to rake,
And over it the Bosom shake.
And sink it fathoms in the lake.
Whence after all, quite wide-awake
Comes back once more that same old
snake
What is meant by this proposition of
a jury trial in cases of contempt? Let
Mr.. Taft speak for himself, "A recall
citrant witness who refuses to obey o
subpoena may insist on jury tral
before the Court can determine that he
receive the subpoena.
A citizen summoned as a juror and
refusing to obey the writ, when brought
into Court must be tried by another
jury to determine whether he received
the summons. Such a provision ap-
plies not only to injunctions, but to
every order which the Court issues
against persons. | say without hest
tatlon that such change will greatly
impair the authority of the Courts and
If their authority is to be weakened i'll
a manner never known in the history
of the Jurisprudence of the English
speaking world, except in the Constitu-
ton of Oklahoma. how can we expect
that such proposition can work to the
good of anyone. Those who advocated
this intervention of the jury in such
cases seemed to suppose that this
change in some way would enure only
to the benefit of the working men.
while as matter of fact, the person
who will secure chief advantage from
it is the wealthy and unscrupulous
defendant. who is always able to en-
ploy astute and learned counsel and
anxious to avoid justice"
But my friends, notwithstanding the
rebukc administered this assault upon
the Courts in 1896, notwithstanding the
failure of every prophecy Mr.. Bryan
made in 1896. and notwithstanding the
unprecedented progress we have made
along all lines of national growth and
prosnerlty-tandidatc Bryan comes
once more into the national arena pre-
serting not only his former heresies,
changed in name but not in nature,
but certain other eccentric political
foibles wrought out in his fevered-irn-
aginatior, and we are called upon tn
turn aside from the glorious era inau-
grrated by William Mckinley ard en-
larged and advanced by Theodore
Roosevelt. and to accept his weird doc
trines and wild prophecies instead of
the basaltic rock of political sanity and
safety upon which the nation now
stands.
A SWede over yOnder. at the dock
Continued on Page Nine.)