Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1908-12-10
improper-class interests. sucn an at
titude is an object lesson in good citi.
xenship to the entire nation. s..
Plea for Court Bulwark.

titude is an object lesson in good citi.
zenship to the entire nation. s..
-sE Plea for Court BuIwark.
= But the extreme reactionaries, the
persons who blind themselves to the
wrongs now and then committed by
the courts on laboring men, should also
think seriously as to what such
movement as this portends. The judges
who have shown themselves able and
willing effectively to check the dishon-
est activity of the very rich man who
works iniquity by the mismanagement
Of corporations, who have shown them.
selves alert to do justice to the wage
worker, and sympathetic with the
needs of the mass of our people, so that
the dwe1ler In the tenement houses, the
man who practices a dangerous trade,
the man who is crushed by excessive
hours of labor, feel that their needs a re
understood by the courts-these judges
are the real bulwark Of the courts:
these judges, the judges of the stamp
of the president-elect w!co have been
fearless in opposing labor when it has
gone wrong, but fearless also in hold
Ing to strict account corporations that
work iniquity, and far-sighted in see
ing that the workingman gets his
rights, are the men of all others to
whom we owe it that the appeal for
such violent and mistaken legislation
mas ldlleu Oh uedl ears, lldl Illc dS III.
ton for it's passage proved to be with
out substantial basis. The courts are,
teoparded primarily by the action of
these federal and state judges who
show inability or unwillingness to put
a stop to the wrongdoing Of very rich
men under modern industrial condi-
lions, and inability or unwillingness to
give relief to men of small means or
wageworkers who are crushed down
by these modern industrial conditions;
who, in other words. fail to UNDER
stand and apply the needed remedies
for the NV wrongs nrod'7ced by the
new and highly complex social and in
dustrial civilization which has grown
up in the last half century.
The rapid changes in our social life
which have attended this rapid growth
have made 1T necessary that, in applEn;
to concrete cases the great rule Of right
laid down in our constitution, there
should be a full understanding and APP
probation Of the new conditions to VII 4
the rules are TO be applied. What would
have been an infringement upon iher++J
half a century ago n ny be tee necessary
safeguard Of liberty to-day. What would
have been an injury to properly then
may be necessary to the enjoyment OF
property now. Every judicial decision
involves two terms-one, an lnterpreta-
ton of the law; the other, the under
standing Of the facts to which it is to
be applied. The great mass of our jul
dicial officers are I believe alive to these
changes of conditions which so materi-
ally affect the performance of their jul
dicial duties. Our judicial system is
sound an effective at core, and it re-
mains and must ever be maintained, as
the safeguard of those principles of l1p-
erty and justice which stand at the
foundation 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 remedy. 10
such men it seems cruel mockery to
have any court decide against them on
the ground that it desires to preserve
"Iberty' in a purely technical form, by
Withholding liberty in any real and con-
structive sense. It is desirable that the
Legislative body should possess, and
wherever necessary exercise, the power
to determine whether in a given case
employers and employees are not on an
equal footing, 50 that the necessities Of
the latter compel them to submit to such
exactions as to hours and conditions Of
labor as undu1y to tax their strength;
and only mischief can result when such
determination is upset on the ground
that there must be no interference with
the liberty to contract"-often q merely
academic liberty the exercise Of which
is the negation of real liberty.
4 Explanation Of Decisions.
There are certain decisions by various
courts which have been exceedingly dst-