The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-11
|COMER COMES BACK
 AT JUDGE JONES IN
 | VIGOROUS MANNER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE D

libel suit against the Louisville ana Nash- vile railroad that two of their prominent employes, Judge G. Moore and E. A. De- Funiak, had one of the Louisville and Nashville section bosses swear that he was my first cousin, and connect me with a dishonorable transaction. Tn that libel suit it was shown that the Louisville and Nashville railroad had used s142,OO0 in the election, and the history of the state through those years was one of debauch- ing railroad control, of which the above is simply an incident.
 Contest to Break Control
 "The contest made through 8 series of years to break this control and re- strict their taxing power reached it's climax in the race for Governor which I made against pr. Cunningham. In my platform, it was distinctly stated that we were contending for the Georgia freight rate on 110 articles of common production, consumption and use, the same that Georgia had had for 30 years
 "In Dr. Cunninghams platform he asked for the Georgia rates on every item, stating that the Alabama condi- tions for freight charges not only equalled, but surpassed those of Geor- gia, and this entire matter was before all the people, not only in that elec- tion, but had been for years, and every man including Judge Jones, who voted the democratic ticket, voted for these measures
 "It was not snap judgment, it was not demagogic but was statewide and state indorsed, and had been continuous through series of years, and the re- suit was an overwhelming majority. When Judge Jones enjoined the legis- lative made rates from trial, then he enjoined that which he had voted for, and that which the state of Alabama had voted for, and assumed Brobding- nagian. responsibility, and no one has criticised this more severely than MT. Roosevelt, who appointed him judge. In recent article on the judiciary, MT. Roosevelt writes, It Is immensely to the popular interest that the judge shall pay heed to his conscience first of all and shall show personal independence, no less than broad and generous sym pathy with popular needs and wishes But I also feel that in our country when a great question of policy arises and when not by snap judgment, not by any trick, not in response to any sudden emotion, but as the evident ex- pression of permanent popular will, the people have determined what given policy is it should be carried into ef- feet. The men who denounce the free and fair criticism of the judiciary, the frank expression of popular opinion, necessary to produce this result. are themselves doing all in their power to render necessary the adoption of some more direct method of popular con- troll
 Newman Refused
 Judge Newman, about the same time that Judge Jones granted the injunc- tion in Alabama, refused to grant the injunction in Georgia. Notwithstanding the rates in Georgia were very much lower than in Alabama, he ordered that | the railroads try the rates, and then come back. They did so, and did not | come back. The same party tried to l get an injunction before Judge Shelby, and he declined to grant 1t, and yet in both instances they had the same stereotype oath of confiscation and de- struction. In Iowa the same statement 'confiscation and destruction' was be- fore Judge Brewer, and he ordered the rates tried.
 "The appellate court, sitting at New Orleans on the appeal from the de- cision of Judge Jones granting the in junction, ordered the rates tried, and now, after two years trial, there is no unenvironed man in Alabama who believes that the rates are not fair and compensatory.
 "The railroads have been controlling our law, legislature and administration so far as related to them and no one knows this any better than Judge Jones.
 Gov. Woodrow Wilson, man who many people think is big and good enough to be president (and I agree with them), In recent speech said that the most dangerous proposition is for the public service corporations, the interests, tc control the law, the legislature and adjudication.'
 Among the framers of the original federal constitution Charles Pinckney, Mercer and Dickinson spoke against giving courts power to s,t aside legis- lative acts. Edmund Randolph, Gerry and Mason refused to sign the consti- tuition. partly on sthe ground that no limit was set to judicial power. Mad fson declared that the legislature was as fit an interpreter of the constitu- ton as the cc urts. The doctrine that the courts as sole interpreters of the constitution may annul legislative acts was described by Jefferson as "very dangerous doctrine indeed and one that would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Were these men socialist? The very doctrine of initiative. refer oIdum and recall now being whispered through the country is the result of what these statesmen foresaw-a judge with abberations, who loves to place himself In spectacular injunction against the will of an entire people as expressed in the legislature.
 "The position that Judge Jones oc- cupies in these matters is of vital im- portance not only to Alabama but is fast marking the necessity of civil revolution.
 Cutting the Cloth -
 "A minor federal judge in a recent speech likened the decision of a court to tailor cutting cloth to make a gar ment to fit man, and stated that he made his decision, or garment, to fit a man. He told the truth, and that is the danger from some of our lifelong appointees to the federal judiciary with their immense power. because if. on &C., count of any peculiar environment, they in cutting cloth, cut 1t to fit a man, or interest, and not to fit the people, then there is the concreteness of the peo- pie naked and the interest clothed, and by the law. And as prognosticated by the fathers, sooner later a govern ment of aristocrats and oligarchs, and fin turn "Cromwellians" or Round heads" in France revolutionist or Sans culottes"; in Mexico "Maderos'' and in- surrectos, and in our own country so- cialists, demagogues, insurgents, initia- lives, referendums and recalls. These conditions are the very last that the interests want. A thousand times bet ter for every interest, personal and prop erty, of the state and people that these hard fought legislative restrictsions should stand. It is most dangerous for a judge. no matter what power put the ermine on him, to attempt to cut the economic cloth to fit man.
 ''Messrs. Morgan and Guggenheim can make Ballinger; Hines can make q