Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-12-12
THE COURTS VS..
NATURAL RIGHTS
AND FREEDOM
BY Samuel Gompers.

BY Samuel Gompers.
There has been developing in this
country a government by the courts.
The courts have abolished the con-
stitution rs far as the rights and in
terestS of the working people are con-
eerned.
The courts have interpreted the
constitution TO suit the reactlonary
interests.
The courts have set themselves up
in the place of the Government.
The courts have overruled Con-
gress.
The courts have abolished the con
stitutional protection of individuals
and of minorities.
Every reactionary candidate, in
GLIDING both Coolidge and Davis, the
reactionary Bar Association and the
corporation lawyers who serve as
Judges, have united in defense of gov
eminent by the courts.
They are attempting in a brazen
and shemeless manner to deceive the
American people. They are making
especially the impudent argument
that the courts are the protectors of
the constitution and of the rights OF
individuals and minoriies.
They have the audacity and the
falsity to assert that every attack on
tyranny and usurpation by the courts
| is an attack on the constitution and
on individual liberty.
jefferson. Lincoln and Roosevelt
VS.. the Courts.
Thomas jefferson pointed out that
! if there was any danger 70 our
American republic it would necessarily
aries under our system of govern
ment from the courts. He declared:
The germ of dissolution of our fed
eral government is in the judiciary
the irresponsible body working like
gravity, by day and by night, gaining
little today and gaining a little to.
morrow and advancing its noiseless
step like a thief over the field Of
| jurisdiction until all shall be usurped.
President Lincoln was also aware
that the courts are as likely to pre-
vert as to preserve the constitution
and the individual liberties that it is
supposed to protect. He said In at
lacking the Supreme Court in 1859:
The people of these United States
are the masters of both congresses
and courts, not to overthrow the Con-
stitution, but to overthrow the men
who pervert the Constitution.
The late Mr.. Roosevelt attacked the
usurpation of the courts and adyo
Gated restriction of their power, "such
restriction of the power of the courts
leave to the people the ultimate
authority to determine fundamental
questions of social welfare and public
policies"
Senator Pepper VS.. the Courts
Among the most brazen reactionary
allegations as to the progressive and
labor campaign for limiting the pow
ers of the courts is that such limita
ton would destroy their prestige and |
independence. On the contrary so
pre-eminent a lawyer as the Republi-
can Senator Pepper of Pennsylvania
mas warned the American Bar Asos-
citation that the only way to preserve
he influence of the courts is to re
strict them within their proper field. |
Senator Pepper declared.
Under such system of government
as ours, the maintenance of well-nlgh |
universal confidence in the judiciary |
is pretty nearly essential to national |
safety. Is it not worth while to place |
elsewhere than upon our Federal
Judges the burden of solving for Us
our legislative and executive prob
lens?
To maintain such confidence, must
we not confne the courts to the sphere |
in which the creators of our constitu- |
tional system intended them to live
and move and have their being?
Labor Deprived of All Rights
The toiling masses time after time |
have been deprived of all their con-
stitutional rights by the usurpation Of
the courts. The courts have even |
overthrown the acts of Congress, en-
acted for the purpose of protecting /
the rights of members of labor organ
izations.
What can be done to working men
can be done to all other individuals
and minorities.
On this development of injunctions
against strikers, Senator Pepper has
declared:
=. in a free country we can not
by governmental action compel people
to work. The second is that when a
strike is on, the strikers are enough
in earnest to wish their strike to be
effective and that means that it be
comes their interest to create condi-
tions under which their places will
not be effectively filled by others.
The third fact is that while under all
conditions government must protect
life and property. yet if we insist
upon interpretating the courts 20
masses of citizens as mere obstacles
TO industrial justice We shall not only
be undermining popular respect for
our most important institution, but
we shall be straining government to
the breaking point.