The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1912-05-11
SITTING ON THE SAFETY VALVE.


supreme court sees clearly the rock upon which the
American judiciary is being split. When written
constitution, which is difficult of amendment
that it cannot be amended excepting through the
stress OF great upheaval such prepared the way
tor the ''war'' amendments, the judiciary, assum-
ing as it does the function of guardian Of the
stitution must bear the brunt of public criticism
and dissatisfaction when great changes are taking
place in our industrial social, and political life
History is repeating ITSELF Prior to the war of
secession, the courts the storm center of the
conflict slavery. If the shareholders had not
precpitated the issue, there is little question that
the energies of the Republican party would have
been directed to revolutionzing form of gov
eminent to the end that the federal judiciary might
be stripped Of it's political power. With the nation
plunged into war; events made it unnecessary to
challenge the judicary's power. The executive and
legislative departments in the exigencies of civil
war became supreme and the judiciary was elbowed
out OF the way with scant courtesy.
The nation fighting for it's life and no court
was permitted to obstruct or hamper the executive
department. Court writs, where they interferred
with the prosecution Of the war; were treated so
much waste paper. Men seized and impr-
soned In defiance OF law and the constitution We
had what Mr.. Seward called the 'thigher law" In
South America the same thing results when the
reigning dictator "suspends the constitution
At the conclusion of the war the power of the
judiciary was at a low ebb. The constitution was
amended by carpet bag legislatures backed by
bayonets. Reconstruction legislation was enacted
and the supreme court forbidden to take jurisdic-
ton.
Justice Winslow would have the constitution
made more flexible and responsive to the needs of
the present rather than to serve as an eighteenth
century strait jacket. Unless method may be de-
vlsed for amending it to conform to the needs of
our civilization, the courts must continue to invite
suspicion and be weakened in their judicial Junction.
They are now placed in the position where they
approve or disapprove policies Of government and
exercise arbitrary political power No legislation
is final until it has been tried out in the courts
long and tedious and expensive and exasperating
procedure that is in striking contrast with the direct
method employed in our industrial life.
Every day machinery is being scrapped in our
industries, so that greater efficiency may be attained
but in our political life are content to permit
lawyers to haggle indefinitely to determine what
IS and what is not law. It is aburd that a people
who will scrap their machinery of production to
increase their economic efficiency will continue
much Longer to permit the courts to harass and
obstruct and hamper their efforts to conform their
political institutions to the changed conditions of
their industrial life
The courts are powerless to protect what Pres
ldent Taft IS pleased to call the minority when the
executive and Legislative departments are riding
rough shod over the laws and the constitution, in
the stress of civil war or insurrection or great
industrial disturbance But as the final arbiters of
questions OF political policy they are admirably
equipped, with no safety valve appliance whereby
the Will OF the people may be given EXPRESSION to
give rise to national disorders or create an exnlo
sion such followed on the heels of the bred Scott
decision.