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molished by some self-constituted dictator. Again, under this statute was tried in the supreme court, United States vs. Laws, 163 U. S. 258, 16 Sup. Ct., 998, wherein a contract was made with an alien to come to this country as a chemist on a sugar plantation in Louisiana. The supreme court held that it was not a contract to perform labor or service within the meaning of the act. And yet "to perform labor or service of any kind," does not include this. This

cretion, that will be an argument when she tries to justify her act. When our courts arrogate to themselves the right to interpret the laws according to their opinion as to what they ought to be, then the function of legislature is a useless expense, and should be abandoned.

We find the courts augmenting their power in other directions and manners; notably in cases where receivers have been appointed, it is held that an action cannot be maintained against them

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petition. The reason is usually a failure to pay expenses. They don't want the court; they want a good business man to have the opportunity to see what he can do with the business. The court is simply the medium through which they must secure the man they want. But now the court says: "We made this man; he is ours, body and soul." Being a creation of the court he is as sacred as a Chinese god. A good and wise judge is one of the noblest handiworks of the Creator; but an unwise and unscrupulous judge, is an excrescence upon the fair face of humanity. Again, take the action of Judge Hanecy against the Chicago American. Did ever a judge pervert the authority of his high office, to such ends as he did in this case? However, Justice McAdam as quoted in THE CONDUCTOR of February in an editorial, put it very sensibly, when he says "There is no good reason why a judge should have a different law applied to him than is applied to a president, a governor or a member of the legislature," and he might just as sensibly have added, or any other free born citizen of this great republic.

When a judge goes beyond the letter of the law and endeavors to pose as a self constituted power, he is most certainly out of his element and beyond his authority. I want the reader to follow very carefully the opinion of Judge Sherwood, upon the following case:

The legislature of the state of Missouri, March 6, 1893, approved an act, making it unlawful for an employer to prohibit an employe from joining any labor or trade union, or other lawful organization or society, or to require an employe to withdraw therefrom. An employe of George Julow was discharged because he would not withdraw from a lawful organization. The employe brought suit under this act, in the St. Louis court of criminal correction, and Julow was fined $50. From this decision he appealed to the supreme court of the state. On June 18, 1895, this court reversed the decision of the lower court, declaring the law unconstitutional. This judicial opinion can be found in full in the thirty-first volume of the Southwest

ern Reporter, page 781. The syllabus of that opinion is as follows:

The act of March 6, 1893, in making it unlawful for an employer to prohibit an employe from joining or to require an employe to withdraw from a trade or labor union or other lawful organization, violates the fifth amendment to the constitution of the United States, and article 2, section 30 of the constitution of the state, which provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. These terms, "life," "liberty" and "property" are representative terms, and cover every right to which a member of the body politic is entitled under the law, and all our liberties, personal, civil and political-in short, all that makes life worth living-and of none of these rights or liberties can any one be deprived except by due process of law. Each of the rights heretofore mentioned carries with it, as its natural and necessary coincident, all that effectuates and renders complete the full, unrestrained enjoyment of that right. Take, for instance, that of property: Necessarily blended with that right are those of acquiring property by labor, by contract, and also of terminating that contract at pleasure. In the case at bar the contract was not made for any definite period. From these premises it follows that depriving an owner of property of one of its essential attributes, is depriving him of his property within the constitutional provision. Here the law under review declares that to be a crime which consists alone in the exercise of a constitutional right, to-wit, that of terminating a contract, one of the essential attributes of property, indeed of property itself.

"But the statute is also obnoxious to criticism on other grounds. It does not relate to persons or things as a class-to all workmen, etc.-but only to those who belong to some 'lawful organization or society,' referring to a trade union, labor union, etc.

"In other words, the legislature has undertaken to limit the power of the owner or employer as to his right of contract with particular persons of a class; the statute which does this is a special,

not a general law, and therefore is in violation of the state constitution."

