The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1912-03-28

I Ouo Oboldtlto ludl LbGJ nave ChNOnA
tered during the many years that they
have been trying to save American
women and children from destruction
in American industry have been the
courts. That is the judgment of al
most all the social workers / know
and of dozens OF parish priests and
! clergymen and of every executive and
| legislator who has been seriously at
tempting to use the government as an
| agency for social and industrial bet
| terment. What is the result of this
system of judicial notification? 1t
was accurately stated by the court
| OF appeals, New York, in the employ
ers' liability case, where it was calmly
and judicially declared that the peo-
pie under our republican government
are less free to correct the evils that
Cypress them than are the people Of
the monarchies OF Europe. To any
man with vision, to any man with
broad and real social sympathies, to
any man who believes with all his
heart in this great democratic re-
public of ours, such a condition is in
tolerable. II is not government by the
people, but mare sham government in
which the will Of the people is con-
stantly defeated. II is out of this ex-
perience that my remedy has come,
and let it be tried in this field.
When as the result of years Of edu-
cation and debate a majority of the
people have decided upon a remedy
for an evil from which they suffer
and have chosen a legislature, legis- |
lature pledged to embody that remedy |
in law, and the law has been finally /
passed and approved, | regard it as |
monstrous that a bench of judges |
shall then say to the people: You |
must begin all over again. First /
amend your constitution (Which will
take four years.; second, secure the
passage of a new law (which will take
two years more); third, carry that
new law over it's weary course of lit.
cation, which will take no human be
ing knows how long; fourth, submit
the whole matter over again to the
very same judges who have rendered
the decision to which you object.
Then, if your patience holds out and
you finally prevail, the will of the ma
jority of the people may have its way"
Such system is not popular govern
ment, but a mere mockery of popular
government.
The decisions Of which we complain
are, as a rule, based upon the con.
stitutional provision that no person
shall be deprived of life, liberty or
propar+,y without duo pronaco Of Iau-
The terms life, liberty and property"
have been used in the constitutions
of the English speaking people since
Magma Charta. Until within the last
sixty years they were treated as hav-
ing specific meanings" property"
means tangible property; Liberty"
meant freedom from personal re- ,
straint, or in other words, from i'm :
prisonment in its largest definition.
About 1870 our courts began to attach
TO these terms new meaning. Now
property" has come to mean every
right of value which a person could
enjoy, and liberty" has been made
% include the right to make contracts.
As a result, when the state limits the
lours for which women may labor, it
s told by the courts that this law de-
,rives them of their liberty" and
when it restricts the manufacture of
obacco in tenement it is told that
he law deprives the landlord of his -
Now, l do not believe that
ny people, and especially our free
american people, will long consent
hat the term liberty" shall be de-
ned for them by bench of judges.
very people has defined that term
or itself in the course of it's develop
lent. =
he Task is To Strive For Justice.
Friends, our task as Americans is i
} strive for social and industrial just
;e, achieved through the genuine rule
I the people. This is our end, our
urpose. The methods for achieving
lie end are merely expedients to be G.
nally accepted or rejected according
5 actual experience shows that they
ork well or i'll. But, in our hearts =,
e must have this lofty purpose, and
e must strive for it in all earnest n
ess and sincerity or our work will CT
,me to nothing. In order to succeed -,
e need leaders of inspired idealism,
aders to whom are granted great
sions, who dream greatly and strive
make their dreams come true, who -
n kindle the people with the fire j
ON their own burning souls. The ID
ader, for the time being, whoever
may be, is but an instrument to be =
ed until broken and then to be cast
ide, and if he is worth his salt he !
II care no more when he is broken
an soldier cares when he is sent
lere his life is forfeited in order
at the victory may be won. In the
lg fight for righteousness the watch
'rd for all of us is spend and be
emit 1t is of little matter whether
y one man fails or succeeds, but
; cause shall not fail, for it is the
Use of mankind. We, here in Amer
4, hold in our hands the hope of the
rid, the fate of the coming years, On
shame and disgrace will be ours w
in our eyes, the light OF high re- IN
We is dimmed, if we trail in the dust
golden hopes OF men. If, on this 10
v continent, we merely build an