The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-09

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violent reaction and would band tho
great mass of citizens together forc~
ing them to stand by all the iudgess@
competent and incompetent alike. RAJ
Their than to see the wheels of iustice
stopped A movement of this kind
lean ultimately result in nothing but
damage to those in whose behalf it is
nominalIy undertaken. This is a most
healthy truth, which it is wise for ala
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-
er name for the odious vice of class
selfishness, is equally noxious wheth-
er in an employers association or in
a workingman's association. The
movement in question was one in
which the appeal was made TO air
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 ad-
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 wo~kingmen,.
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
country has cause to feel pride in this
attitude of sturdy independence, i'm
this uncompromising insistence upon
acting simply as good citizens, as good
Americans without regard to fancied-
and improper-c1ass interests. Such
an attitude is an obpect-lesson in good
citizenship 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
the dishonest activity of the very rich
man who works iniquity by the mis-
of corporations, who
have shown themselves alert to do,
justice to the wageworker, and SYM IS
pathetic with the needs of the mass
OF our people, so that the dweIIer in
the tenement houses, the man who
practices dangerous trade, the n~n
who is crushed by excessive hours of
labor, feel that their needs are under
stood by tn courts-these judges are
the real bulwark 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 also in hold
ng to strict account corporations that.
work iniqufty, and far-sighted in see
ng that the workingman gets his;
rights, are the men of all others to-
whom we owe it that the appeal for
such violent and mistaken legislation
has fallen on deaf ears, that the agi-
alton for its passage proved to be
substantial basis. The courts
Ire jeoparded primarily by the action
IF these Federal and State judges who
show inability or unwillingness to put.
| stop to the wrongdoing of very rich
men under modern Industrial condi-
ions. and inability or unwillingness;
% give relief to men of small means
,r wagewokers who are crushed down
~ these modern industrial conditions;
who, in other words, fail to under
stand and apply the needed remedies.
or the new wrongs produced by the
lew and highly complex social and
Industrial civilization which has grown
Up in the last half century.
The rapid changes IN our social and
Industrial life which have attended
HIS IdpIU SIONlu nave uIduS II u0CSS~
ary that in applying to concrete
,ases the great rule of right laid down
n our Constitution, there should be =,
ull understanding and appreciation
If the new conditions to which the 4
'ules are to be applied What would
lave been an infringement upon lib
,rty half century ago may be the
necessary safeguard of liberty today.
What would have been an injury to
property may be necessary to the en-
oyment of property now. Every jul
licial decision involves two terms
'ne, an Interpretation of the law; the
'ther the understanding of the facts
o which it is to be applied. The
treat mass of our judicial officers are
believe alive to these changes OF
conditions which so materially affect
he performance Of their judicial du-
lies Our iT1dinin1 cvctop1 &c co11ud and