The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-09-05

engendered by the capitalists of the
 Rand the Boer war, which ended in the extinction of the South African
 Republic and the Orange Free State.
 Everything could be forgiven the
 Kruger government just so long as the Supreme Court could reverse in | the interests of the mining compa- nies the acts of the legislatures. But to Paul Kruger there was no |
 submitting to the condition which |
 left the action of the elected officials
 at the mercy of life holding body
 like a Supreme Court, and he was
 eminently correct in his idea of
 bringing home the government to
 the people in his compelling all jul
 dicial decisions to be subject to such
 legislative supervision.
 As it is now, although the constr tuition was written in an age when tallow candles and stage coaches
 and hand looms and sailing ships
 prevailed, it has to do duty for an
 industrial age when electricity 'and
 steam and mechanical looms do the
 work; the constitution as written
 was adiusted to an age when handl-
 crafts prevailed, and it has to do
 duty when machine industry has
 wined the craftsman off the face of
 the earth.
 And it is by reason of this condl-
 tion that it is capable of any poss- . ible determination and interpreta- [ ton at the hands of the lawyers who hapDen at the time to be judges. In , point of fact, the American fconstl- |, tution was written with conserVa- . tive ends in view. The historian Of 5 the convention has shown us that; [ if was highly reactionary and was [ meant to be, and almost all the pro- ! minent liberals of those days bitter T ly opposed it.
 , In any event the interpretation !, of this instrument is now i'll the : hands of men who themselves have y arisen from a part of the profession y whose special function has been the | bolstering up of the acts of great S private corporations. And It IS G very interesting and intensely signi- 8 ficant to observe that the represen' ) tatives of the railroad companies j. feel perfect confidence in their abll-
 ity to have the courts nullify the $ law passed by the elected of the ll people.
 n Clearly therefore, it is not Con It gress which governs. It IS the It courts which say how Congress ant d the Legislatures shall govern. The! d may not as a matter of fact give e legal expression to the views or th' l. constituents who have sent them tt D. Congress, but only such expression 1t as it shall please the judges to ap m prove of.
 Id We thus very clearly understand
 too, Chief Justice Clark's assertion ,e that we only delude ourselves whcl re we hold the idea that the peopl e. govern themselves.
 re It is truer to hold and it is cor le recter to teach that the Courts ar to the real governing body. They cal a throw a protecting cloak over tn 10 interests and forbid the people ne the necessity of that grievance
 whatever the complete nee of of reform, to touch or in an he way tamper with the rights an " privileges of the corporations. or It is quite unnecessary to relnar ng in this connection that the judicIs
 decisions have been marked by g ,i- essentially dark class tinge. 1t d. unnecessary to point out that blac he listing has been upheld and boycot of ing declared illegal, that the la lie which forbade the discharge of ar en person as a union man has been d. ng clared unconstitutional, and so ( ed down the line with painful regCla ols ity.
 on The railroad companies ha' by every reason to rest contented wi ,u- the up-shot of the negotiations he Washington. The brotherhood mt by have an eight hour law, which to non-compulsory. They get no owe iy. time pay. And the very condition ng they have fought against will st art exist. It is not even a Pyrrhic vi in tory, for at any minute the comp as nies will have little enough troub lly finding judges willing enough