The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-10-24
THE Y SIDE
BY Edward Kenny

sponsibiity for the state of things described in my last article :
against those things, and for the san length of time the Democratic party !
has denounced government by Injunction And the Republicans have :
only answered by charging Mr. Bryan m n Democratc parry wWh 8
attacking the sanctty o the courts. Now, I have IS high regard al any 5
body for the sanctty Of the courts; but I have quite a $ much regard for 3
the sanaity If mar and for the sanctty of American citizenship 8
This violation or supposed violation. of a order of the court is a !
criminal proceeding. and ma result in sending a man to Jail; and yet J
the accused is tried not by a jury OF his peers ~ ted n seh.eneeu !
by the very judge who issued the order. The meanest smeak-thief may :
demand to be tried by a Jury of his peers, but Samuel Gompers, John
Mitchell and Frank Robinson, officers of the American Federation of J
Labor, are denied that right in what is virtually a criminal case that may
result in sending them t jail ]
That is moi statute law. it is no the common law; it is simply judge !
made law; and Judge Taft. now the Republican candidate for President !
is the man who is responsible for that judge-made law. j
In 1892 William H. Taft was appointed judge Of the United States Cir
cult Court in Ohio Laboring men complained that in this Office he con
tinuany created ani-union precedents" Two cases are conspicuous in
Judge Taftsa administration One va known a IS TN arthur case ne
other as the Phelan case. :
higher wages. Engineers IN connecting lines refused to handle crsf from
the Ann Arbor road SO long a $ the strike lasted. The Ann Arbor man
agersa applied to Judge Taft for a injunction against F. M. Arthur. then !!
s ST. , ansar Nv srthu~ vas rs,uired 70 resc,nd bs order directing engt-
neerso OIL connecting roads not to handle Ann Arbor cars. At the sam
time Judge Taft declared that a rule which the Brotherhood of Engineers
had aaontea probbiting engineers from handling freight from a road on
which there ws l strike was a conspiracy to commit a crime. No mem
Der of the Engineers Brotherhood was cited to appear and "a called
a witness in the case before Judge Taft issued his decision. This was
the first instance in the history o. a writ of injunction where a party not
originally a party to the proceedings and not a common carrier, and not
either agent or servant of a common carrier, vas held guilty OF a crime
James Fox. then a noted New York newspaper man. referring to Judge
rats decision, stated that it would lead to the dispersion and fOrcible
breaking up by court orders If every assembage of workingmen, however
innocent IT lawful inttheir purpose. and to the nullihcation OF all mel
agreements
In 1894 Judge Taft issued, an order prohibiting F. W. Phelan from or
ganizing the employees If the Cincinnati and Southern road. Phean con-
tnued his work as an organizer, and Judge Taft called him into court and
sentenced him to six months in jail
That is Judge Tafts judge-made law.
The Democratic party and Mr. Bryan declared in 1896. 1900 and 1904
and now declares in 1905, in favor of the enaction of laws relating to con
tempts' of that Sort so that trial by jury may be had by the accused.
In 1896 al act of that kind vas passed in the Senate, but was killed in
the Republican House of Representatives. and the Republicans ave ever
since refused to pass the law.
Mr.. Taft appears to be trying to squirm out of the position in
which his party has placed him and in which he has placed himself o
this question. Butt his action on this question when he VA a judge of the
Federal Court cannot be forgotten.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Journal in 1913 said; Judge
Tafts decision procaims members of the B. of L. E a band of con-
spirators" and 1--WE cannot accept Judge Tafts decision in any other light
than treason to republican institutions and the liberties O the people. 1t
is, will be and ought to be denounced and repudiated by nberty-loving
men," The American people o have a chance to repudiate Mr.. Tafts
doctrine by repudiaung Mr. Taft, and they ought ito vote against him. n
The leopard cannot change his spots The spots that Mr. Taft put \
upon himself as Judge in those decisions of his remain o Mr.. Taft as
presidential candidate He and the Republican party may cry "Out,
damned SPOT as they will, but the damned spot is there o stay. And
it must be remembered and cannot be forgotten, and should not be for
gotten, that william H. Taft, o Republican candidate for President, "a
trial by jury.
Because the Democratic party and Mr.. Bryan are Elm favor o a change
in the law that will give American workingmen the right of trial by jury
when they are faced with Imprisonment in JAIL in what is really charged
as a criminal ofense and because the Republican party and Mr. Taft are
against that proposition, Mr. Bryan ought to be elected, and MI. Taft
should not be elected.