Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-09-12
ADVERTISING AGENTS:
MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE COURTS AND THE INTUNC-
TION.

THE COURTS AND THE IN5UNC-
TION.
The Grand Forks Herald takes a
clear and sensible view OF the Ques-
ton of the relation of the courts to
the best administration of justice
and enforcement of the laws and dis
tinguishes between the speeAous
argument that is based, not upon
all the facts, but upon isolated cas-
es of a possible abuse in the exer-
else of prerogative powers, and up
on the fixed logic of the best ad-
ministration of justice.
Courts are the final refuge of all
classes and masses Of people, who
seek the rights that are guaranteed
them by our constitution and laws.
Their functions must be preserved
as they were intended to be presrv-
ed by the constitution of the United
States, and in the enforcement of
their own processes their hands
must be upheld. Courts, being hui
man, are not perfect. Law is an
approximate science, fallible as hui
man judgment. But courts are as
essential to the preservation of free
dom and the enforcement of law as
the wall that keeps back the waves
of the sea, and when the constitu-
tional prerogatives of the court are
made the issue of a political election,
there is danger that we shall soon
progress to the argument that laws
are necessary to indicate both what
the courts may decide and how they
shall decide it. ""." S.. s~,s<.
That we have had instances of the
misuse of the prerogative powers of
courts is undoubted. Not SO many
as it has been the custom of the
assailants of the courts injunctional
DEGREES to lead US to believe. We
believe the instances in which courts
far in the issue of injunctions have
been few and not many. And that
comparatively few mistakes have
been made is not an effective ARA
ignment of the entire judiciary. The
jury system has made its tens of
thousands of mistakes and yet we
hear nothing Of it's abolition.
But the Herald's comment upon
the whole subject is fair and log
ical: ~
"Mr. Bryan's demand that in all
cases of indirect contemplated is,
contempt not committed in the pres
ence of the court-the accused shall
be tried by jury. The Republican
platform contains no promise or de-
mand for such change, and the Re-
publican candidate is Numerically
opposed to it. We believe that sober
thinking people, will oppose any
such change as heartily as Mr.. Taft
does when they understand what it
would involve. The Democratic
plank was inserted for the purpose
of. influencing the labor vote. Men
accused Of violating court orders in
contempt cases have been punished
without a jury trial. Extremists, In
the desire that their own views
should prevail, and where they CON
slider their own interests should be
furthered, have sometimes lost sigh
of the rights of the public, ant
have failed to follow their own pro
posals to their logisal conclusion.
Under the present arrangement
the court may inflict a penalty fo
refusal to obey it's orders, no matte
where or under what circumstance
the offense was committed. Becaus
OF this, court orders are very gener
ally obeyed, and 1t is possible TO
the laws to be executed. If ever
person charged with contempt cou1,
demand a jury trial there could b
no such thing as the enforcement 0
law. Witnesses could refuse to al
tend court. Being arrested for thi
refusal they could demand jury tria
and witnesses against them could al
SO refuse to appear Jurymen couI
absent themselves and thus della
trials, and before there could be
trial there might be q score Of othe
trials leading UP to It. The corpors
ton against which suit Is brough
for personal DANA ges. could refuse I
produce It's witnesses. books or p,