Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-13

Dly, inpinged ON the court made law
of the land, and consequently the
court imposes a sentence technically
on the ground of contempt of court,
but really because Gompers ct al. are
leading reform which eventually
must be won, and the court takes the
.stand still' view of the situation.
Courts the Ruling Power.
Divesting oneself of all prejudices, 1t
J will be inevitable that one viii see
that were the Wright view, backed as
, it is by the federal supreme court, to
| be applied in all departments of our
social activities Jail sentences would
be imposed for a multitude Of acts
which were a million miles from the
thought of the lawmakers when they
framed existing statutes.
| And I shall not hesitate to affirm.
! empha tically, too, that the people OF
| these United States are living under
system OF judicial government which
makes the court the de facto power.
notwithstanding the legislature is pre-.
sumed to be.
The deplorable part of the whole
/ y
J itation for civic reform ard establish
ment of greater respect for law, the
only net result achieved should be the
sending to Jail of three gallant fight
ers of labor's battles, while rich men
go as welcome guests into the very Of
fetal residences of our highest magis-
trates fresh from their Wall street ex-
ploitation of federal statutes openly
defled
Is it not strange that men who have
broken every law against restraint Of
.-ade in upbuildins business go free,
while men who battle for recognition
Of human hearts and brains and needs
and hopes among the labor hosts go ts
Jail?
l desire to bring out the contrast
sharply. And 1 am not forgetting that
1t is not excuse for one fault to cite
another and that because one nar
breaks the law another may not right
ly plead that fact in extenuation of his
own lawbreaking.
A Crisis Precipitated.
Let Gompers ct al. worry not at all
Their sentencing will work for good
to their cause. 1 believe know some
what of current thought in the nation
} al capital, and venture to assert that
the most reactiOnary sycophants o
; wealth gravely ponder on the crisi.
, they have brought on themselves, pre-
cipitated by the Wright decree
Let it be remembered that judicial
findings always contain more than one
{ ingredient and that sometimes there Il
one part legal astuteness to severa
parts of intellectual slant, one way OF
another.
5 Again, then, labor must not be 8
\ commodity Of a kind with coal. We
must come to view the laboring mar
as possessing inherently right in hi:
industry, and the courts by their latel
findings have placed on themselve.
the pressing necessity Of discovering
wrongd0ing in high places, else viii
this social revolution come crashing
along on its way with ruthless disre
gard for cherished social standards.
What commentary on the ''construc
! tive" Republican party these recen
Il events! When labor comes before th,
bar Of justice (sic), how quickly doe
the law wreak its mighty vengeance
/ When e. H. Hartman laughingly de
> fed the antitrust law, as it is alleges
= Gompers ct al did, how difficult 70
the courts to discover his wrong!
When men who work with thef
hands put forth leaders to do thei
B battles, how majestic the law! Whel
for business sake. plethoric other mel