The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-12-11

| SnOulQ De Lrlal DE jury IN contempt |
cases, thereby most seriously impair |
Ing the authority of the courts. All
| this represented 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 essen
tial function Of the judiciary in all
civilized lands.
The wageworkers, the workingnen,
1 the 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 ha-
tired. have emphasized their sound
patriotism and Americanism. The
whole country has cause to feel pride
in this attitude of sturdy independ-
ence, in this uncompromising insist
ence upon acting simply as good citi-
zens, as good Americans, without re-
gard to fancied-and improper-class
| interests. Such an attitude is an OBJ
| jeet lesson in good citizenship to the
entire nation.
But the extreme reactionaries, the
persons who blind themselves to the
wrongs now and then committed by
the courts on laboring men, should
/, also think seriously as to what such
a movement as this portends. The
| judges who have shown themselves
able and willing effectively to check
| the dishonest activity of the very rich
man who works iniquity by the mis-
management of corporations, who
| have shown themselves alert to do
Justice to the wageworker, and SYM
| pathetic with the needs of the mass
| of our people, so that the dweller in
the tenement houses, the man who
practices dangerous trade, the man
who is crushed by excessive hours of
| labor, feel that their needs are under
stood by the courts these judges are
| the real bulwark of the courts; these
judges, the judges of the stamp of
| the President-elect, who have been
| fearless in opposing labor when it has
| gone wrong, but fearless also In hold
| ing to strict account corporations that
work iniquity, and far sighted in see
| ing that the workipgman gets hisrights,
are the men of all others to whom
we owe it that the appeal for such
violent and mistaken legislation has
fallen on deaf ears, that the agitation
/ for it's passage proved to be without
j
| ieoparded primarily by the action of
these Federal and State Judges who
| show inability or unwillingness to
put stop to the wrongdoing or very
| rich men under modern industrial
conditions, and inability or unwilling
ness to give relief to men of small
means or wageworkers who are
crushed down by these modern indus
trial conditions; who, in other words,
| fail to understand and apply the
| needed remedies for the new wrongs
produced by the new and highly COM
plex social and Industrial civilization
which has grown up in the last half
century.
There are certain decisions by va
rious courts which have been exceed
ingly detrimental to the rights of
| wageworkers. This is true of all the
| decisions that decide that men and
women are, by the Constitution,
| guaranteed their liberty" to con-
| tract to enter a dangerous occupation,
or to work an undesirable or impro-
per number of hours, or to work in
| unhealthy surroundings, and there
| fore can not recover damages when
| manned in that occuDation, and can
not be forbidden toy work what
| the Legislature decides is an excessive
number of hours, or to carry on the
work under conditions which the
| Legislature decides to be unhealthy.
There is also, think, ground for
| the belief that substantial injustice is
often suffered by employees in conse-
| quence of the custom of courts issu-
| ing temporary iniunctions without
notice to them. and Furnishing them
| for contempt of court in instances
where, as matter of fact, they have
no knowledge of any proceedings.
Outside of organized labor there is
widespread feeling that this system
often works great injustice to wage
workers when their efforts to better
their working condition results in in
dustrial disputes A temporary in
junction procured ex parte may as a
matter of fact have all the effect of a
permanent injunction in causing dis
aster to the wageworkers' side in
such dispute. Organized labor is
chatting under the unjust restraint
which comes from repeated resort to
this plan of procedure. It's discomfort
has been unwisely expressed, and Of
ten improperly expressed, but there
is sound basis for it, and the orderly
and law abiding people of a commu-
nifty would be in a far stronger posi-
ton for unfolding the courts if the
undoubtedly existing abuses could be
provided against.
The power of Injunction is a great
equitable remedy, which should on no
account be destroyed. But safeguards
should be erected against its abuse
Fer many of the shortcomings of
justice in our country our people as
whole are themselves to blame, and
the judges and iuries merely bear
their share together with the public
as a whole. 1t is discreditable to us
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