Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1924-12-25
When Vote Of One
Judge Rules
Continued from Page One)

planes and the radio, many OF Jne
working classes are acquiring an edu-
cation as good or better than thai Of
Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jack
son or better than that acquired oy
Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate IN
their day in the academies and col
leges of New England; and when,
from the ranks Of such men some are
sent to Congress they are as we'll
qualified to think and vote on gov
ernmenta questions as are the men
who have college diplomas. Many Oh
these Con gressmen and Senators are
meo who were educated in the Uni
versity of Hard Knocks, and they are
lust as we'll qualified TO think and
vote on such questions OF genera
welfare as the income tax or chId
slavery or other forms OF slavery, as
are the men who wear the gown aho
sit on the bench. 1t is high time for
these critics to learn that thus IS
representative government and that
the laws are to be made by the 53l
Congressman and Senators and not
by one President or one Judge.
Income Tax Decision
How many intelligent men and
women today respect the five to four
decision made by the Supreme Court
on the income tax after one OF those
Judges rolled over in bed one night
and changed his mind and found un-
constitutional the law which short
time prior he had held to be consl-
tutional? How many OF the men and
women of the best heart and the best
brain in this republic are today i'm
pressed with the sanctity and the IN
fallibility of the Supreme Court de-
cision on child labor, which held by a
five to four vote that the law was un-
constitutional? What critic has
right to say that the people have no
right to resent and repudiate such a
decision as that of our present Su-
preme Court in its effort to perpetu-
ate child slavery? If there is any
special virtue or sanctity in the opin-
ion and oath of five of the nine law
yers who happen to sit on a bench,
how much more virtue and sanctity
should there be in the opinion and
oath of the $50 lawyers and judges
who sit in the Congress and Senate
Of the United States? What body of
men on the face of the earth is so
well qualified to consider the consti-
tutionality of legislation as the 531
members of our National Congress?
The constitution is as much in need
of this amendment as it was Of the
other 19 in order to make it a better
instrument for protecting the rights
of the people and promoting a better
civilization. The original constitution
was not a perfect instrument any
olli la
was perfect instrument; nor is the
present constitution the last word any
more than the present aeroplane is
the last word IN aeroplanes or the
present radio the last word in radios.
1t took us 18 years to add the Six
teenth Amendment to the Constitu-
tion to right the wrong done by the
infallible judge who changed his mind
one night on the income tax. Recent
ly we have had the votes of more
than two-thirds of the Congressman
and two-thirds Of the Senators repu
diate the decision Of fifth fallible
Judge on the question of child slav
cry; and now we are in the midst of
submitting to the 48 states the hu
name, God given amendment in behalf
of the childhood Of the nation.
Decision on Slavery
Again this divided Supreme Court
demonstrated that it is neither i'm
maculate nor infallible when a ques-
ton of mercy is presented to it in
the name Of the child slave, and we
are now in the process Of adding a
Twentieth Amendment to the COnsti-
tuition. Thanks to Arkansas, it is the
first state to approve and ratify this
amendment, and now we must go on
for months and years, possibly, to get
the remaining 35 states to ratify. Let
us hope it will not take the people 18
years, meanwhile allowing millions of
children to grow up with deformed
body and deficient brain.
For years we had had the legisla-
tion Of Congress trying to protect the
childhood Of the land from the greed
and heartlessness of those who would
speculate on the muscle, the marrow,
the bone and the brain of children
simply for the greed of gain of mill
and mine owners and the like, who
are worse in their selfishness and love
of filthy lucre than was Shylock in his
love of usurY. How much better it
would be if the Constitution had been
O4IS manly WIllIGIl VI dinCilucu 50 DIS
to permit two-thirds of both Houses
Of Congress to overrule the one judge,
just as they may over-rule the one
President The two-thirds of each of
these two bodies come nearer being a
correct expression Of the best judg-
ment of the best people of the As
states and better than could ever be
secured in the dilatory, lumber-wagon
delays and hardness of the present
method of bringing the laws of the
land up to the moral purpose of pres
ent civilization, and let US not con-
tinue the delays experienced in adopt
ing the Sixteenth Seventeenth, Eigh-
teenth and Nineteenth amendments.
Five to Four Decisions Increase
These five to four decisions of the
Supreme Court are all too numerous
to command the respect Of the people
because they have been secured in be-
half Of the profiteers in special privi-
leges. AS for instance, when the
court by five to four vote held the
Employers Liability Act unconstitu.
tional; again when by a five to foul
decision it exempted stock dividends
from the income tax. and AGAIN hy .