Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-13
Labor Case Decision Epoch Making in Importance

Dly, inpinged ON the court made law
Of the land, and consequently the
court imposes 4 sentence technically
on the ground of contempt of court,
| but really because Gompers ct nj. 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
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 1 shall not hesitate to affirm.
emphatically, 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
matter is that, after these years of ag-
itation for civic reform ard establish
nent of greater respect for law, the
only net result achieved should be the
sending to jail of three gallant fight
crs 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
dcfied
Is it not strange that men who have
broken every law against restraint Of
trade In upbuilding business go free,
while men who battle for recognition
Of human hearts and brains and needs
and hopes among the labor hosts go &
Jail?
l desire to bring out the contrast
sharply. And am not forgetting thai
1t is not excuse for one fault to cit.
another and that because one mar
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 gool
/, to their cause. 1 believe 1 know some
what of current thought in the nation
, al capital, and venture to assert thai
the most reactionary sycophants o
, wealth gravely ponder on the crisis
they have brought on themselves, pre-
cipitated by the Wright decree.
> Let it he remembered that judicia
findings always contain more than ont
ingredient and that sometimes there /.
one part legal astuteness to severa
parts of intellectual slant, one way Of
5 | another.
5 Again, then, labor must not be &
\ commodity Of kind with coal. W,
must come to view the laboring maj
as possessing inherently right in hi.
industry, and the courts by their late
findings have placed on themselve
the pressing necessity Of discovering
! wrongdoing in high places, else will
) this social revolution come crashin,
along on its way with ruthless disre
gard for cherished social standards.
5 What commentary on the ''construc
a tive" Republican party these recen
events! When labor comes before tn
bar of justice (sic), how quickly doe
the law wreak its mighty vengeance
/ When e. II. Hartman laughingly de
= fed the antitrust law, as it is allege
\ Gompers ct al. did, how difficult 70
4 the courts to- discover his wrong!
When men who work with thel
& hands put forth leaders to do thei
B battles, how majestic the law! Whel
for business sake plethoric other me,