Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1908-12-11
THE COURTS.


the duty OF increasing the totally mad
equate salaries now given to our Judges;
ON the whole, there is no body OF public
servants who do as valuable Work. nor
whose moneyed reward is SO inadequate
compared 10 their work. Beginning with
the supreme court the judges should have
their salaries doubled IL Is not BETTING
the dignity OF the nation that its most
honored public servants should be pald
sums so small compared to what they
would earn In private life that the per-
formance OF public service by them
implies an exceedingly heavy p~ecuniary
| sacrifice.
1t IS earnestly TO be desired that some
method should be devised for doing away
with the Ions delays which now obtain
which operate with peculiar severity
! against persons OF small means, and ia
vor only the very criminals whom 1t Is
most desirable to punish. These long de-
in the aggregate a crying evil; and a
| remedy should be devised. Much OF this
intolerable delay is due TO improper re-
gard paid TO technicalities which are a
mere hindranCe to justice. In some noted
recent cases this over regard for techni-
c~alities has resulted In a striking denial
OF justice, and Migrant wrong TO the
body polite.
AT The last election certain leaders Of
! organized labor made a violent and
sweeping attack upon the entire judiciary
Of the country, an attack Couched in such
terms as 10 include the most upright,
| honest and broad minded judges, no less
4 Than tiltSN VI idlAOMt1 NH dill titOIc
restricted outlook. II was the kind of at
tack admirably fitted to prevent any sue
cessful attempt TO reform abuses Of the
judiciary. because It gave the champions
} OF he unjust Judge their eagerly desired
opportunity TO shift their ground into a
championship of just judges who were
pnjustly assailed. Last year. before he
house committee on the judiciary, these
same labor leaders formulated their de-
mands, specifying the bill that contained
them, refusing all compromise, stating
/ fhHV wished tho 1rinnintn Of fhn+ hin m.
nothing. They insisted on q provision
that In a labor dispute no injunction
should issue except to protect a property
rlght, AMI specifically provided that the
right TO carry on business should not be
construed as a property right; and In a
SECOND provision their bin 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
legalized blacklisting and boycotting In
every form, legaliZing, for instance, those
forms OF secondary boycott which the
anthracite coal strike commission so I'M
reserVedly condemned; while the right TO
carry ON a business was explicitly taken
out from under that protection which the
throws over properly. The demand
was made that there should be trial by
jury In contempt cases. thereby most
seriously impairing the authority of the
I courts. All this represented a course of
policy which, II carried out. would mean
the e"nthronement of class privilege in it's
crudest and most brutal form. and the
destruction of one OF the most essential
functions of the judiciary IN all civilized
lands.
kt,ack Too Crude.
The violence of the crusade for this leg
i~slation. and its complete failure. illus
trate two truths which it is essential our
people should learn. In the first place,
they ought to teach the w~orkingman, the
faborer. the Wageworker, hat by de-
manding what is improper and impossible
he plays into the hands OF his foes. Such
a crude and vicious attack upon the
courts, even III IL were temporarily sue
cessful, would inevitably in the end cause
a violent reaction and would band the
great mass of citizens together, forcing
them TO stand by all the judges, COM
petent and Incompetent alike, rather than
to gee the wheels of justice stopped. A
movement of this kin can ultima tely re-
suit in nothing but damage TO those in
whose behalf 1t is nominally undertaken.
This Is a most healthy truth, which IL is
/ wise for all our people to learn. ANY
movement based on that class hatred
which at times assumes the name OF
mately to fail, and IL 1t temporarily sue
ceeds. TO do far reaching damage. Glass
consciousness" where 1t Is merely an
s~elhshness, is equally ~noxious, whether In
an employers association or In a work.
ingman's association. The movement in
| was made to all workingmen to Vote
primarily, not as American citizens. but
as individuals of q certain class In So
NAtLS' DhIJ oil oBBtdt al Tie JTSI DIAre
revolts the more high minded and far
sighted among the persons to whom II is
addressed, and In the second place tends
to arouse a strong antagonism among all
other classes OF citizens, whom IL there
fore tends to unite against the very or
gaDization on whose behalf 1t Is issued.
from every standpoint. This healthy
ruin, by the way, will be learned by the
sociaifsts III they ever succeed In eStab-
fishing In this country an important ma
fOn n2rtU hnGnI An .YIA1 a1no ann
sciousness and selfish class interest.
Inc wageworkers, the w~orkingmen, he
idporlng men OF the country. by the way
IN which they ~repudiated the effort to
get them to cast their votes in response
g an appeal to class hatred, have en-
Pnaslzed their sound patriotism and
cause 10 feel pride in this attitude of
sIurdy Independence, in this uncompro-
mislng insistence upon acting simply as
good citizens, as good Americans, with
out regard TO fancied-and improper-
lass interests: Such an attitude Is an
ooJect lesson In good citizenship to the
entire nation.
R~eactionaries Should Pause.
But the extreme ~reactionaries, the per-
sons who blind themselves TO the wrongs
now and then committed by the courts on
iaporfng men, should also think seriously
as 70 what such a movement as this por-
tenos. Inc judges who have shown them
selves able and willing effectively to
check the dishonest activity Of the very
Ilcn man VINO works iniquity by the mis-
management OF corporations, who have
SHOWN themselves alert to do justice to
me WageWorker, and sympathetic with
tne needs OF the mass of our people,, so
mat the dweller in the tenement houses,
ne man who practices 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
p~resldent.elect. who have been fearless
IN opposing labor when IL has gone
wrong. but fearless also In holding TO
tstrlct account corporations that work
lnlquity,. and far sighted in seeing that
me workingman gets his rights. are the
men or all others TO whom we owe Ii that
.he appear Tor such violent and mistaken
legislation has fallen on deaf ears. that
ne agitation for its passage proved to be
without substantial basis.
Ihe courts are jeopardized primarily by
me action OF these federal and state
Judges who show inability or unwilling
ness 10 put a stop TO the w~rongdoing Of
very rich men under modern Industrial
conditions, and inability or unwillingness
20 give Keller to men of small means or
waseWorkers who are crushed down by
tnese modern industrial conditions: who
IN other words. fail to understand and
apply the needed remedies for the new,
wrongs produced by the. new and h,ehIv
compiler social and Industrial cly.liza-
century. h"i
The rapid changes Ia our social ana IN
dustrial life which have Attended, this
4 rADI0 growth have rraA1