The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-12-11

SO the men VINO uetPnQ, the TlgnTS OF
property have most to fear from the
wrongdoers of great. wealth, and the
men who are Championing popular
rights have most to fear from the
demagogues who in the name of popu.
lar rights would do wrong to and op-
press honest business men, honest men
of wealth, for the success of either
type of wrongdOer necessarily invites
a violent reaction against the cause
the wrongdoer nominaly upholds.
The opposition to government con-
troll of these great corporations makes
provided that the right to carry on
business should not be construed as Il
property right, and in a second pro-
vision their bill made legal in a labor
dispute any act or agreement by or
between two or more persons that
would not have been unlawful il done
by a single person. In other words,
this bill .Iegalized blacklisting and boy
cotting in every form. The demand
was made that there should be trial
by jury in contemnt cases, thereby
most seriously impairing the authority
of the courts. All this represented a
course of policy which, if carried out,
would mean the enthronement of class
privilege in its crudest and NEST
brutal form and the destruction Of
one OF the most essential functions Of
the judiciary in all civilized lands.
The Wageworkers, the workingmen,
|. the laboring men of the country, by the
way in which they repudiated the eff
fort to get them to cast their votes in
response to an appeal to class hatred
have emphasized their sound patriotism
and Americanism.
Courts ImperiIed by Judges.
But the extreme reactionaries, the
persons who blind themselves to the
wrongs now and then committed by
the courts on laboring men, should
movement as this portends. The
courts are jeoparded primarily by the
action of these federal and state
judges who show inability or unwill-
ingness to put stop to the wrong
doing of very rich men under modern
industrial conditions.
There are certain decisions by va
rious courts which have been exceed
ingly detrimental to the rights of
wageworkers. This is true of all the
decisions that decide that men and
women are by the constitution guar
anteed their liberty" to contract to
enter a dangerous occupation, or to
l L.
ber of hours, or to work in unhealthy
surroundings, and therefore cannot re-
cover damages when manned in that
occupation and cannot be forbidden
to work what the legislature decides is
an excessive number of hours, or to
carry on the work under conditions
which the legislature decides to be IN
healthy.
There is also, l think. ground for
the belief that substantial injustice is
often suffered by employees in copse-
quence of the custom of courts iSSu-
ing temporary injunctions without no.
tice to them and furnishing them for
contempt of court in instances where,
as a matter Of fact, they have no
knowledge of any proceedings. Pro
vision should be made that no iniunc-
ton or temporary restraining order
issue otherwise than on notice, EXCEPT
where irreparable injury would other
wise result, and in such case q hear
ing on the merits of the order should
be had within a short fixed period,
and if not then continued after hear
ing 1t should forthwith lapse. Deci-
sions should be rendered Immediately
and the chance of delay minimized in
every way.
The courts are to be highly COM
mended and stanchly upheld when
they set their faces against wrong
doing or tyranny by a majority, but
they are to be blamed when they
fail to recognize under a government
like ours the deliberate Judgment of
the majority as to matter of legiti-
mate policy when duly expressed by
the legislature. The people should
not be permitted to pardon evil and
slipshod legislation on the theory that
the court will set it right. They should
be taught that the right way to get rid
of bad law is to have the legislature
repeal it and not to have the courts by
ingenious hair SDlittinp rullifv n