The San Francisco call., 1908-12-09
Capital and Labor Wealth and Poverty Concern Him
and Limitation o n the es5lane o Inncdons

4 - Il - - - i 4 -
: willing effectively to check the dis
/ honest activity of the very rich man
who works iniquity by the mtsman-
| agement of corporations who have
shown themselves alert to do justice
TO the wage worker, and sympathetic
with the needs of the mass of our peo-
/ pie. so that the dweller in the tene-
ment houses the man who practices a
dangerous trade, the man who Is
rushed by excessive hours of labor,
feel that their needs are understood by
the courts-these judges are the real
bulwark of the courts; these judges,
the judges of the stamp of the presl-
dent-elect, who have been fearless IN
opposing labor when IL has gone
wrong, but fearless also sin holding 10
strict account corporations that work
iniquity. and far sighted in seeing that
the workingman gets his rights, are
the men of all others to whom We owe
1t that the appeal for such violent
and mistaken legislation has fallen on
deaf ears, that the agitation for its
passage proved to be without substan-
tial basis.
The courts are jeoparded primarily
by the action of these federal and state
8 :. judges who snow
= 10y inability or unwlll-
tourss Jeoparaeo ingness TO put a
Judges ON Bench doing of very rich
- men under modern
industrial conditions. and inability or
unwillingness to give relief to men Of
small means or wage workers who are
crushed down by these modern indus
trial conditions; who, in other words,
fail to understand and apply the need
ed remedies for the new wrongs pro-
duced by the new and highly complex
social and industrial civilization which
has grown up in the last half century.
The rapid changes In our social and
industrial life which have attended
this rapid growth have made it neces-
sary that. in applying to concrete
in our constitution, there should be a
full understanding and appreciation of
the new conditions TO which the rules
are TO be applied. What would have
been an infringement upon liberty half
century ago may be the necessary
safeguard of liberty today. What
then may be necessary TO the enjoy
ment of property now. Every judi
cial decision involves two termS-One,
an Interpretation of the law; the other,
the understanding of the facts to which
1t is to be applied The great mass OF
our judicial officers are, believe, alive
to these changes of conditions which
so materially affect the performance of
their judicial duties. Our judicial sys-
tenn is sound and effective at core, ard
Il remains and must ever be ma.E
tanned, as the safeguard to those pFin-
cfples of liberty 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 behind in their un-
derstanding 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 lasting harm
by their decisions, because they con-
.. :. vince poor men in
such Dec,.,on. need OF protection
Cause Poor Men the land are pro-
to see Moekery foundly ignorant
OF and out OF sym
pathy with their needs. and profundly
Indifferent or hostile TO any proposed
remedy. To such men it seems a cruel
mockery to have any court decide
against them on the ground that il
desires to preserve liberty in a pure
ly technical form. by withholding lib
erty in any real and constructive sense.
should possess, and wherever neces-
Sary exercise, the power to determine
whether in a given case employers and
employees are not on an equal footing,
so that the necessities of the latter
compel them to submit TO such eXac-
tions as to hours and conditions of Ia
Dor as unduly 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 of CONFEDERATION a
merely academic liberty" the exer-
else of which Is the negation of real
liberty.
GUS courts which have been exceed
ingly detrimental to the rights of
wage workers. This is true of all the
decisions that decide that men and
women are by the constftution- "slar-
anteed their liberty" to contract TO en-
ter dangerous occupation, or TO work
in unhealthy surroundings or an i'm
proper number of hours, or to work in
unhealthy surroundings; and therefore
can not recover damages when MANNED
in that occupation, and can not be for
n hat ha lac al trrr.
decides is an excessive number of
hours, or TO carry on the work under
conditions which the legislature de-
cideS to be unhealthy. The most dan
gerous occupations are often the poor
est paid and those where the hours
of work are longest; and in many cases
those who go into them are driven by
necessity so great that they have prac-
tically no alternative. Decisions such
as those alluded TO above nullify the
legislative effort TO protect the wage
workers who must need protection
from those employers who take ad-
vantage of their grinding need.
They halt or hinder the movement |
for securing better and more -equitable
conditions of la |
hinder Moyemeuti . bor. Til talk
to Secure Better tba nlisarss ses
Labor Conditions hunted beings who
m a k contracts
for such service their liberty TO make /
them is either to speak in a spirit of
hearuless irony or else to show an ut
ter lack of knowledge of the eondi- /
tions of life among the great masses I
of our fellow countrymen, a lack which
units any Judge TO do good service
just as 1t would unfit any executive /
or legislative officer
There is also, think. ground for the
belief that substantial injustice is
often suffered by employees in conse-
quence of the custom of courts issuing
temporary injunctions without notice
TO them. and Furnishing them for con-
tempt of court in instances where, as
a matter of fact. they have no knowl
edge of any proceedings Outside of
organized labor there is widespread
feeling that this system often works
great injustice to wage workers when
their efforts to better their working
condition result in industrial disputes
A temporary injunction procedure ex
parte may as matter of fact have all
the effect of a permanent injunction in
causing disaster to the wage workers
side in such a dispute. Organized Ia
bor is chafing under the unjust re-
straint which comes from repeated re-
sort 10 this plan of procedure. Its dis
content has been unwisely expressed. |
and often improperly expressed. but
there is a sound basis for it, and the
orderly and law abiding people OF a