Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-03-28

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
torment What is the result OF this
system Of judicial notification? Il
was accurately stated by the court
Of appeals. New York, in the employ
ers liability case. where It was calmly
ana JUdicially declared that the peo-
BE uaGti our republican government
are less free TO correct the evils that
Cypress them than are the people OF
the monarohes 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 condition is in
to.-r8Lte. Ii is not government by the
people, but mere sham government IN
which the will of the people is con
stan;ly defeated. 1t is out OF this eX
terrence that my remedy has come
AID let it be tried in this field.
When as the result of years OF edu-
cation ana debate a majority OF the
people have decided upon remedy
for an evil from which they suffer
and have chosen Legislature, leglS
lature pledged to embody that remedy
in law, and the law has been finally
passed and approved, | regard 1t 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 d new law (Which viii. take
.wo years more); third, carry that
new law over its weary course OF litl
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. ii your patience holds out and
ycu nnallv prevail, the will of the ma
| iorify OF the people may have its way.
| Such system is not popular govern
mont bat ii mere mOcliery CT popular
| government
The decisions Of which we complain
are, as a rule, based upon the con
| stilntiQual provision that no person
| shall be deprived Of life, liberty OF
! properly without due process Of law
| The terms life, liberty and property,
have been used in the constitutions
CT the English speaking people since
Magma ChArta. Until within the last
sixty years they were treated as hav'
! ing specific meanings-"pr property
means tangible property; Liberty"
meant freedom from personal re-
| straint, or in other words, from i'm
prisonment in it's 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
to include the right to make contracts.
AS result, when the state limits the
hours for which women may labor. 1t
Is told by the courts that this law de.
prives them Of their liberty" and
when 1t restricts the manufacture OF
tobacco in a tenement it Is told that
the law deprives the landlord Of his
property. Now. l do not believe that
any people, and especially our free
American people, will long consent
that the term liberty" shall be de.
fined for them by a bench of judges.
Every people has defined that term
for itself in the course Of its develop.
ment.
The Task is To Strive For Justice.
Friends, our task as Americans is
to strive for social and Industrial just.
ice, achieved through the genuine rule
OF thu people. This is our end, our
purpose. The methods for achieving
the end are merely eXpedents to be
finally accepted or rejected according
as actual experience shows that they
work we'll or i'll. But, in our hearts
We must have this lofty purpose, and
We must strive for it in all earnest
| ness and sincerity or our wort VIII
| come TO nothing. IN order to succeed
! we need leaders OF inspired !,ieal:sl'
| leaders to whom are granted great
| visions. who dream greatly ans strive
| 70 make their dreams Cprpa 't"e who
| can hndie the people vic Ae fire
| from their own burni"s :'1.'s The
| lepjer, for The time beine. >hoaver
| he may be, is hut an instI:i;raa. - be
used until broken and then to ~ cas-:
aside, and if lie Is worth his sslt he
will care no more when he is broken
than q soldier cares when he is sent
where his life is forfeited in orde"
that the victory may be won. In the
long fight for Righteousness the watch
word for all OF us 10 speno and bs
spent II is u little mater sbether
any one man fails or succeeds but
the cause shall not fail, fc' i IL the
cause OF mankind We, te:" III Amer
lea, hold in ou' hands he top.. Of the
world the fate OF the coming years
and shame an: disgrace viii be ours
it, in our eyeS ne light of high re-
solve is dimmed. Il we trail in the dust
the golden hopes OF men. If, on this
new continent, we merely build an
other country OF great but unjustly