The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-06-08

that l have passed in this capital
and the public service Of the coun-
try, the most alarming tendency of
this day in my judgment, so far as
the safety and integrity of our insti-
tutions are concerned, is the ten
dency to judicial legislation, so that,
when men having vast interests are
concerned, and they cannot get the
law-making power of the country
which controls it to pass the legisla-
ton they desire, the next thing they
do is to raise the question in some
case, to get the court TO so construe
the constitution or the statutes as
to mean what they want it to mean.
That has not beer our practice"
"The court, in the opinion in this
case, says that this act of congress
means and embraces only unreason-
able restraint of trade in fiat contra
diction to what this court mas said
fifteen years ago that congress did
not intend.
within the last hour an opinion
has been handed down for this con-t
today, in which, in case arising
under the safety appliance act, it
was said that such and such was the
safety appliance act, such and such
was its meaning; that this court has
so declared in a case decided four
or five years ago. Now, We said,
in reply to that:
If the court erred in the former
case, it is open for the parties to
apply for such an amendment of the
statute as congress may, in its dis
erection, deem proper. This court
ought not now disturb what has been
so widely accepted and acted upon
by the courts as having been decided
in that case. A contrary course would
cause infinite uncertainty, if not mis-
chief, in the administration of the
law in the federal courts
1T is quite true that what was
said in that case concerned only the
lives and limbs of railroad employees
and passengers. However, important
the law may be, we will not consider
the question as to whethe" this for
mer construction is right, because,
if we are wrong, go to congress and
get the legislation.
That is one case. While this
happens to be the case of an over
shadowing combination Of such vast
wealth and enormous power that it
may fairly be deemed a menace to
the general business interest of the
country, but this difference ought not
to induce us to depart from a settled,
wholesome rule, which, being faith
fully observed, will guard the in
tegrity and secure the safety of the
nation and OF it's institutions against
the attacks of those who would, for
the sake Of present advantages and
ends, be willingly to undo the work of
the fathers"
1t was no demagOgue who arose
above all consideration of petty
precedent and conventional courtesy
to utter that great opinion that is
|tantamount almost to a new bill of
rights. John Marshall Harlan has no
selfish ambition, not an atom of
political interest. More than a gene
ration has passed since he so moved
in his daily contact with men and
affairs that he might be infected with
"new-fangled destructive notions
so detested by toryism and special
privilege.
That leonine protest was a re-
neWal of faith in the fathers of the
nation, and warning that the crea-
ton of their heart and soul and
brain was endangered.
That crowning proof of the great
ness and purity of the scholar,
statesman, jurist and patriot was the
volclng of the prophetic vision of one
who knows that the basic principles
are unchanged without ruin of the
superstructure, and who knows that
no people can be free under a govern
ment that grants to individuals any
measure of monopoly which endows
them with the unexpressed but actual
power to tax.