The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-24
HE OFFERS Relief
Higgins Urges Reconciliation
of PUG. and Industrial Court.
Says Present Law Suffers From
Political Usage.

The next legislature should recon
salidate the industrial court and pub
lie utilities commission and remove
UNNECESSARY expense. That IS the re-
lief which Presiding Judge ". L. Hug
gins would tfcer to meet Democrat OBJ
lection to the present court law. He
declares the law has suffered thru eff
forts. of men in politics to capitalize
its operations.
Democrats appealed to the radicals
in seeking to force repeal of the law,
ne asserts. But this does not remove
the fact that the court law has suf-
fered from political usage and is at
presenting costing many thousands OF
dollars in unnecessary expense In his
statement regarding the Democrat
platform plank, Judge Higgins SAID
IN part:
Clans have sought to gain personal
f8ctional. political advantage from
this law; that they have claimed credit
where none vas due them BY such
accusations the law has been weak
ened in public opinion and the activt-
ties of the court have been hampered
and its usefulness reduced. Now. at
the beginning of a state political cam
paigI3. candidates for office, without
regard-to party lines. are using this to
discredit the law itself. At the same
time they are bidding for the support
Of the element In radical labor and
radical capital which is opposed to the
law. Much Of it is selfishness and a
denagOgic appeal to class vote.
Not Property OF Any Man.
The court of industrial relations is
not the property of any one man, or of
any one faction, or of any one political
party, ror of any one class. 1t is the
court of the whole state of Kansas. 1t
4 Z Ill
side influence as is the state supreme
court. The industrial law was not en-
acted by any political party, faction or
Clique. The law was made possible
by the careful, sober consideration of
the Legislature representing the entire
state of Kansas. and composed. I say
positively, of as fine a body of legis-
lators as ever got together in any
state Everybody seems to have for
gotten that. The hard work and care
ful attention of the members of the
house and senate in the special ses-
sion Of 1920 seems to have been utter
~ disregardeG.
THE Kansas industrial act is the
only definite promise for industrial
peace.r Without industrial peace there
can be no industrial prosperity. The
farmers Of the state are being urged
10 abolish the court and repeal the law
because il costs money. The first year
Of the courts activities, which were
much heavier than the second year,
cost the taxpayers a mere trifle be-
cause the industrial court also per
formed the duties of the public utilities
commission. Any extraordinary ex-
pense to the taxpayers is directly
chargeable TO the mistake which sepa-
rated the court from the public utili-
ties commission and created two bodies
where they should have been but one.
AZ reconciliation by the next legisla-
ture Will remove that objection and
RtsO strengthen the court and give it
greater opportunity for usefulness.
such RI a reconciliation would save
many thousand dollars a year and
would be a good start toward the pro-
gram Of strict economy (not parsi-
mony) which the people have a right
70 demand of the next administrator