Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-12-22
LAW AND ORDER
By John Bush

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The public press in the past few
years has devoted much time and
space railing at the violators of the
law.
With the newspapers though, like
many of those who pose as modern
reformers, the amount of considera-
ton given to any subject or project
depends upon, as the old adage goes,
"whose OK is gored."
The attitude of the press and the
reformers in regards to violation of
the law in the main is much like that
of Aesop's fable, "The Kid and the
Wolf" A kid being mounted on the
roof of a lofty house and seeing a
wolf pass below, began to revile him.
The wolf merely stopped to reply,
Coward, it is not you who revilcs
me, but the place on which you are
standing"
When a labor organization goes on
a strike, and that organization Or any
of its members, violates a permanent
or tempol ary law, even though that
law Or injunction is unconstitutional,
the offender is depicted as an nn-
desirable by the use of insolent and
reproachful language, as in the case
of the recent railroad shopmen's strike
which is still fresh in the minds of
the reading public. But inasmuch as
we have gone back to work and are
in the main the best paid men in the
city, even though we were scotfed at,
the merchants and other business and
professional men do not seem to anti
cipate any violence when we chance
to loiter about their places of business
on or about the fifteenth or thirty
first of each month.
When a big corporation or one of
their dupes violates a law, silence
seems to become golden.
Congress passed the Sherman Anti
Trust Act (1890) which declares il
legal all contracts, combinations, and
conspiracies in restraint of foreign or
interstate commerce or trade, and pre-
scribes severe penalties both civil and
criminal against those engaged in
such contracts or conspiracies, or
monopolizing or attempting to mono
police such trade or commerce. In
the further exercise of the same
power and with a similar purpose an
Act was passed in 1914 creating the
Federal Trades Commission of five
commissioners, appointed by the
President, for term of seven years,
at an annual salary of $4,000, whose
principle duty is to prevent persons
and corporations from using unfair
methods of competition in commerce.
In the City of Newark there is a
firm which sets aside a part of its
earnings each year for the purpose of
retarding the progress of any one
who attempts to start or operate a
similar industry; yet few people know
this or care, though It is violation
of the law.
A former secretary of the Chamber
of Commerce of Newark stated to the
writer in the presence Of a friend,
that he had a letter from a firm stat
ing that they had received 100000
from a firm in Newark with the un-
derstanding that they were to locate
in another city 1t is natural to as
sumo that other members of the
Chamber of Commerce knew of the
letter, but the general public does not.
A paragraph in the Seventh
Amendment of the Constitution os the
United States reads: at is the duty
of the judge to determine the law,
and that of the jury to determine the
facts in a case"
The facts are in the case of the
death of John Kalman, B. & o. en-
ploye during the recent strike, that
he was shot and killed and no one was
found guilty,