River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-12-10
permitted to interfer. with this and


similar movements.
Pending a thoroughgoing investiga-
ton and action there is certain legis-
lation which should be enacted at once.
The law, passed at the last session of
the congress granting compensation to
certain classes of employees of the gov
eminent should be extended to include
all employees of the government and
should be made more liberal in it's
terms. There is no good ground for
the distinction made in the law be-
tween those engaged in hazardous oc-
cupasions and those not SO en-
gagged The terms of the act pro-
viding compensation should be made
more liberal than in the present
act years compensation is not ade-
quate for a wage-earner's family in the
event of his death by accident in the
course of his employment. And in the
event of death occurring, say, ten or
eleven months after the accident the
family would only receive as compen-
sation the equivalent Of one or two
| months earnings. In this respect the
generosity of the United States towards
it's employees compares most unfavora-
bly, with that of every country in Eu-
rope-even the poorest.
The terms of the act are also hard
ship in prohibiting payment in cases
where the accident is in any way due
to the negligence Of the employe. 1t is
inevitable that daily familiarity with
danger will lead men to take chances
that can be construed into negligence.
So we'll is this recognized that in prac-
tically all countries in the civilized
world, except the United States, only
great degree of negligence acts as a
bar to securing compensation. Proba-
bly, in no other respect is our 1egisla-
ton, both state and national, so far be-
hind practically the entire civilized
world as in the matter of liability and
compensation for accidents in industry.
1t is humiliating that at European in
ternational congresses on accidents the
United States should be singled out as
the most belated among the nations in
respect to employers liability legisla-
ton. This government is itself large
employer of labor and in its dealings
with it's employees it should set a stan
dard in this country which would place
1t on a par with the most progressive
countries in Europe The laws of the
United States in this respect and the
laws of European countries have been
summarized in a recent bulletin of the
bureau of labor, and no American who
reads this summary can fail to be
struck by the great contrast between
our practices and theirs-a contrast not
in any sense to orr credit.
I renew my recommendation made in
a previous message that half-holidayS
be granted during summer to all wage
workers in government employ
I also renew my recommendation that
the principle of the eighthour 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-
bled. 1t is not betting the dignity of
the nation that it's most honored public
servants should be paid sums so small
compared to what they would earn in
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 QeSlrdDiG TO In6So
long delays in the final decisions of
cases make in the aggregate a crying
evil; and a remedy shouIl be devised
Much Of this intolerable delay is due
to improper regard paid to technicali-
ties which are mere hlnderance 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.
ahor aaJarc Hrifiricad
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 broadminded
judges. no less than those of narrower
mind and more restricted outlook
Last year. before the house COM
mittee on 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 provision that in a labor dispute
no injunction should issue except to
protect property right, and specifical-
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
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
enforcement of class privilege in it's
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 It's 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
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
mass of citizens together, forcing them
to stand by all the judges, competent
and incompetent alike, rather than to
see the wheels of justice stopped.
The wageworkers, the workingmen,
the labOring men of the country by the