Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-12-11

1ttI % Lar as us PROVISIONS apply to the
District of Columbia There should be no
ambiguity on this point If there is any
doubt on the subject. the law should be
Te,-enacted with special reference to the
applies only to employees of common car
r1ers. In all other occupations the liability
law OF the district is the old common law.
Inc severity and injustice of the common
law IN this matter has been in some de-
gree or another modified in the majority of
our our states. and the only jurisdiction under
should be ahead and not behind the states
or the union in this respect. compre-
hensiye employers liability law should be
passed Tor the District of Columbia.
L renew my recommendation made in a
previous message that half-holidays ie
granted during summer to all wagework-
erS In government employ
l also renew my RECOMMENDATION that the
principle of the eight.hour dav should as
rapidly ana as far as practicable he extend
ed TO the entire work being carried on by
the goNernmt mt; the present law should he
amended TO embrace contracts on those pub
lie works which the present wording of the
act seems 10 exclude.
The Courts
l most earnestly urge upon the Congress
the duty of increasing the totally made
quate salaries now given to our judges. On
the whole there is no body of public scrv-
ants who do as valuable work. nor whose
moneycd reward is 50 inadequate compared
to their work. BEGINNING with the supreme
court the judges should have their salaries
doubled. 1t IS not betting the dignity of
the nation that its most honored public
servants should be paid sums so small com
pared to what they would earn In private
life that the performance of public service
by them implies an exceedingly heavy pc
cuniary sacrifice.
1t is earnestly to be desired that some
method should he devised for doing away
with the long delays which now obtain in
operate with peculiar severity against per,
sors OF small means, and favor only the
YerT criminals whom it is most desirable
to punish. These long delays in the final
decisions of cases make in the aggregate
cryIaS evil; and remedy should be de,
yised. Much of this intolerable delay Is
que 70 improper regard paid 70 technfCalitieS
which are a mere hindrance to justice In
some noted recent cases this over-regard for
technicantteS has resulted in a striking de-
NAL of justice, and fragrant wrong to the
body polite.
1t the last election certain leaders of
organized labor made a violent and sweep
country, an attack couched in such terms
as to include the most upright, honest and
broad-minded judges, no less than those Of
narrower mind and more restricted outlook
1t was the kind Of attack admirably fitted
to prevent any successful attempt to reform
abuses OF the Judiciary, because it gave the
desired opportunity to shift their ground
into championship of just judges who
We're unjustly assailed. Last year, before
the House committee on the Judiciary these
same labor leaders formulated their de-
mands, specifying the bill that contained
them refusing all compromise, stating they
wished the principle of that bill or nothing.
Ihey insisted on a provision that in 4
labor dispute no injunction SHOULD .issut
except to protect a property right, lid spe>
ctfcaly provided that the right to carry
on business should not be construed as
property right: and in a second provision
their bill made legal in labor dispute
or more persons that would not have been
unlawful If done by a single person. In
other words. this bill legal1zed blacklisting
and hoycotting in every form, legalizing,
for instance, those forms of the secondary
boycott which the anthracite coal strike
commission so unreservedly cOndemned;
while the right to carry on business was
explicitly taken out from under that pro-
lection which the law throws over proper
ty. the demand was made that there
should be trial by jury in contempt cases,
thereby most seriously impairng the
thority of the courts, All this represented
a course of policy which, if carried out,
would mean the enforcement of class
privilege in its crudest and 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 legis-
lation, and its complete failure illustrate
two truths which it is essential our people
should learn. In the first place, they ought
to teach the workingman, the laborer, the
Wageworker, that by demanding what IS
improper and impossible he plays into the
hands of his foes. Such a crude and VI
temporarily successful, would inevitably i'll
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.
movement of this kind can ultimately ro
suit In nothing but damage TO those III
whose behalf it is nominaliy undertaken.
This is a most healthy truth, which it is
wise for all our people to learn. Any
movement based on that class hatred which
at times assumes the name of class con-
seriousness" is certain ultimately to fail and
if it temporarily succeeds, to do far-reach-
ing damage. "ClaSS consciousness where
it is n>-ely another name for the odious
vice Of class seltshneSs, is equally noXious
whether in an employers association or in
WOrklngman'S association. The move
ment in question was one in which the ap-
peal made to all wOrkfngmen to vote
primarily, not as American citizens, but as
individuals of a certain class il society.
Such an appeal in the first place revOltS
the more high-minded and far-sighted
among the persons to whom it is ad-
dressed and in the second place tends to
arouse a strong antagoniSm among all 9th
er classes of citizens. whom it therefore
tends to unite against the very organization
on whose behalf it is issued The reSul. is
therefore unfortunate from every stand
point. This healthy truth, by the way,
will be learned by the Socialists If they
ever succeed in establishing in this country
an important national party based on such
class consciousness and selfish class inter
est
laboring men of the country by the way in
which they repudiated the effort to get
them to cast their votes in response to an
appeal to class hatred, have emphasized
their sound patriotism and Americanism.
The whole country has cause to feel pride
in this attitude of sturdy independence in
this uncompromising insistence upon acting
simply as good citizens, as good Americans,
without regard to fancied-and improper
class interests. Such an attitude is an OBJ
ject lesson in good citizenship to the en-
tire nation.
But the extreme reactionaries, the per
sons who blind themselves to the wrongs
now and then committed by the courts OLE
laboring men, should also think seriously
as to what such a movement as 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 81 ne
selves alert to do justice to the WageWork-
err, and sympathetic with the need Of the
mass of our people, so that the dWeller III
the tenement houses, the man VINO prac-
tees a dangerous trade, the man who IS
crushed 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 President-elect, who nave
has gone wrong, but fearless also In mold
ing to strict account corporations that Worn
iniQuity, and far-sighted in seeing tnat
the workingman gets his rights, are the
the appeal for such violent and mistaken
legislation has fallen on deaf ears, that tne
agitation for its passage proved TO be WITH
out substantial basis. The courts are
jeoparded primarily by the action of these
federal and state judges who show in
ability or unwillingness to put a stop to
the wrongdoing Of very rich men under
modern Industrial conditions, and inability