MARCH 1, 1912
15
The Commoner.
ir
tice, more short-sighted in its in
ability to face the changed needs of
our civilization, than this decision by
the highest court of the state of
New York. Many of the judges of
that court I know personally, and
for them I have a profound regard.
Even for as flagrant a decision as
this I would not vote for their recall,
for I have no doubt the decision was
rendered in accordance with their
ideas of duty. But most emphati
cally I do wish that the people should
have the right to recall the decision
itself, and authoritatively to stamp
with disapproval what can not but
seem to the ordinary plain citizen a
monstrous perversion of the consti
tution into an instrument for the per
petuation of social and industrial
wrong and for the oppression of the
weak ,and helpless. No ordinary
amendment to the constitution would
meet this type of case, and intoler
able delay and injustice would be
caused by the effort to get such
amendment not to mention the fact
that the very judges who are at fault
would proceed to construe the
amendment. In such a case the fault
is not with the constitution; the fault
is in the judges construction of the
constitution, and what is required
is power for the people to reverse
this false and wrong construction.
WRONGS IN NAME OF LAW
"I wish I could make you visualize
to yourselves what these decisions
against which I so vehemently pro
test really represent of suffering and
injustice. I wish I had the power to
brings before you the man maimed
or dead, the women and children left
to 3truggle against bitter poverty
because the breadwinner has gone.
I am not thinking of the terminology
of the decision, nor of what seems
to me the hair-splitting and meticu
lous arguments elaborately worked
out to justify a great and a terrible
miscarriage of justice. Moreover, I
am not thinking only of the sufferers
in any given case, but of the tens of
thousands of others who suffer .be
cause of the way this case is decided.
In the New York case the railway
employe who was injured was a man
named, I believe, Ives. The court ad
mits that by every moral considera
tion he was entitled to recover as his
due the money that the law intended
to give him. Yet the court by its de
cision forces that man to stagger
through life maimed, and keeps the
money that should be his in the
treasury of the company in whose
service, as an incident of his regu
lar employment and in the endur
ance of ordinary risks, he lost the
ability to earn his own livelihood.
There are thousandS'Of Iveses in this
country; thousands of cases such as
this come up every year; and while
this is true, while the courts deny
essential and elementary justice to
these men and give to them and the
people in exchange for justice a tech
nical and empty formula, it is idle to
ask me not to criticise them. As long
as injustice is kept thus Intrenched
by any court; T will protest as strong
ly as -in me lies against such action.
Remember, when I am asking the
people themselves in the last resort
to Interpret the law which they them
selves have made, that after all I am
only asking that they 'step In and
authoritatively reconcile the con
flicting decisions of the courts. In
all these cases the Judges and courts
have decided every which way, and
It ia foolish to talk of the sancity of
a judge-made law which half of the
judges strongly denounce. If there
must be decision by a close majority,
then let the people step In and let
It bo their majority that decides. Ac
cording to one of the highest judges
then and now on the supreme court
of the nation, we had lived for a
hundred years under a constitution
which permitted a national income
tax, until suddenly by the vote-of the
gupremo court reversed lta previous
decisions for a century and said that
for a century wo had been living
under a wrong interpretation of the
constitution (that ia, under a wrong
constitution), and therefore in effect
established a new constitution which
we are now laboriously trying to
amend so as to get it back to the con
stitution that for a hundred years
everybody, including the supremo
court, thought it to be.
When I was president, we passed
a national workmen's compensation
act. Under it a railway man named
Howard, I think, was killed in Ten
nessee, and his widow sued for dam
ages. Congress had done all it could
to provide the right, but the court
stepped in and decreed that congress
had failed. Three of the judges took
the extreme position that there was
no way in which congress could act
to secure the helpless widow and
children against suffering, and that
the man's blood and the blood of all
similar men when spilled should for
ever cry aloud in vain for justice.
This seems a strong statement, but
it is far less strong than the actual
facts; and I have difficulty in mak
ing the statement with any degree of
moderation. The nine justices of the
supreme court on this question split
into five fragments. One man, Jus
tice Moody, in his opinion stated the
case In Its broadoBt way and de
manded justice for Howard, on
grounds that would have meant that
all similar cases thereafter justice
and not injustice should be done.
Yet the court, by a majority of one,
decided as I do not for one moment
believe they could or would now de
cide, and not only perpotuated a
lamentable injustice in the case of
the man himself, but set a standard
of injustice for all similar cases.
Here again I ask you not to think of
the -mere legal formalism, but to
think of the great immutable prin
ciples of right and wrong, and to
ponder what it means to ren depen
dent for their livelihood, and to the
women and children dependent upon
these men, when the courts of the
land deny them the justice to which
they, are entitled.
"Now, gentlemen, In closing, and
in thanking you foryour courtesy, let
me add one word. Keep clearly in
view what are the fundamental ends
of government. Remember that
methods are merely the machinery
by which these ends are to be
achieved. I hope that not only you
and I but all our people may ever
remember that while good laws are
necessary, while it is necessary to
have the right kind of governmen
tal machinery, yet that the all
important matter Is to have the right
kind of man behind the law. A state
can not rise without proper laws, but
the best laws that the wit of man
can devise will amount to nothing If
the state does not contain the right
kind of man, the light kind of wo
man. A good constitution and good
laws under the constitution, and
fearless and upright officials to ad
minister the laws all these are
necessary; b.ut the prime requisite in
our national life Is, and must always
be, the possession by the average
citizen of the right kind of character.
Our aim must be the moralization of
the individual, of the government, of
the people as a whole. We desire the
moralization not only of political
conditions, but of industrial con
ditions, so that every force in the
community, individual and collective,
may be directed towards securing for
the average man, and average wo
man, a higher and better and fuller
life, in the things of the body no less
than those of the mind and the soul."
