Semi-weekly herald., 1908-12-10

toiumDia.
l renew my recommendations made
In a previous message that haif-holi-
days be granted during summer to all
wage-workers In this government en-
ploy.
The principal OF the eight-hour day
should as rapidly and as far as prac-
ticable 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.
| most earnestly urge upon the con.
| gress the duty of increasing the total.
| ly 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. Beginning with the su-
preme court. the judges should have
their salaries doubled. II is not be-
fitting the dignity of the nation that
Its most honored public servants
should be paid sums SO small com.
pared to what they would earn In pri
yate life that the performance OF pub
lice service by them implies an ex-
ceedingly heavy pecuniary sacrifice.
II 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 pecu-
liar severity against persons of small
means. and favor only the very crimi-
mails whom It is most desirable to
punish. These long delays in the final
decisions of cases make In the aggre.
gate crying evil; and remedy
tolerable delay is due to improper re-
gard paid to technicalitles which are
a mere hindrance TO justice. In some
noted recent cases this over-regard
for technicalities has resulted in
striking denial of justice. and fragrant
wrong to the body polite.
At the last election certain leaders
OF organized labor made violent and
sweeping attack upon the entire judi
ciary of the country, an attack couch
ed In such terms as TO include the
most upright, honest and broad mind
ed judges. no less than those OF mar
rover mind and more restricted out
look. 1t was the kind of attack ad-
mirably fitted to prevent any success
full attempt to reform abuses Of the
judiciary, because it gave the cham
pions of the unjust Judge their eagerly
desired opportunity to shift their
ground into championship OF Just
judges who were unjustly assailed.
Last year. before the house commit
tee on the judiciary. these same labor
leaders formulated their demands, spe-
cifying the bill that contained them.
refusing all compromise. stating they
wish the principle of that bill or moth
ing. They insisted on a provision that
in labor dispute no Injunction SHOULD
issue except to protect property right
and specifically provided that the right
to carry on business should not be con-
strued as property right: and In
second provision their bill made legal
In a labor dispute any act or agree
ment. by or between two or more
persons that would not have been un.
lawful II done by 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 commission
so unreservedly condemned; while the
right 10 carry on a business was ex-
plicltly taken out from under that pro-
lection which the law throws over
property. The demand was made that
there should be trial by jury In con
tempt cases, thereby most seriously
impairing the authority Of the courts.
ALI this represented 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
| civilized lands.
The violence OF the crusade for this
legislation. and It's complete failure.
| illustrate two truths which II is en-
sential our people should learn. In
the first place. they ought to teach
the workingman, the iaborer, the wage
worker, that by demanding what is
improper and impossible he plays into
the hands OF his foes. Such a crude
and vicious attack upon the courts,
even II II were temporarily success
ful, would inevitably in the end cause
a violent reaction and would band the
great mass of citizens together. fore
ing them to stand by all the judges
competent and Incompetent alike
rather than to see the wheels OF jus
tice stopped.