The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-12-31

The Appeal To Reason is publishing
a series of articles concerning some OF
the federal judges OF the country which
if true. should drive the subjects Of the
articles from the bench which they dis.
grace. 1t seems almost incredible that
men could sink so low in infamv and
hold up their heads among the people
of their communities. One of two
J things is certain: The Appeal is LAYING
its publishers liable to numerous libel
suits by their attacks ON the moral
character and rectitcde of several ooeu-
1 pants OF the judicial ermine. or. the
stories as published are true As dar-
ing and outspoken as The Appeal has
been in its utterances. it is hardly to
be believed that the publishers would
allow these articles to be printed unless
they were sure of their ground.
The Appeal is careful to state that
these articles are published not with a
view to blacken the characters of the
men they portray, but to expose the
underlying system which makes possible
in this country such a travesty of
Justice.
The present series of articles is di-
rected toward the career of Judge Peter
Grosscup, of Chicago. the man who who
reversed the decision of Judge lands,
imposing a fine of so, 100000 against
Standard Oil. The issue of December
25th hands out the following to Judge
Grosscup:
Judge Grosscup, no doubt, as corrupt
scoundrel and as great moral leper
as he is, would willingly aid in destroy
ing the present vicious system of social
and economic injustice if he could see
his way clear to the establishment of a
more human and equitable method of
securing livelihood for the people In
many of his speeches and magazine arti-
cles he has acknowledged that some
where something was wrong and that
| .
in the North American Review. he an
nouneed that he would not hesitate to
desert the party of his fathers and
unite with new political party ii it
was in earnest and really meant to
inaugurate a change. No matter how
corrupt Grosscup's life has been, nor
how preiudicial to the interests of the
poor his decisions invariably are. the
writer is willing to concede that in
advocating his scheme of "peopleizing
the corporations Grosscup is prompted
by honest motives and sincere desire
to see Justice prevail. In his magazine
articles he is writing out OF court. Here
at least, he can be himself And the
dispassionate critic will concede that the
ideas he here advances and the princi
pie he here advocates are the outpour
! ing of heart which, on the bench, he
must stifle if he would continue Il
hold his job.
An honest judge or Just Judge Is
an unthinkable person under capitalism
If a man were honest and Just befor,
he reached the bench, after receiving
his appointment he would quickly grow
both dishonest ana unjust. unless h
degenerared in to a dissenter. Forty
years ago Henry Clay Caldwell the las
surviving appointee of Abraham Lin
coin, tried to honestly administer jus
tice in federal court, and, finally, h
resigned the bench in disgust. His rec
ord shows a larger number of dissentin!
opinions than is accredited to any othe
Judge. Men are not liars and thieve
because they wish to be such; they Ii
and steal because they must. The faul
is not so much with the individual
as it is with the system under whie
they live. The capitalist system of pro
duction and exchange is wrong. TIL
institutions which flourish under capl
talism- including governments an
courts-are wrong.
Not against individual capitalists an
Judges is the Appeal to Reason max
ing war; these men are the creature
of their environment. The fight
against capitalism. If this point is nc
made clear and does not stick in Oh
minds of the readers of these article
on the Judiciary, then the moral of til
whole story is lost.
Two Jeykills and Hydes.
| Peter Stenger Grosscup was born a
Ashland, Ohio. February l5, 1882. Hi
parents were of Pennsylvania extra'
! tion, his mother being a Miss Baum
meister. and woman of much physics
energy. She had swarthy complexion
and by many Ashland people is sal