Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-12-08

IL sHCuuNlElluS uuTueCeTS Or III Dr1nR,
ing to Justice men who as public sery-
ants have been guilty Of corruption OF
who have protited by the corruption of
public servants. The result is equally
unfortunate whether due to hair split
ting technicalities In the interpreta-
ton of law by judges, to sentimental
ity and class consciousness on the part
of juries or to hysteria and sensation
5alism in the daily press. For much
of this failure of justice no RESPONSE
bility whatever lies on rich men as
such. We who make up the mass of
the people cannot shift the RESPONSE
bility from our own shoulders. But
there is an important part OF the fail
IRE which has specially TO do with
inability to hold to proper account men
of wealth who behave badly.
The chief breakdown is in dealing
with the nav relations that arise from
the mutualism, the interdependence, of
our time. Every new social relation
begets a new type of wrongdoing- of
sin, to use an old fashioned word and
many years always elapse before so
ciety is able to turn this sin into crime
which can be effectively punished at
law. During the lifetime of the older
men now alive the social relations
have changed far more rapidly than in
the preceding two centuries. The i'm
mense growth of corporations, of bust
ness done by associations and the ex-
IRENE strain and pressure Of modern
life have produced conditions which
render the public confused as to who
its really dangerous foes are, and
among the public servants who have
not only shared this confusion, but by
some of their acts have increased it,
are certain judges. Marked inefticien-
cy has been shown in dealing with cor.
porations and in resettling the proper
attitude to be taken by the public not
only toward corporations, but toward
labor and toward the social questions
arising out Of the factory system and
the enormous growth Of our great
cities.
The huge wealth that has been ac-
cumulated by few individuals Of re-
cent years, in what has amounted to a
social and industrial revolution, has
been as regards some Of these indi-
viduals made possible only by the i'm
proper use Of the modern corporation.
A certain type of modera corporation.
with its officers and agents, its many
issues of securities and its constant
consolidation with allied undertake
;,,1 inc f.t>,1t ca
complex as to contain a greater num-
Der of elements that under various
judicial decisions lend themselves to
fraud and oppression than any device
yet evolved in the human brain. Cor
3porations arc necessary instruments
OF modern business. They have been
permitted to become menace largely
because the governmental representa-
tives of the people have worked slowly
in providing for adequate control over
them.
The chief offender III any given case
may be an executive, n legislature or a
judge. Every executive head who ad-
.vises violent instead Of gradual action
or who advocates ill considered and
sweeping measures of reform, es-
pccaly il they are tainted with vim
dictivencss and disregard for the
rights OF the minority, is particularly
blumeworthy. The several legislatures
are responsible for the fact that our
laws are often prepared with slovenly
haste and lack of consideration.
Moreover, they are often prepared and
Still more frequently amended dur
ing passage at the suggestion of the
very parties against whom they are
afterward enforced. Our great clus-
tiers Of corporations, huge trusts and
fubulously wealthy multimillionaries
employ the very best lawyers they can
obtain to pick flaws in these statutes
after their passage, but they also en-
ploy class Of secret agents who seek
under the advice of experts to render
hostile legislation innocuous by making
it unconstitutional, often through the
insertion of what appear on their face
to be drastic and sweeping provisions
against the interests of the parties in
spring them, while the dcmagogues,
the corrupt creatures who Introduce
matchmaking schemes to Strike cor
porations and all who demand ex-
IRENE and undesirably radical meas
ures show themselves to be the worst
enemies of the very public whose loud
mouthed champions they profess to be.
A very striking illustration of the
consequences of carelessness in the
preparation of n statute was the en-
ployers' liability law of 1906. In the
cases arising under that law four out
of six courts of first instance held it
unconstitutional six out Of nine JUS
tees of the supreme court held that
its subject matter was within the
province of congressional action, and
four of the nine justices held it valid.
1t was, however, adjudged unconstitu-
tional by a bare majority Of the court
five to four 1t was surely a very
slovenly piece OF work to frame the
Legislation in such shape as to leave
the question open at all
Real damage has been done by the
manifold and conflicting Interpreters
lions of the interstate commerce law.
Control over the great corporations do
ing interstate business can be effective
only if it is vested with full power in
an administrative department, branch
Of the federal executive, carrying out
a federal law. 1t can never be ef-
fectlre if divided responsibility is