The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1908-12-09

| months earnings. In this respect the
generosity Of the United States towards
| its employees compares most unfavora-
bly, with that Of every country in Eu-
rope-even the poorest
l renew my recommendation made in
| a previous message that half-holidays
be granted during summer to all wage
workers in government employ
I also renew my recommendation that
the principle of the eight-hour day
| should as rapidly and as far as practi-
| cable be extended to the entire work
being carried on by the government:
| the present law should be amended to
embrace contracts on those public
| works which the present wording of
the act seems to exclude.
Would Double Salaries Of Judges.
most earnestly urge upon the con-
| gress the duty of increasing the totally
| inadequate 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 to their work. Be-
| ginning with the supreme court the
| judges should have their salaries dou-
| bled. 1t is not betting the dignity Of
the nation that it's most honored public
| servants should be paid sums so small
| compared to what they would earn in
| private life that the performance of
public service by them implies an ex-
ceedingly heavy pecuniary sacrifice.
1t is earnestly to be desired that some
| method should be devised for doing
away with the long delays which now
| obtain in the administration of justice.
| and which operate with peculiar sever
| ity against persons of small means, and
| favor only the very criminals whom it
| is most desirable to punish. These
| long delays in the final decisions of
| cases make in the aggregate crying
| evil; and remedy shoull be devised.
Much of this intolerable delay is due
| to improper regard paid to technicali-
| ties which are a mere hinderance to
| justice. In some noted recent cases this
| over-regard for technicalities has re-
suited in a striking denial of Justice.
and fragrant wrong to the body polite.
Labor Leaders Criticised.
At the last election certain leaders of
organized labor made violent and
sweeping attack upon the entire judi
ciary of the 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.
Last year, before the house COM
mittee on judiciary. these same
labor leaders formulated their de-
mands, specifying the bill that
| contained them, refusing all compro-
MISE 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 specifical-
| ly provided that the right to carry on
| business should not be construed as a
| property right; and in second provis-
| ion their bill made legal in a labor dis
| pute any act or agreement by or be-
| tween two or more persons that would
not have been unlawful II done by
| single person In other words, this bill
| legalized 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 a course of policy
| which. if carried out. would mean the
| enforcement of class privilege in it's
| crudest and most brutal form, and the
| destruction of one of the most essen
tial functions of the judiciary in all CIV
| ilized lands.
The violence of the crusade for this
| legislation, and its 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 is i'm
proper and impossible he plays into the
| hands of his foes. Such crude and
| vicious attack upon the courts, even if
| 1t were temporarily successful, 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. competent
and incompetent alike, rather than to
see the wheels of justice stopped.
| The wageworkers the workingmen,
the laboring men of the country by the
way in which they repudiated the eff
| fort to get them to cast their votes in
response to an appeal to class hatred
have emphasized their sound patriotism
! and Americanism. Such attitude
| is an object lesson in good citizenship to
the entire nation.
Judicial System Sound.
Our judicial system is sound and
| and must ever be maintained, as
the safeguard of those principles OF lib
erty 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 be-
| hind in their understanding 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 last
| ing harm by their decisions, because they
| convince poor men in need of protection
| that the courts of the land are pro-
| foundry ignorant Of and out Of sympathy
| with their needs, and profoundly ignorant
| 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 it desires to preserve
''liberty' in purely technical form. by
Withholding liberty in any real and con-
| structive sense.
There are certain decisions by various
courts which have been exceedingly det-
rimental to the rights of wage workers.
| This is true of all decisions that decide
| that men are by the constitution, guar
| anteed their liberty" to contract to enter
dangerous occupation, or to work an
| undesirable or improper number of hours,
| or to work in unhealthy surroundings;
| and therefore cannot recover damages
| when MANNED in that occupation, and
| cannot be forbidden to work what the
| legislature decides is an excessive num-
| Der Of hours. or to carry on the work
| under conditions which the legislature
decides to be unhealthy. Decisions
| such as those nullify the legislative