The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-12-08

Interpretation, for the result of such
action is to take away from the people
at large their sense of responsibility
and ultimately to destroy their capac-
ity for orderly self restraint and self
government as ours, founded on the
theory that in the long run the will of
the people is supreme, the ultimate
safety of the nation can only rest in
training and guiding the people so that
what they will shall he right and not
in devising means to defeat their will
by the technicalities of strained con.
struction.
For many of the shortcomings of
Justice in our country our people as
whole are themselves to blame, and
the Judges and juries merely bear
their share together with the public as
a whole. 1t is discreditable to us as a
people that there should be difficulty
in convicting murderers or in bring,
ing to Justice men who as public serv
ants have been guilty of corruption or
who have profited by the corruption of
public servants. The result is equally
unfortunate whether due to hair split
ting technicalities in the interpreta-
ton of law by judges, to sentimental
ity and class consciousness on the part
of juries or to hysteria and sensation
alism in the daily press. For much
of this failure of justice no RESPONSE
bility whatever lies on rich men as
such. We who make up the mass of
the people cannot shift the response
IN
there is an important part of the fail
ure which has specially to do with
inability to hold to proper account men
of wealth who behave badly.
The chief breakdown is in dealing
with the new relations that arise from
the mutualism. the interdependence, Of
our time. Every new social relation
begets a new type of wrongdoing-of
sin, to use an old fashioned woodland
many years always elapse before So
ciety is able to turn this sin into crime
which can be effectively punished at
law. During the lifetime of the older
men now alive the social relations
have changed far more rapidly than in
the preceding two centuries. The i'm
mense growth of corporations. of bust
ness done by associations and the ex-
IRENE strain and pressure of modern
life have produced conditions which
render the public confused as to who
it's really dangerous foes are, and
among the public servants who have
not only shared this confusion, but by
some of their acts have increased it,
are certain judges. Marked inefficien-
CIV has been shown in dealing with cor
porations and in resettling the proper
attitude to be taken by the public not
only toward corporations, but toward
labor and toward the social questions
arising out of the factory system and
the enormous growth of our great
| cities
The huge wealth that has been ac-
cumulated by IA few individuals of re-
cent years. in what has amounted to a
, social and industrial revolution, has
been as regards some of these indi-
viduals made possible only by the i'm
proper use of the modern corporation.
A certain type of modern corporation.
with it's officers and agents, it's many
issues of securities and its constant
consolidation with allied undertake
| ings, finally becomes an instrument SO
complex as to contain a greater num-
Der of elements that under various
judicial decisions lend themselves to
fraud and oppression than any device
| vet evolved in the human brain. Cor
porati tons are necessary instruments
of modern business. They have been
permitted to become a menace largely
because the governmental representa-.
tives of the people have worked slowly
in providing for adequate control over
them.
The chief offender in any given case
may be an executive, legislature or q
judge. Every executive head who ad
vises violent instead of gradual action
or who advocates i'll considered and
sweeping measures of reform, es
pecially if they are tainted with vim
dictiveness and disregard for the
rights of the minority, is particularly
blameworthy. The several legislatures
are responsible for the fact that our
laws are often prepared with slovenly
haste and lack of consideration
Moreover. they are often prepared and
still more frequently amended dur
ing passage at the suggestion of the
very parties against whom they are
afterward enforced. Our great clus
tiers of corporations. huge trusts anG
fabulously wealthy multimilliOnaries
employ the very best lawyers they car
obtain to pick flaws in these statutes
after their passage, but they also EN-
ploy class of secret agents who seel
under the advice of experts to render
hostile legislation innocuous by making
it unconstitutional, often through the
insertion of what appear on their face
to be drastic and sweeping provisions
against the interests of the parties in
spring them, while the demagogues
the corrupt creatures who introduce
Matchmaking schemes to strike" cor
porations and all who demand ex
IRENE and undesirably radical meas
ures show themselves to be the wors
enemies of the very public whose lout
mouthed champions they profess to be
very striking illustration of tn,
consequences of carelessness in tn,
preparation of statute was the EN-
ployers' liability law of 1906. In tn,
eases arising under that law four on
of six courts of first instance held i
unconstitutional, six out of nine jus
tees of the supreme court held tina