The Grenada sentinel., 1908-12-12

| months earnings. In this respect the
| generosity OF the United States towards
| its employees compares most unfavora-
| bly, with that OF every country In Eu-
| rope-even the poorest
/ renew my recommendation made in
| a previous message that half-holidays
| be granted during summer to all wage
| workers In government employ
/ also renew my recommendation that
| the principle of the eight-hour day
should as rapidly and as far as practi-
cable 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.
Would Double Salaries of Judges.
I most earnestly urge upon the con-
gress the duty of increasing the totally
inadequate salaries now given to 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. Be-
ginning with the supreme court the
judges should have their salaries dou-
b1ed. 1t is not BETTING the dignity OF
the nation that its most honored public
servants should be paid sums SO small
private life that the performance Of
public service by them implies an ex-
ceedingly heavy pecuniary sacrifice.
1t is earnestly to be desired that some
method should be devised for doing
away with the long delays which now
obtain in the administration Of justice.
and which operate with peculiar sever
ity against persons of small means. and
favor only the very criminals whom it
is most desirable to punish. These
long delays in the final decisions of
cases make in the aggregate a crying
evil; and a remedy shoulI be devised.
Much of this intolera BILE delay is due
to improper regard paid to technicali-
ties which are a mere hnderance to
justice. In some noted recent cases this
over-regard for technicalities has re-
suited in a striking denial OF justice
and fragrant wrong to the body polite
Labor Leaders Criticised.
At the last election certain leaders Of
organized labor made a violent and
sweeping attack upon the entire judi
ciary 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
Last year. before the house COM
mittee judiciary. these same
labor leaders formulated their de-
mands, specifying the bill that
contained them. refusing all comprO-
mise. stating they wished the principle
of that bill or nothing. They insisted
on a provision that in a labor dispute
no injunction should issue except to
protect a property right. and specifcal-
ly provided that the right to carry on
business should not be construed as a
property right; and in a second provis-
ion their bill made legal in a labor dis
pute any act or agreement by or be-
tween two or more persons that would
not have been unlawful if done by a
single person. In other words, this bill
legalized blacklisting and boycotting
in every form legalizing. for instance.
those forms of the secondary boycott
which the anthracite coal strike COM
mission so unreservedly condemned
while the right to carry on business
was explicitly taken out from under
that protection which the law throws
over property. The demand 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, if carried out. would mean the
enthrOnement of class privilege in its
crudest and most brutal form. and the
destruction of one of the most essen
tial functions of the judiciary in all civ
iliZed lands.
The violence Of the crusade for this
legislation. and its complete failure,
illustrate 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 i'm
proper and impossible 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 a violent |
reaction and would band the great |
to stand by all the judges. competent |
and incompetent alike, rather than to |
see the wheels CT justice stopped. |
The wageworkerS the workingmen,
the laboring men of the country by the |
way in which they repudated the ef- |
fort to get them to cast their votes in |
to an appeal to class hatred. |
have emphasized their sound patriotism |
and Americanism. Such an attitude |
is an object lesson in good citizenship to |
the entire nation.
Judicial System Sound.
Our judicial system is sound and |
effective at core, and it remains, !,
and must ever be maintained, as |
the safeguard o. those principles Of lib
erty and justice which stand at the |
of American Institutions; for.
as Burke finely said, when liberty and |
justice are separated. neither is safe. |
There are. however. some members of |
the judicial body who have Jagged be-
hind in their understanding of these |
great and vital changes in the body
polite, whose minds have never been
opened to the new applications Of the old
principles made necessary by the new
conditions. Judges Of this stamp do last
ing harm by their decisions, because they |
convince poor men in need Of protection
that the courts of the land are pro-
foundly ignorant of and out Of sympathy |
with their needs, and profoundly ignorant |
or hostile to any proposed reINedy. To
such men it seems a cruel nockery to |
have any court decide against them on
the ground that it desires to preserve
liberty in purely technical form, by
liberty in any rea' and con-
structive sense.
There are certain decisions ~ various
courts which have been exec. dinghy det-
rimental to the rights of w>gaworkers. |
This is true of all decisions that decide
that men are, by the constitution, guar
anteed their liberty to contract to enter
a dangerous occupation, or to work an
undesirable or improper number of hours,
Or to work in unhealthy surroundings;
and therefore cannot recover damages
Uhap irs fiOn and |