The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-09

DdSfQ on SUcn Ci0So ~o-4o~iOuoicSS anu
selfish class interest
The wageworkers. the workingmen, the
laborfng men of the country by the way
in which they repudlated the effort TO
get them to cast their votes in response
TO an appeal to class hatred. have EN-
phasized their sound patriotism and
Americanism. The whole country has
cause TO feel pride in this attitude OF
sturdy independence, IN ms uncompro-
missing insistence upon acting simply as
good citizens as good Americans. with
out regard to fancied-and improper
class Interests. Such an attitude is an
object lesson in good citazenship to the
entire nation.
"Reactionaries."
But the extreme reacuonaries, the per-
sons who blind themselves to the wrongs
now and then committed by the courts
on laborfng men. should also think seri-
ously as TO what such a movement as this
portends The judges who have shown
themselves able and willing effectively to
check the dishonest ACTIVITY or the very
rich man who works iniquity by the mis-
management of corporations, who have
shown themselves alert to do justice TO
the wageworker, and sympathetic with
the needs of the mass OF our people, so
that the dweller in the tenement houses
the man who practices dangerous trade.
the man who Is crushed by excessive
hours of labor, feel that their needs are
understood by the courtS-these judges
JUDGES, the judges of the stamp of the
president-eiect, who have been fearless
in opposing labor when il has gone
wrong but fearless also in holding to
strict account corporations that work in
iquity, and far-sighted in seeing that the
workingman gets his rights. are the men
of all others to whom We owe ii that the
appeal for such violent and mistaken leg
islation has fallen on deaf ears, that the
agitation for its passage proved to be
\ without substantial basis. The courts =
| y are jeoparded primarily by the ac- =
\ ton of these federal and state =
\ judges who show inability or unwil- =
r lingneSS to put a stop to the wrong g.
| 4 doing of very rich men under modern =
4 Industrial conditions. and inability or \
y unwillingneSs to give relief TO men y
y of small means or wageworkers who =
y are crushed down by these modern =
4 Industrial conditions: who in other =
h words fail to understand and apply =
= thu needed remedies for the new =
= wrongs produced by the new and ;
y highly complex social and Industrial \
4 civilization which has grown up in =
y the last half century. \
Changes of Century.
The rapid changes in our social and in
rapid growth have made 1t necessary
that, in applying to concrete cases the
great rule of right laid down in our con-
stitution, there should be a full under
appreciation Oh IIle new con-
ditions to which the rules are to be APP
piled. What would have been an in.
| fringement upon liberty half century
ago may be the necessary safeguard OF
| liberty today. What would have been ar
| injury to property then may be neces-
sary to the enjoyment of property now
| Every judicial decision involves TWO
| terms-one, an Interpretation of the law
| the other the understanding of the facts
| to which it is to be applied. The great
mass of our judicial officers are. l be.
lieve, alive TO these changes of conditions
which so materially affect the perform
ance of their judicial duties. Our Ju.
dicial system is sound and effective al
core, and il remains and must ever be
maintained, as the safeguard of those
| principles Of liberty and justice which
stand at the foundation of American in
| situations; for. as Burke finely said, wher
| liberty and justice are separated, neither
y is safe There are, however, some I
! y members of the judicial body who =
r have Jagged behind in their under =
| y standing of these great and vital =
+ changes in the body polite, whose \
\ minds have never been opened to the \
y new applications Of the old princi- =
y piles made necessary by the new con- =
= ditions. Judges of this stamp do =
y lasting harm by their decisions, be- !
y cause they convince poor men in =
y need of protection that the courts OF =
y the land are profoundly ignorant of \
= and out of sympathy with their 4
y needs. and profoundly indifferent or !
y hostile TO any proposed remedy. 10 =
y such men it seems a cruel mockery =
r to have any court decide against =
y them on the ground that il desires TO \
y preserve liberty in a purely tech =
r meal form. by Withholding liberty in !
r any real and constructive sense 1t =
is desirable that the legislative body
should possess, and wherever necessary
exercise, the power to determine whether
in a given case emp overs and employees
are not on an equal footing. so that the
necessities of the latter compel them 10
submit TO such exactions as to hours and
conditions of labor as unduly to tax thei.
strength; and only mischief can result
when such determination is upset on the
ground that there must be no ''interfer-
ence with the liberty to contract''-ofteu
a merely academic liberty" the exercise
of which is the negation of real liberty
Certain Wrong Decisions.
There are certain decisions by various
courts which have been exceedingly det-
rimental to the rights of wageworkers
This is true of all the decisions that de.
eide that men and women are. by the con-
stitution, guaranteed their liberty tC
contract to enter dangerous occupation