The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-02-13
ROOSEVELT
HEARD From
"ldaho Election Decision Worse
Than bred Scott Decision"
Continued From Page one.

the nation in 1857 layed into the hands
of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan and
the reactionary organization Of which
he and they were parts.
In Idaho the result was as grave a
miscarriage of justice at the election
as had already occurred at the nomin-
alton convention, n the court be-
came the most potent instrument IN
this denial of justice. This decision l
hold to hav been an outrage upon the
people of Idaho, and not merely upon
them, but upon the people of all the
United States for any interference with
the rights of an American in any state
to cast his vote and to have it counted
for the president of his choice is an
offense against the Americans of all
the states.
IT think the result of the vote show
ed that IL we had been given our clear
and undoubted rights Idaho's electoral
vote would have been in the progress
sive column. The action of the reac-
tionary court, taken in combination
with the action of the republican ma
chine, resulted in the deprivation of
Idaho to express their choice for pres
ident.
Abraham Lincoln said that he be-
lieved the bred Scott decision repre-
scented a conspiracy against liberty be-
tween the then supreme court n the
leading officers of the reactionary par?
ty to which that supreme be-
longed. / believe that with even more
justice Abraham Lincoln If alive to-
day could make the same statement
about the action of the reactionary
court of Idaho in connection with the
reactionary leaders of the republican
machine of Idaho. ~. ...
But the court did not stop here.
There was in Idaho a newspaper which
fearlessly and in entirely proper IAN
ner condemned the court for this out
rage. The editor and publisher of that
paper, and another man connected with
them, have been thrown into Jail and
fined heavily for contempt by the
court. The court in it's opinion has
cited the numerous dynamite outrages
and the like that ave occurred as JUS
tifying their action. No more extraor-
binary plea was ever made. l yield
to no man in the horror 1 feel for the
anarchists and for all other criminals
who do murder, whether by dynamite
or in any other fashion. --.
But the damage they do, though
great, is by 10 means as great to the
cause Of law and order as is that done
by a decision such as the decision in
question:; and no anarchist ever can
or ever will hurt the courts as they
are hurt by such action as this OF
1 LIlG IlStlCSL SOd1N u N"S SN~NS ~
Idaho. Remember hat If the posi-
ton Of the Idaho court in Furnishing
it's critics for contempt Is proper,
then Abraham Lincoln should have
been jailed and fined for his words
about the supreme court of the Unit
ed States in connection with the
bred Scott decision. 3
Abraham Lincoln was no more or
less guilty than the three men whom
the supreme court of the state of
Idaho has imprisoned for contempt
because they criticized in less severe
language than Abraham Lincoln, a
decision as i~ndefensible from every
standpoint of law and justice and
popular rights as the bred Scott de-
cision itself. ".
"A cause like tina in Idaho shows
the need of the power of popular re.
call of the judiciary, a need which
believe could probably be met by hav
ing the judges appointed or elected fol
life, but subject IN petition to re-
call by popular vote every two years
This action would not. however
meet all the difficulties of the case
In this state, for instance, there have
been many well meaning judges who
in certain cases, usually AFFECTING
labor have rendered decisions which
were wholly improper, wholly re-
dictionary n fraught with the grav'
i | est llluSNiNB " LIIOCe An0SS1 "a SAA
community standing most in need Of
justice. What is needed here is not
the right to recall the judge, who II
some one instance gives a mistaken
and reactionary Interpretation to its
constitution. but the right Of the peo-
pie themselves to express after due
elaboration their definite judgment
as to what the constitution shall per.
NIT in the way of legislation for So
cial and Industrial Justice.
II hold that in such a case as the
bakeshop case, in such a case as thu
workmen's compensation act, in sucf
a case as the tenement house cigar
factory act, in such a case as the act
providing for the safeguarding of 6
dangerous machinery, in such a case
as the eight-hour day law, that it Is
for the people themselves to decide
whether such a law is or Is no tC
stand on the statute books. l do mo-
care whether you call this action OF
theirs constituting the constitution, Oh
making the constitution: are 10
the fact and not for the anne,
Substituting the word 'progres'
sive' for republican" in q Letter
written by Lincoln-the substitution
being, Colonel Roosevelt said, only
that of the name of the progressive
party of today for the progressive
party of Lincoln's time-Coione
Roosevelt read the letter, as follows
LAS to the matter of fusion, l an
for it If 1t can be had on progressive
. grounds; and I am not for 1t on any
other terms. A fusion on any othel
terms would lose the whole (of wha
We have,) while the common enemy
would still carry (all the vote tina
!, is hostile to us). The question o.
i men is a different one. There arr
! good patriotic men and able states
/ men lin this territory opposed to us,
; when / would cheerfully support !
they would now place themselves OIL
progressive grounds, but / an
against letting down the progressive
standard a ~hairsbreadth.'
{ What Lincoln then said as to plat
! form principles, men and methods
I applies exactly to all attempts to fus.
! or amalgamate the progressiyes Wit
any other party in our own days"