Hrfc$&xr 7i!ZZ H&rW
try WXjjV f f pk
The government, in the trial of
the so-called bathtub trust at Detroit,
introduced 400 alleged signed trade
agreements between jobbors and
manufacturers.
Thirty indictments against Abe
Ruef, the former political boss of
San Francisco, were dismissed. Reuf
will testify in the trial of former
Mayor Eugene Schmitz.
Another revolution appears to be
on in Mexico. An El Paso, Texas,
dispatch says: A manifesto pro
claiming General Geronimo Trevino
as president ad interim, and decrying
Francisco I. Madoro as a "Gringo
lover" was printed and circulated in
El Paso. The document is signed by
Gonoral Pascual Orozco, Emillo Vas
quez (without the Gomez), Andres
Garza Galan and several other promi
nent Mexicans.
ceedingly bitter. Senator Simmon's
term of offico will expire one year
hence and ho Is a candidate for re
election. His principal rival for the
toga appears- to bo Governor W. W.
Kitchln, who has already taken to
the Btump and delivered some vigor
ous attacks on Simmons' political
record, particularly his vote In tho
Lorlmer case. A third candidate for
tho senatorship Is Former Governor
Charles B. Aycock and a fourth is
Chief Justice Waltor Clark of tho
state supremo court. It is believed
that a second primary confined to tho
two leaders in the first primary will
bo necessary to settle tho contest."
Father impressively) "Suppose
I should be taken away suddenly,
what would become of you, my boy?"
Irreverent Son "I'd stay here.
The question Ib, What would become
of you?" West Chester Critic.
They are having Interesting poli
tics in North Carolina. A Raleigh
disnatch says: "With the senatorial
primary fight In North Carolina but
a few months, distant, outward and
visible Bigns are abundant that the
contest for the seat of Senator Sim
mons is to be hard I ought and ex-
A Cincinnati, Ohio, dispatch says:
Thirty indictments charging conspir
acy to obstruct and monopolize tho
cash register business in violation of
tho criminal provisions of tho Sher
man anti-trust law were -returned
against officials and sales agents of
the National Cash Register company.
Houston, Texas, was visited by fire
and 200 buildings were destroyed,
1,000 persons being made homeless.
Many manufacturing plants were
wiped out and It is estimated that
the loss will reach $7,000,000.
TENTH CENTURY RELIGION"
Mrs. Mary L. Keys, Steolville, Mo.
In The Commoner recently was
an article entitled "Tenth. Century
Religion," by E. A. Fitch, of Wil
mington, Vt. As I think this article
not just fair to neither the Bible
nor Mr. Bryan, I beg a little space
in The Commoner. In this article
by Mr. Fitch, he says, "That the dis
coveries in modern science, especi
ally that of evolution and kindred
sciences have disproved and dis
credited the Book of Books in many
important particulars." I feel like
saying to Mr. Fitch, as Jesus said to
the Sadducees in regard to the resur
rection of the dead, "Do yo not err
not knowing the scripture?" I find
no place in the Bible where it
teaches the earth is flat or that it
has any particular shape, but It does
teach evolution plainly, if we but
read it correctly. In Gen. ch. V., it
says, "This is the Book of the gene
rations of Adam in the day God
made him in the likeness of God.
Malo and female created He them,
and called their name Adam in the
day when they were created." This
process of changing Adam Into man
took twelve periods called genera
tions, or eighteen hundred 'and fifty
six years, for Noah was the first man
found righteous. before God and per
fect in his generation. Noah walked
with God. Was not this process
evolution? It certanlly took a long
day.
As for the religious utterances of
Mr. Bryan in The Commoner they
show him to be a man of higher and
broader religious views than most
of the ministers that occupy the pul
pits of our land.
I do not like the teachings of the
church in many respects, for they
are not true to the Bible teachings as
I understand them. But wo should
remember that in tho generations of
the heavens and tho earth Eve (the
church) Is the help meet of tho
spiritual Adam and that they par
took of the knowledge of good and
evil. The Apostle Paul says this is
a figure of he that was to come, tho
Lord from heaven. Shall we mor
tals question tho wisdom of the
great Creator? .
Let us hope the twentieth century
will see the blind eyes opened and'
the deaf ears unstopped and all come
to a knowledge of the Lord.
A lover of both tho Truth and tho
Bible.
THE MISSOURI SONG
Denver Times: "They Gotta
Quit Kickln' My Dawg Aroun'," is
the name of the campaign song
adopted by tho democratic conven
tion of Missouri. The song has
made a big hit all through the middle
west and is as follows:
Wunst rao 'n Lem Briggs 'n ol' Bill
Brown
Tuk a load of cawn to town,
An ol' Jlm-dawg the onry cuss
He jes' nachelly follered us.
CHORUS
Every time I come to town
The bbys keep kickln' my dawg
aroun',
Makes no difference if he is'ja houn
They gotta quit kickln my dawg
arouri'.
As we driV past Sam Johnston's
store
Passel o' yaps kem out th' door;
When Jim, he stops to smell a box
They shied at him a bunch o' rocks.
They tied a tin can to his tall
An' run him apast the county jail;
N' that plumb nachelly makes me
sore,
'N' Lem he cussed 'n Bill he swore.
Me 'n Lem Briggs 'n ol' Bill Brown
We lost no time In a-Jumpin' down.
An' we wiped them ducks up on the'
groun
Fer kickln' my ol dawg aroun'.
Folks say a dawg kaint hold no
grudge,
But wunst when I got too much
budge
Them town ducks tried" to do me up,
But they didn't count on ol' Jim-pup.
Jim seed his duty thar an' then,
An' he lit into them gentlemen,
An' he shore mussed up the cote-
. chouse square
With rags 'n meat 'n hide 'n hair.
