Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-12-16

Il renew my recommendation made IL
La previous message that half-holiday.
be granted during summer to all wage
workers in government employ" add!
this president, who also advocates thu
8-hour day on all federal work.
Judges Salaries.
Il most earnestly urge upon the
congress the duty of increasing the
| Iotaily inadequate salaries now giver
to our judges. On the whole there
is no body of public servants who dc
as valuable work, nor whose moneyed
reward is SO inadequate compared to
their work. Beginning with the SUI
preme court the judges should have
their salaries doubled. 1t is not be
fitting the dignity Of the nation that
it's most honored public servants
should be paid sums SO small com
pared to what they would earn in pri
vate life that the performance of pub
lie service by them implies an ex.
ceedingly heavy pecuniary sacrifice .
1t is to be desired that
some method should be devised for
doing away with the long delays
which obtain in the administration of
justice. Much of the intolerable de.
lay is due to improper regard paid to
technicalities which are mere hind
rance to justice. In some noted re-
cent cases this over-regard for techni-
calities has resulted in a striking de.
NAL of justice, and fragrant wrong to
the body polite"
Gompers' Attack.
Last year, before the house com
mittee on the judiciary, labor leaders
formulated their demands, specifying
the bill that contained them, 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
and in a second provision their bill
made legal in a labor dispute any act
or agreement by or between two OF
more persons that would not have
been unlawful if done by a single per
son. In other words, this bill legal
lied 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 a 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 9
course of policy which, if carried out
would mean the enforcement Of
class privilege in it's crudest ano
most brutal form, and the destruction
of one of the most essential functions
of the judiciary in all civilized 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 i:
improper and impossible he plays int
the hands of his foes. Such crude
and vicious attack upon the courts
even if it were temporarily successful
would inevitably in the end cause ;
violent reaction and would band thu
great mass of citizens together, fore
ing them to stand by all the judges
competent and incompetent alike
rather than to see the wheels of jus
tice stopped. A movement of this kline
can ultimately result in nothing blu
damage to those in whose behalf it il
nominally undertaken.
| The wageworkerS, the wOrkingmen
| the laboring men of the country b!
the way in which they repudiated thu
|
in response to an appeal to class
hatred, have emphasized their sounc
patriotism nd Americanism. The whole
country has cause to feel pride in thi.
attitude of sturdy independence. il
this uncompromising insistence upoI
acting simply as good citizens, as goot
Americans, without regard to fanciet
and improper-class interests. Sucl
an attitude is an object lesson in goot
citizenship to the entire nation
Court Decisions.
| There are certain decisions by vari
GUS courts which have been detrimen
tai to the rights of wageworkers. Thi:
is true of all the decisions that decide