The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-08-15
THE VERDICT OF A COURT

History is but the story of recurrent civilizations. A civiliza-
ton is built up, painfully and slowly. 1t gets to the point where
its burdens grow too heavy for the majority of the people to bear,
corruption gets started and the work of hundreds of years
crumbles into dust as have Babelon and Carthage, or it becomes
the cess pool of a continent, as Constantinople, the seat of the
later Roman empire. The AngleSaxon race have builded this
last and perphaps best civilization. Perhaps the credit should
go to the strength and virility of the race, but at least a part of
it is due to the inherited sense of fair play and justice that is a
heritage of the race. From the earliest Anglo4Saxon history
justice has been melted out in a truer form than history elsewhere
shows us. And therein lies the whole stability of the fabric
we have reared. Without justice to all men we face the same
situation which destroyed the great civilizations of the past.
In the recent history of our own time there has been a deal
Of unfavorable comment on the rulings of our courts. And some
of this unfavorable comment, this criticism, is founded on fact.
The profession of the law has reached such a fine point that too
often technicaities have come to mean far more than simple right
and wrong.
A pertinent example of how far a technicaHty can be made
to go is the recent ruling of Judge Jackson, sitting in a Helena
Court, on the tax commission case. A county assessor of Lewis
and Clark county alleged to be acting as the tool of the great
of the state brought suit to do away with the COM
mission because a journal clerk in the legislative assembly had
made an insignificant mistake in enrolling the tax commission law
upon the states statutes. The law was passed by the majority
Of the people in a regular election. The last legislature created
the machinery for carrying out the provisions of the law, by pas
sing certain bills. These bills were all signed by the presiding
officers OF the senate and house, by the governor, but after
wards the clerk made an error by not inscribng it in some fool
book or other. And because of this error, an error that has
neither bearing on the law nor significance on its work, Judge
Jackson declares the tax commission illegal.
It is plain to see the handwriting on the wall. The purpose of
the tax commission was to equaize the taxes of the state. The
big corporations naturally do not want this. They have avoided
their Just share of taxes too long to care to pay them now. 1t is
not hard to backtrail the corporations in Judge Jackson's ruling.
A county assessor brought the suit, a man with no personal inter
est in its outcome. The local judge was disqualified and selected
Judge Jackson of Butte, a jurist appointed to office by a corpor-
alton controlled governor. Why was it that Judge Law or some
jurist from almost any other county in the state was not selected
to try a corporation suit instead of a man from Butte?
Why-but what's the use of going further. Everyone knows
that the suit to dislodge the tax commission, to thwart the express
sd will of the people of Montana, was instigated by the big cor
poratons of the state, and that their initial victory was to be ex-
pected. The only surprise in the case was that Judge Jackson
had the nerve to render his decision after the trial had lasted but
IN hour and fifteen minutes. You must at least respect the judge
for showing his hand with as little delay as possible.
The case now goes to the supreme court. To uphold Judge
Iacksons ruling the supreme court of Montana must need reverse
Itself. Their decision will be attended with an Importance that
fears not only on the tax commission case, but also on the future
attitude of the people Of Montana toward their courts of Justice.