insist, but it will carry forward at all haz
ards, its inherent governmental function,
and in doing this it stands with an unbrok
en line of decisions coming down from the
highest judicial body of the land. It will
respect courts and court decisions, but as a
condition precedent to all this it demands
that court opinions stay within well mark
ed lines and respect the soverign power of
these states in the regulation and control
of their own purely internal commerce."
Strong words those, and brave. But
with a few slight changes in the phrasing,
one might take the same utterances, put
them under a date line of sixty years ago,
attribute them to some statesman living
south of the Ohio river, and get a vocifer
ous howl from the newspapers that now
. applaud Governor Aldrich.
It seems that the question of "state
rights" was not, after all, wholly solved by
a momentous struggle that took place about
fifty years ago.
And again, with some slight changes in
the phrasology and putting the words into
the mouth of a Gompers or a Mitchell, we
would have a host daily of newspapers com
plaining about the "insidious attacks" upon
the courts, "holding up the courts to con
tempt," and all that sort of thing. Humb
ly, arid with a voice to be heard above the
dim of modern industrialism and "firenzied
finance," Will Maupin's Weekly has been
denouncing for years this usurpation of
legislative functions by the courts of the
lands. It began a few years ago with in
vasion of the rights of the state. Unless
the drift is stopped, and that speedily, the
time is not far when judicial usurpation
will have reached the limits of czardom.
Already it has come to pass that a federal
judge, appointed for life and probably at
the instigation of some corporation, may
set aside the will of the people of a sov
ereign state concerning a matter that con
cerns them alone. It happened to Nebras
ka sfew months ago when a federal judge,
ignorant of the state and of what its peo
ple wanted for their own protection, nulli
fied a law that concerned only Nebraskans.
Another federal judge has just decided that
a state has no right to regulate intra-state
freight rates, so holding on the grounds that
regulation of intra-state rates cannot be
had without interfering with inter-state
rates. If this decision is upheld by the
supreme court of the United States it puts
the people of every state at the mercy of
the railroads, save only as the roads may
be "regulated" by the inter-state com
merce commission. That would mean that
state railway commissions would be mere
puppets; that about all they could do would
be to order platforms patched, depots
scrubbed, crossings repaired and fences
along the right-of-ways kept up.
If the people are not already aroused to
the menace of the federal judiciary as at
present conducted, and if the warning issu
ed by Governor Aldrich and emphasized by
twenty-eight of his fellow executives fails
to arouse them, Will Maupin's Weekly
opines that it will necessary to wait the
time when the usurpation becomes oppres
sive, so destructive of liberty, that the
people will rebel in a body. The grave
danger is, however, that the people will
wait so Ions that they will be powerless to
rid themselves of the inquitous system.
AREN'T WE MEAN CUSSES?
The New York Times is peeved. So
thoroughly -and extensively is it peeved that
it fairly froths at the mouth as it pours
out upon the heads of westerners it denun
ciations. Senator LaFollette said- -although
ten thousand other men said it before the
Wisconsin statesman said it that the Mis
sissippi valley possessed the most progres
sive citizenship in the world ' 'because it
was settled by the boldest spirits of the ,
east."
When the New York Times heard the
words it exhibited about the severest case
of ingrowing grouch that was ever put on
exhibition. After enumerating a lot of
crimes we westerners havp committed
against the capitalists, the "widows and or
phans" the patriots of the east, the Times
sums up the total of our iniquites as fol
lows: .
"Having defrauded the eastern money
lenders, stolen easterners' railroads, and
vainly tried to degrade eastern dollars,
these strong characters of the west propose
to inflict on the country the initiative,
referendum and recall with which to per
form such additional devilment as they may
have overlooked in the past."
Having been thus exposed in a part of
our devilment we ought to feel properly
humiliated, of course. It should be us . for
the blush, the hanging of the head, the
fruits meet for repentance. What boots it
that a million men from the Mississippi
valley went out under the flag and fought
and died to make the 40-cent rag dollars of
the eastern bondholders payable in gold
worth 160 on the dollar? What boots it
that these men fought on $13 a month pay
able in money worth 40 cents on the dol
lar while the honest and christian eastern
ers were framing up their schemes to make
their own bonds payable in gold coin after
they had "rushed to the defense of the
nation" by buying its bonds and paying
for them in depreciated currency? We
gave them $150,000,000 to build their rail
roads through our country, and they appro
priated to themselves two or three times
as much more, but that is no reason why
we should have stolen their money, throttl
ed their railroad enterprises and tried to pay
'em off in money that was at least as good
as the money they "saved the nation"
with half a century ago.
We are the original mean cusses. " Let
us frankly admit all the thoroughly peeved
New York Times charges against us. Yea,
let us make full confession. We have also
been guilty of mayhem, barrity, assault and
. battery and other crimes against the help
less east. When they "run up" the cards
on us we have had the termerity to "switch
the cut" and thus get the hands they in
tended to deal themselves. Of course this
was very wrong of us, and we admit that
we should not have done it. When they
loaned us their money and then tried to
pull it back in huge wads by soaking us
with a "tariff to protect pur American
manufacturers" said manufacturers be
ing all easterners we should have sub
mitted. We confess it. It was awfully
wrong of us to enter objection. It was
their deal, and of course the dealer has a
perfect right to deal all the aces to him
self. That's why the deal goes around
only our eastern friends have been holding
the deal over long.
We do not blame the New York Times
for being peeved. We've often felt that
way ourselves when we have discovered
that we were up against more than our
match in the little game that we thought
ourselves past masters in. And we've al
ways felt much put out when the other
fellow declined to stand still and let us
throw the hooks into him to our full bent
and satisfaction.
If the New York Times will induce our
eastern friends to forget it all and come out
here with some more money to build rail
roads and buy us farm machinery and im
prove our farms, we'll promise not to do it
again. That is in quite the same way.
PAROLES OR PARDONS.
Will Maupin's Weekly trusts that the
Nebraska board of pardons will not make
the mistake of being too free in reommend
ing pardons. It would be far better to en
large the parole system. We hold that the
pardon should be exercised only after it
has been shown that there has been a mis
carriage of justice, or that the sentence
was excessive. Too often the pardoned
criminal becomes too "chesty." The pa
role system is better than the pardon sys
tem, in that it provides employment for
the paroled prisoner and at the same time
keeps him within reach of the state. This
is calculated to have a good moral effect
upon the paroled prisoner.
Statistics show a startling tendency upon
the part of ex-convicts to again fracture
the law. This is not so much due to inate
criminality as it is to the fact that the pris
on stigma usually clings to a man, prevent
ing him from getting a foothold in society
again, and forcing him to either steal or
starve. Prisoners' Aid Associations are
doing much to change this condition of
affairs, but these associations are too often
managed by men and women who are more
inclined to hysteria than to practical as
sistance. The parole carries with it prac
tical aid in getting a new start, for it in
cludes useful employment at fair wages,
thus affording an opportunity for making
good. The pardoning power has been
fearfully abused in times past, but it
would be difficult to live up to the intent of
the parole law and inflict any" injustice up
on society.
Once more we are hearing about the
"rosy prospects of democratic success."
The trouble is that we've had a surfeit of
rosy prospects and a noticeable deficiency
in the actualities.
