The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-07-21
COURTS AND CORPORATIONS.

Corporations take an Gnnur1an ill.,
teresJ in courts. Thu ordin Try hu-
man being with a nAIt a nd a s,uI
takes sto'l: of the cou.t ds he nGc1s
it in lime of legal distress, hrt your
corporation never for d moment # its
soulless l;fr takes It's eyes 1T The
bench. Many things are deducibie
fro mthiS.
Corporations are born of the law.
and perhaps naturally nnouch a.'C.ni
it such obedience only as it, parent
can bring to command. The court is
the rod by which the law hopes 70
obtain obedience from it's souless
child under the fear of chastiselnent
And this corporation-ch !ll early in
its legal life sets about with what
cunning it possesses or can purchase
to make the rod as painless as pos
sible.
This filiai depravity is explained by
the fact that the corporation has no
soul, curious refutation of the axiom
that the whole is equal to the sum If
its parts. A corporation is made uo
of human beings, each with body
and soul, but in their totality as a cor
poration they are soulless.
What becomes of the souls in the
prenatal evolutions of the corporations
is born from the womb of the law in
stinctively opposed to the laws die
tates. This is a common bond of
Brotherhood which unites all cor
porations. They are all brothers in
that they are born of the same m 9TH
er, and while. like brothers, they may
fall out among themselves. yet they
unite with fraternal promptness
against their common mistress.
For brief period previous to the
last regular session of the legislature
the people. the source of all law, had
it within their power to pick from
their number those men they judged
best suited to constitute the supreme
court Of the state. At the last prim-
airy election. among other candidates
was Judge HUMPHREYS of Seattle, a
lawyer. who for a large number of
clients has legally attacked and Sc
cured damages from many corpora
tons. 1t was necessary to wait until
the official count on the votes to de-
termine that Judge HUMPHREYS had
been defeated for the nomination. De-
feated as he was, it was a hard set
back for the corporations. which tax
ed all their cooperative good luck and
ingenuity to retrieve.
Not being of a gambling disposition
and unwilling to take further chances
the corporations. all Legislators to the
vehement contrary Notwithstanding.
secured the passage through the legis-
lature of law removing the nominal
ton of supreme justice from the
power of the peop1c and placing il
with the so-called party convention.
Here we have the corporations of
the state distating who shall not be a
supreme Judge.
Does it require any peculiar pers-
picacity to see these same corporations
exerting powers inversely and dicta-
ting who shall be supreme Judge?
If corporation or a set of corpor-
atoms lift up a man from the ranks
of law to the supreme bench. is it pre-
sumabie that they do so simply out of
their good nature. and with no expec-
tations Of remuneration?
And remember that corporations
are souliess.
Admitting that these justice-elevat-
IN corporations expect some return
for their time. labor and money. what
is this recompense most likely to be?
The only commodity that a court has
is it's decisions. And we have seen d
decision handed down by member OF
eur own supreme court which was
written By the attorney for a contend
ing corporation against an individual.
AS long as Judges are human and
corporations unhuman, such a premise
as we have set forth is possible. and
If the premise be admitted the con-
olusion. as inevitable. And as long AS
the premise is possible, no investga-
ton of charges bearing on the con-
clusion is wrong. on the other hand.
the investigation is not only eminently
proper but absolutely necessary.
THE SUPREME COURT Is NO
HOLY OF HOLES INTO WHICH
NONE BUT THE Amounted lay
YER MAY ENTER