Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-12-09
DAILY KENNEBEC JOURNAL. WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 1908

employers liability law should be passed
for the District of Columbia.
/ renew my recommendation made in a
previous message that alf-holldays be
| granted during the summer to all wage
workers in Government employ.
also renew my my h 1eecomendation %;1ts. that d,
should as rapidly and as far as practical
BILE, be extended to the entire work being
Carried. on by the Government; the pres
| ent law should be amended to emft tace
| contracts on those public works which
| the present wording OF the act seems to
exclude.
The Courts.
| most earnestly urge upon the Congress
the duty of increasing the totally made
| r,uatc snlnrtts now given 10 our Judges.
servants who do DIS vallub.r work, nor
| whose moneSed reward IS 80 inadequate
compared to their work Beginning with
| the Supreme Court the Judges should
have their salaries doubled. II Is not be-
fitting the dignity of The Nation that its
| most honored public servants should be
paid sums so small compared 10 what
they would earn in private life that the
performance of public service by them
implies an exceedingly heavy pccuniary
sacrifice.
1t is earnestly to be desired that some
method she uld be de, Used for doing away
with the long delays Which now obtain in
| decentralization of justice. and Whit!l
operate with Iecuiiar severity against
persons of small means. and favor ONLY
the very criminals whom IL i5 most de-
| sirahlc to punish. These ion:; delays In
the iin:l decisions Of cases make n the
aggregate n crying evil. and a. l'ciIa dy
si:uuld be devised, Much of this int2le'a,
| bic delay is due to improper regard ltid
| to tcchniclli.'es which are 4 mern hind-
| rance to justice. In some noted recent
| cases this over-resard for iechnicalities
| has resulted in striking denial of ius-
| tiCe. and fiaSrant wrong to the body po-
| litic.
At the last election certain leaders of
| organized labor maze violent and
sweeping attack upon the entire judiciary
| of the country, an attaclDcouchcd in such
| terms as to INCLUDE the most upright,
| honest and troad-ninded Judges. no less
| thar those CT narrower mind and more
! restricted outlook. 1t was In" kind of at
| tack admirably fitted to prevent any sue
tessinl att@mrt to reform IN IhuFe. If the
| OF the unitst judge their eager ~ desired
cppot turity to shift their GroInd into Il
championship of lust JUDGES who were
| uniusty assailed Last yea. before the
| House Committee on the Judci;uy, these
| s:,nGe labor leaders formulated lneir de-
manGs, specifying the bill that contained
;ncm, refusing all compromise, stating
| they wished the principle Of that bill or
| nothing They insisted on a provision that
in a labor dispute no injunction should
| issue except to protect a property right.
| and specifically provided that the right to
| carry on business should not be construed
as a property right; end IL n second pro-
| vision their bill made legal in n labor
tween two or more persons that would
not have been unlawful if done by 4 sin
allied blacklisting and boycotting in ev-
| cry form. legalzipg. for instance those
| forms of the secondary boycott which the
| the anthracite ccal strike commission so
inreservedly Condemned; while the right
tC carry on a business was explicitly TAX
en- out from under that protection which
mand was made that there should be trial
| by jury in contempt cases. thereby most
seriously irpairing the authority of the
| counts. All this represented Il course of
policy which. if carried out. would mean
| the enthronement of class privilege in it's
crudest ana most brutal form, and the
functions of the judiciary in all civilized
| lands.
The violence of the crusade for this
legislation, and its complete failure. illus
| trates two truths which it is essential our
| people Should learn. In the iirst place,
they ought tc teach the workngman.
the laborer,, the wageworker, that by de
manding what is improper. and imEossi-
| BILE he plays into the nands of his foes.
Such q crude and vicious attack upon the
courts. even if it were temporarily sue
| cCsSful, would inevitably in the end cause
| y violent reaction and would band the
| great mass Of citizens togsrhcr- forcing
them to stand by all the judges. compe-
tent and incompetent alika. rather than to
see the wheels of justic" stopped. A
movement of this kind can ultimately re-
suit in nothing but damage TO those in
1
rhis is a most healthy. truth which it is
| wise for all our people ID learn. Any
! movtnle nj based on that class hatred
| which at times assumes the name of
| class consciousness is certain ultimate
| ly to fail, and if it temporarily succeeds,
| to do far-reaching damage. Glass con-
| @ciouSnosS.' where it is merely another
| name for the odious vice of class selfish
| ness IS equali. noXious VIII atlrI III ;,n
cr ploye1's asst c:atlon, or in WarklnS-
mans association. The movement in
! question was one in which the appeal was
made to all worlinsmen tc vote priInarr-
| ilv not as American citizens. but as lndl-
| an appe:l in the first place revolts the
more Eigh-minded and far-s;ghted among
the persons to whom it is addressed, and
| in the second place tends to arouse a
strong antasonism among all other class
es of citizens. whom it therefore tends to
unite against the very orGaniZation on
| therefore unfortunate from every stand
point. This healthy truth. hT the way
| will be learned by the socialists if they
! ever succeed in establishing in this coun-
| try an important national party based ON
| such class consciousness ana selfish class
interest
laboring. men Of the country by the way
in which they repudiated the effort to
| get them to east Their votes In response
| to an appeal 10 class hatred, have en-
phasized their sound patriotism and AM
| ericanisin. The whole country has cause
to feel pride in this attitude OF sturdy in
| uPptiNtencc, III tnlS compromising III
| sistence upon acting sinpI, rs good citi-
Zcns. as good Americans, without regard
| to fancied-and improper-class interests.
Such an attitude is an ob!Gct-lesson in
good citizenship to the entire nation.
But the extreme reactionares the per-
sons who blind themselves to the wrongs
| nov and then committed by the courts on
| laboring men, should also think seriously
as to what such a movement rs this por-
tends. The judges who have shown them
| selves able and willing effectively to
check the dishonest activity of the very
rich man who works iniquity by the mis-
management of corporations. who have
shown themselves alert to do justice to
| the wageworker, ard 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 rolIrts-theso' Judges
are the real bulwarll of the courts; these
| Judges, the judges of the stamp of the
PreSident-clect. who have been fearless in
opposing labor when it has gone wrong.
but fearless also in holding to strict ac-
count corporations that work iniuuity,
and faE-sighteG in seeing that the work.
ingman gets his rights, are the men of
all others to whom we owe it that the
appeal for such violent and mistaken
legislation has fallen on deaf ears. that
the agitation for it's passage proved to be