The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-03-03

should be permitted to set aside the
peoples law as enacted by the legisla-
ture.
The practical nullifying of acts of the
legislature by the courts insistence on
farcical and ridiculous technical inter
pretations has become nation wide. 1t
has gone to such length that the presi-
dent of the United States himself has
said that the administration of the Grim
inal law in his country was a national
disgrace. Not the law itself, mind you,
but the administration of it. The Bar
association of New York recently re-
ported that the defense of insanity in
murder cases has become scandal on
the name of Justice. 1t has been a
scandal in this state for a long time,
and when the legislature of 1909 passed
an act prohibiting a defense of insanity
in murder case, the supreme court
promptly set it aside as "unconstitu-
tional."
The courts and lawyers have been
running this country long enough. 1t is
time the legislature took a hand and
laid the matter before the people in the
shape of restricting this unlimited pre-
sumption of the courts. The editor
and the managing editor of the Seattle
''Star" have been sentenced to jail for
daring to give the people the news re-
garding a case on trial in a court, which
case was of vital Importance to thous-
ands of the "Star's" readers.
The case of the Seattle "Star' is an
other instance of the necessity of curb
ing this unbrided assumption of power
by the courts.
Our constitution says that the right
of free speech and the liberty of the
press shall not be infringed, yet, when
a fearless editor prints the truth es-
pecially the truth showing up corpor
alton, the court says he is in contempt,
and throws the editor in Jail, without
the rights of trial by jury or of appeal.
And such courts as these would have the
right to set aside the laws made by the
people.
Here is what one Judge with common,
every day sense said: wherever the
dignity of the courts is placed above
the rights of the people, the flow of
justice is mighty apt to be at a very
low ebb," Judge Neill, in Sawyer vs.
Ell Paso and N. f. Ry. (Texas Civil
Cases, los S. w. 7lS)
Read what the newly constituted
court of appeals of Oklahoma, a state
where the people recently adopted a con
Stitution made by and for the people,
not by and for the lawyers and courts;
ut confesses a want of respect for
precedents which We're found in the rub
bish of Noah's Ark, and which, as old
as Noah's grandfather, Methuselah. have
outlived their usefulness, if they ever
had any See Caples VS.. State, lO4
Pac 493.
The Hon. Andrew D. White, of
New York, formerly United States
ambassador to Russia in a public
address, makes this startling, but true,
statement: while the number of muir
ders is rapidly increasing, the proceed
ure against them is becoming more and
more ineffective and, in the light of re.
cent cases in New York and elsewhere,
is seen to be farce. One of the worst
results of these cases is the growing
opinion among the people at large that
men with money can so delay Justice
by every sort of chicanery that there is
a virtual immunity from punishment
for the highest crimes"
Who is responsible for the above
state of affairsY The courts and the
lawyers, and these same courts would
have the power to set aside all laws
enacted by the people.
Have we forgotten the cowardly and
mprovoked murder, in his own home
of George Meade Emory, of Seattle, by
Chester Thompson? The murderer went
scot free after a judge-made farce called
a trial, while a widow and six little
orphan children are left to fight their
battle with the world alone. without the
aid and protection of a husband and
father.
And this state of affairs is created
and continued by decisions of the su-
perior and supreme courts of this state,
ably assisted by those officers of the
courts, the lawyers.
Those who have ever attended a court
trial can not fail to remember the bull
doing and Safeguarding of witnesses,
permitted by the judges and iniulged