The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1913-02-01
had with him lawyers for the rail-

had with him lawyers for the rail-,
road. &c., - -
They said they wanted to bring a
test case and wanted to use his name.
They promised they would pay the
lawyer, and they sent him up to Mr..
Burke, a. Buffalo lawyer. All the
costs and expenses were paid by the
attorneys for the railroad corpora
ton and he was promised half time,
regardless Of how the case went.
They gave Ives $40. He was laid
up for s. days. Mr.. Roosevelt as
serts that Mr.. Ives never saw Mr..
Burke. his attorney, before and until
the claim agent and lawyers for the
Buffalo Southern Railway and
Lackawanna Steel company sent Ives
up in court Ives did not have to ap-
pear.
TO support Mr.. Roosevelt's charges
he produces an affidavit signed by
Ives, in which he swears that he had
no interest in testing the constitutions
ality Of the workingmen's compensa-
ton law of New York.
In commenting on this Mr.. Roose-
Welt says, 1T is, Of course, highly un-
desirable that the constitutionality OF
a statute involving the welfare CT
millions of our people should be de-
cided in a case selected by a, great
corporation itself. a case In which it
retains the counsel on both sides,
even if they are both lawyers Of
high repute who put each his case
to the best Of his ability.
Roosevelt Lands ON Lawyers.
But I regard it as almost equally
undesirable that the cGnstitutionality
Of a law fraught with vast moment
to our people should be decided in:
an unequal contest between the ablest
lawyer whose services the rich cor
poration is able to purchase, and the
lawyer picked up, often in the most
haphazard way, by a crippled brake
man who may never have been able
to save 800 from his wages.
1.-The principle of the wCrkingmen's
compensation act of the state Of
New York affected, or might have at
fected, over two million workers, men
and women. 1t was nullified as re-
CARDS all these men and women by
a law suit in which the plaintiff now
alleges under oath that the railway
itself selected the case, pushed it to
trial and furnished the counsel on
both sides.
II know no reason to question he
truth is not important SO far as the
TRUTH not important SO far as the
principle for which I contend is con-
cerned. The point is, first, that the
present system permits half a dozen
worthy gentlemen, with no special
knowledge of the subject, to declare
what the ten million people Of the
state Of New York may be permitted
to enact in order to secure social
and industrial justice; and. second,
that the judges make this declara-
ton on cases often especially picked
by opponents of the law, and adroltly
presented as typical instead of ex-
ceptional, in which the ablest laWy-
ers are arrayed by the corporation
against the interest Of the people,
whereas, the interests of the people
are represented, not by any servant
Of the people, but by any lawyer,
whom a poor, crippled unfortunate,
in his utmost need, may be able to
hire. / regard such a system as a
monstrous travesty on Justice
Every progressive lawyer In Du-
luth. with whom We have talked
relative to the constitutionality of a
compulsory workingmen's compensa-
ton act, gives it, as his opinion that
the Minnesota court would not he
influenced by the decision Ct the New
York court Of appeals. In view OF
Mr., Roosevelt's charge in the Ives
case and the fact that the courts OF
other states have disregarded the
New York court decision, it strikes
us that the compulsory measure
proposed by the Minnesota State Bar
association is the only bill that should
be considered by the Minnesota leg
islature.