Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-08


whose moneyed reward is so inadequate
compared to their work.
Beginning with the Supreme Court the
Judges should have their salaries doubled
II Is not betting the dignity of the ma
ton that its most honored public serv-
ants should be paid sums so small COM
pared to what they would earn in pri-
vate life that the performance of public
service by them implies exceedingly
heavy pecuniary sacrifice.
1t is earnestly to be desired that some
method should he devised for doing away
with the long delays which now obtain
In the administration of justice. and
which operate with peculiar severity
against persons of small means, and ia
vor only the very criminals whom 1t is
most desirable TO punish. These long de
lays in the final decisions of cases make
In the aggregate crying evil. and
remedy should be devised.
Much of this intolerable delay is due to
improper regard paid 10 technicalities
which are mere hindrance to justice. In
some noted recent cases this over-regard
for technicalities has resulted I'm n strik-
Ing denial Of justice. and fragrant wrong
to the body polite.
Labor's Attack on Judges.
At the last election certain leaders of
organized labor made a violent and
y
of the country. an attack couched in such
terms as to include the most upright, hon
est and broad-minded judges, no less than
those of narrower mind and more restrict
ed outlook. II was the kind of attack adj
mirably fitted to prevent any successful
attempt to reform abuses of the judiciary,
because 1t gave the champions OF the I'M
Just judge their eagerly desired opportu-
nifty to shift their ground into cham
pionship of just judges who were I'M
Justly assailed.
Last year, before the House committee
on the judiciary these same labor
leaders formulated their demands. speci-
flying the bill that contained them. refus
ing all compromise, stating they wished
the principle Of that bill or nothing. They
insisted on a provision that in labor
dispute no injunction should issue except
to protect property right. and specif1cal-
~ 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 a labor dispute
any act or agreement by or between two
or more persons that would not have been
unlawful IL done by single person.
In other words. this bill legalized black
listing and boycotting in every form.
legalizing. for instance. those forms of
the secondary boycott which the anthra-
cite coal strike commission so unre-
servedly condemned: while the right to
carry on a business was explicitly taken
out from under that protection which
the law throws over property. The de-
mand 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, II carried out, would mean the
enforcement of class privilege in its
crudest and most brutal form, and the
destruction Of one of the most essential
functions Of the judiciary in all civilized
lands.
Evils of Glass Crusades.
The violence of the crusade for this
legislation. and its complete failure. illus
trate two truths which it is essential our
people should learn. In the first place,
they ought to teach the workingman,
the laborer. the wageworker, that by
demanding what is improper and impos-
sble he plays into the hands of his
foes.
Such a crude and vicious attack upon
the courts, even if it were temporarily
successful. would inevitably in the end
cause violent reaction and would band
the great mass of citizens together, fore
ing 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 damage to those
in whose behalf it is nominally under
taken.
III
is wise for all our people to learn. Any
movement based on that class hatred
which at times assumes the name of
class consciousness" is certain ultimately
do far-reaching damage. "Class con-
sciousness.' where it is merely another
name for the odious vice or class selfish
ness, is equally noxious whether in an
employers association or in working
mans association.
The movement in question was one in
which the appeal was made 10 all work
lngmen to vote primarily, not as Amer
lean citizens. but as individuals of a GER
tain class in society. Such an appeal in
the first place revolts the more high
minded and far-sighted among the per-
sons to whom it is addressed. and in the
antagonism among all other classes of
citizens. whom it therefore tends to
unite against the very organization on
whose behalf II is issued.
The result is therefore unfortunate
from every standpoint. This healthy
truth. by the way. will be learned by
the socialists IL they ever succeed in es-
tannshIng IN this country an important
national party based on such class con-
seriousness and selfish class interest.
Americanism of Workingmen.
The wageworkers. the workingmen, the
laboring men of the country by the way
in which they repudiated the effort to
get them to cast their votes in response
10 an appeal to class hatred, have en-
phasised their sound patriotism and
Americanism
The whole country has cause to feel
pride in this attitude of sturdy independ-
ence, In this uncompromising insistence
upon acting simply as good citizens as
good Americans. without regard to fancied
land improper-claSs interests. Such an
attitude is object lesson In good citi-
zenship to the entire nation
But the extreme reactionaries, the per-
sons who blind themselves to the wrongs
now and then committed by the courts on
laboring men. should also think seriously
rs to what such movement as this por-
tends.
The judges who have shown themselves
able and willing effectively to check the
dishonest activity of the very rich man
who works iniguity by the mismanage-
ment of corporations. who have shown
themselves 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 man
who practices a dangerous trade, the man
who il crushed by excessive hours OF
labor, feel that their needs are understood
by the 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 IL has gone wrong but fear
less also In holding to strict account cor