The Connecticut labor news., 1924-09-20
B Y. HE w AY
Comment and Criticism About Things
 Doing in the World.

Ultra conservative folk, who believe that the courts are sacred, are hopping mad over a slashing attack on the United States Supreme Court made by Justice John Ford, of the New York State Supreme Court
 In letter to Senator La Toilette pledging his hearty support to the sen ator's candidacy for President, Justice Ford pays his respects to the United States Supreme Court in no uncertain language, denouncing 1t as an absolute despotism, entirely beyond control of the people.
 For thus plainly speaking his mind on a subject that he ought to know something about, being in the court business himself, Justice Ford is being roundly abused by the standpatters. They are tearing their hair in their in dignation and pretending to believe that ! the Justice represents no one but him self in showing up the Supreme Court Of course the truth of the matter IS that Justice Ford was voicing the un- spoken thoughts of great numbers of people, who long have looked on the i Federal judiciary as bulwarks of privi- 1 lege This distrusts of the courts is i based on the acts of the cohrts them selves and will persist as long as they tend to place the dollar above the man. When the Federal courts show them selves more in harmony with modern thought, much of the popular hostility l to them will disappear, fact that the ultraconservatives will do we'll to heed and ponder over
 1 Contempt for the courts is nourished by such performances as have focused public attention on the administration of justice in Illinois.
 For many weeks, a Chicago judge heard testimony in an effort to decide whether two youths, sons of wealthy parents, should be hanged or imprisoned for life for committing an atrocious murder, done deliberately and after long planning ] The expense of the proceedings have been enormous running, it is estimated, into millions of dollars. Yet every body knows that the only question at issue has been the degree of punish ment that should be meted out to the | slayers.
 On the very same week that the two young Chicago murders pleaded guilty, two other young men killed store keeper in Cairo, in another part of the same state The storekeeper was killed as the men sought to rob him, though the crime was not premed1tated. In three days the men were arrested, plead ed guilty, one was sentenced to death and the other to oo years in the peni- i tentiary. There was no long drawn out hearing with expensive alenists testifying for state and defense The explanation? Simple; the murderers were negroes without money.
 As the Fourt Estate remarks: "Is not a contempt of court born and does 1t not thrive under such contrasting cir cunstances?"
 Organized labor in Florida IS making praiseworthy fight on Gov. Hardee'S action in leasing the labor of convicts to private shirt manufacturers Trade l unions throughout Florida are protest ing against the introduction Of prison contract labor, pointing out that vir- tuaIly every state in the Union has pass ed or is planning to pass, legislation curtailing the employment of convicts on work that comes into competition with free labor. Labor in states that have successfully
 fought against prison contract labor will watch the fight in Florida with in terest and with the best wishes for vic tory on the part of the Florida trade unionists. r..
 Discovery of figuring in ancient Az tee characters on the walls of a cavern in Nevada gives ground for the sus- picion that the source of the old par ties platforms has been found. The platforms are so out of harmony with modern conditions and betray so little familiarity with the problems of 1924. that the men who wrote them must have sought inspiration from the an cient writings in the Nevada cavern. Or | perhaps the platform makers went even further back and consulted writings III King Tut's tomb for their blanks. l TuEV HAVE SEEN