Conservative *
plaintiff and defendant will reappear ,
and there will arise another series of
courts of justice with the same powers
now exercised by those which wo have.
The Bryan arbitration by compulsion
plan must of course have power to en
force its judgments for why compel an
unwilling and unconsentiiig party to
appear unless the finding can bo en
forced ?
It will be noticed that he speaks of
corporations and their employees as if no
differences ever arise between individual
capital and the labor it employs 1 That
is the demagogue way of putting it , and
Mr. Bryan cannot change his habits and
methods. Let us accept his idea of
compulsory arbitration , which is a
paradox to juggle with and therefore
suits him. When corporate capital and
its labor differ labor will have the right
to force the corporation to arbitrate ,
but that right will be valueless unless
the despised corporation can be com
pelled to submit to the judgment. If
labor want $2 a day instead of $1.50 the
corporation must be compelled to take
back its employees and pay them $2. If
it cannot be made to do this Mr. Bryan's
paradox of compulsory arbitration is to
labor a delusion and a snare , and to
capital an idle and idiotic threat. But ,
if labor can compel capital to arbitrate
and to submit to judgment , under the
same compulsory processes capital can
compel labor to arbitrate and submit to
judgment. If capital can be forced to
take men back into its employ at a wage
fixed by arbitration , men can be com
pelled to work for capital at a wage
fixed by arbitration. How will labor
look at that side of Mr. Bryan's
paradox ?
Many laborers , no doubt , cheered him
to the echo , but how would they like to
be driven to work for a certain employer
at a wage fixed by his plan of compul
sory arbitration ? Do they not see that
it takes rights from labor exactly in
proportion as it abridges the rights of
capital , and that the only arbitration
must be by consent and cannot be by
compulsion ?
Mr. Bryan next took up "government
by injunction , " opposition to which he
declared would "increase until the
people of this nation , acting through
the constitutions and the laws , will
make it impossible to take away from
people accused of crime the right of
trial by jury to determine the guilt or
innocence. " There is material at hand
for testing this high sounding sentence.
The writ of injunction is used to pro
tect the rights of property. The people
of the Feather , Yuba , Bear , Sacramento
and San Joaquiu river valleys have been
living under government by injunction
since Judge Sawyer's time. Hydraulic
mining in the mountains disturbed the
equilibrium of their dirt and boulders
and washed both into the river beds ,
causing floods and covering the valley
forms with sliokens. To. protect their
\ -
property the volley people applied to
Judge Sawyer for a permanent injunc
tion forbidding hydraulic mining any
where that it imperiled the streams.
Judge Sawyer granted the injunction ,
and the valley farmers of Butte , Sutter ,
Yuba , Oolusa and other counties have
since lived under government by in
junction. They have enforced their
rights under that government. The
Anti-Debris association has been watch
ful , and when the injunction has been
violated in contempt of the court that
made it perpetual the offender has been
taken to San Francisco and the court
has punished him by fine or imprison
ment for contempt of its judgment.
Now , what Mr. Bryan demands is that
there shall either be no injunction at all
or that the violators of it shall be tried
by a jury drawn from the vicinity of
the offense , as the constitution requires
in the case of juries. Do not the valley
farmers see that under such a system
they are deprived of all means of pro
tecting their property by law ? "What
chance would the Anti-Debris associa
tion of Sutter county stand prosecuting
a hydraulic miner before a Nevada
county jury ? Yet that is the alter
native offered by Mr. Bryan for the
present protection by injunction and the
power to enforce it by punishment for
contempt of court.
His position on arbitration and injunc
tion is illustrative of his mental attitude
toward all public questions. With no
profound foresight into the consequences
and results of the plans he advocates ,
they are used , after the methods of
demagogy , to catch the unwary , and if
he had the power to enforce them the
disasters that would follow would make
the curses of his victims louder than the
cheers of his supporters are now.
From the San Francisco Daily Call ,
Saturday , Sept. 10 , 1899.
_ _ A recent number
GOOD AND , , _ _ .
GKEAT. ° f the Kansas City
Star pays a merited
tribute to the memory of the American
ambassador to France who from 1893 to
1897 rendered his country most valuable
services at Paris. In that city it was
the pleasure of the editor of THE CON
SERVATIVE , in 1894 , to renew and re
inforce a most agreeable friendship with
this gifted , genial and chivalrous gentle
man :
"James B. Eustis , who died at his
home in Newport on Saturday night ,
was a fine example of the scholar and
gentleman in politics. Few of his con
temporaries in public life could Iny
claim to such a complete equipment as
was his in the way of liberal accomplish
ments. Ho was learned in the law ,
versed in the chief languages of diplo
macy and possessed the polish of an ex
perienced citizen of the world.
"Mr. Eustis filled the post of ambassa
dor to France under the second admin
istration of Mr. Cleveland with unusual
success. Ho made his ample wealth
serviceable in maintaining a hospitality
which proved to American visitors to
Paris most agreeable and helpful , and
the impression made upon the French
people by the handsome style of living
which Mr. Eustis chose to keep up was
highly valuable in a practical way to the
' ' ' ' '
govern'ment'which'he'represented.
"Mr. Eustis was a strong partisan.
This led him to pronounce Mr. Cleveland
a failure as a politician. But in the face
of this frank criticism Mr. Cleveland ,
recognizing the high personal character
of Mr. Eustis and his ample qualifica
tions as a publicist , conferred upon him
one of the most important missions with
in the gift of the government. That
this significant testimonial of confidence
was merited was proven by the rare
service which Mr. Eustis gave to his
government as ambassador to France
and by the memory of his fidelity to
every trust _ by which he was honored in
life by the people or through presidential
appointment. "
The silver mine owners have given
notice to the democratic national com
mittee that if the free silver issue be
dropped or subordinated in the coming
campaign the'y.will contribnte "nbtliiiig
to the campaign fund , and that probably
explains why Bryan feels able to take a
holiday for a while. San Francisco
Call.
Commenting on the result of the
special election in the Eighth _ Missouri
district , the Boston Advertiser ( rep. ) ,
says.that "it is startling to learn that in
a section whore the Jingo spirit was'sup-
posed to be so strong , andwith ] so many
defections from the Bland vote to the
populist party , Judge Shackleford has
carried the district by even a larger
plurality than the late Mr. Bland him
self gained last year. "
"Admitting , for the sake of argument ,
that it was our duty to take the Philip
pine islands for the purpose of estab
lishing settled government , " premises
the Buffalo Express ( rep. ) , "it was no
prompting of duty , but rather of ambi
tion , which prevented the declaration of
a policy looking to our withdrawal
when settled government had been
established. "
The Nashville Banner ( dem. ) finds in
the Atlanta Constitution's ( dem. ) sug
gestion of democratic unity on anti-
expansion and Bryan "a proposition to
smother the silver issue , " and it thinks
that "with such a proposition coming
from such a source there is no longer
reason to doubt that the 1C to 1 craze is
one of the political curios stored away
in the museum of past issues. "