Judge Sherwood started all right, but he began wool gathering before he had finished his preliminaries. In the first place, there was no question as to the employer's right to terminate the contract, but there was a question-and the learned judge never brushed against it -and a serious one, and that question is the right of an employer to go outside of what the employe owes him in return for the wages he pays him. The employer has a right to demand that the employe shall give him full and honest measure for his wage. Beyond that line he must not venture, nor will any just judge so pervert the law as to make it appear that

he may. Nothing, whatever, appears in this trial to show

that this man was not a good workman, that he

did not earn

his wage.

What for,

perfecting a lodge would be met with immediate suspension. Of course any further activity in the premises was postponed for a more convenient season, which arrived when the O. R. C. sent their delegate to the Grand Division.

He was approached and requested to call upon the second vice-president of the company, who was known to be a fair man, and see if something could not be done with him in the way of an order to allow the brakemen to organize. This the delegate did, and he also brought a letter to the division officials, which read in part as follows:

OUR HAPPY HOME ON TUG RIVER

then? Why, because he would not stultify himself; because he would not allow another man to dictate to him how to conduct his own personal affairs. Did this man Julow show that this workman was any the poorer artist on account of affiliating with union men? On the other hand, we all know that a man must be master or his trade before he can become a member of a union. Once upon a time, certain division officials on a certain road, through the treachery of a man who was on the petition, discovered that there would soon be an organization of the brakemen, upon the division. The petitioners were approached personally and warned that any further move toward

"We do not want a straw laid in the

way of our trainmen organizing. The best men in our employ today

[graphic]

are

members of organizations Anything that you can do to further and assist them, we expect you to do it. It is not the policy of this road to antagonize organized la

bor." A change of front took place when that letter was read in solemn conclave.

When our courts understand that labor organizations are chartered for no other purpose than the bettering of the laboring man's condition, and not for the purpose of antagonizing employers, and as the above official stated, that they are "the best men employed," then we may hope for fairer treatment at their hands and a more thorough investigation of the facts, when cases of this kind are brought before the court.

May the hand that traces our destinies hasten the time when labor organization will be more honestly and persistently investigated by our judiciary.

Jimmie McGhee, brother of Brothers E. A. McGhee, of Division 152, and W. P. McGhee, of Division 175, has recently returned to his home, honorably discharged from the U. S. Army, after three years of service, two years of which has been in the field in the Philippines.

Mr. McGhee earned the recommendation from his commanding officer of a medal for bravery on the field of battle. For a time before his return he served as inspector of constabulary or native police, and thus became more intimate with the ways and characteristics of the natives. In these times of discussion

of the Philippine situation and the treatment of the natives by American troops it is interesting and refreshing to read something which is not said with the idea of its political effect uppermost in the mind of the relator.

Mr. McGhee, in an interview appearing in one of his home papers, says:

"With my company I was sent to Apparry, Province of Isabela, in the north of the Island of Luzon," said Private McGhee, as he began his narrative. “Apparry is a village in the heart of the country, inhabited by the Irgottes, or headsmen. They are a cannibal tribe, deriving their name from the fact that they decapitate their prisoners and feast off the heads. At this feast the chief of the tribe selects the most appetizing-looking head, according to his tastes, and has it prepared, either baked or boiled, but often raw, and then the remaining gruesome trophies of war are distributed to the tribesmen. The cannibals fight with bolos and spears. They are the largest race on the islands and the most ferocious in battle. In the long campaign we had among this tribe I saw some hard service and several desperate encounters, in which we were generally outnumbered two to one, but the bravery of the Americans dismayed the natives and we always succeeded in routing them, usually without loss of life to our command.

"It was in a fight at Abatnan, on Jan

uary 17, 1900, that I had my closest call. We numbered twenty-two men, while the strength of the natives was nearly two hundred men. It was a hand-tohand fight as the natives through the treachery of some Pacificos had enticed us into the village. The congested hutlined streets left little room for firing without danger of killing our own men, so we closed in and had it out with the blacks, beating them into a retreat after killing forty-five. In that fight we did not lose a man, and only had three seriously wounded, so you can imagine the dexterity of our men in using the butts of their rifles.

"Another time a detail of seven of us were quartered in a hut, believing that we were not likely to be molested, when the cry of fire was raised and we discovered that the natives had passed the guard and set fire to our quarters. We were surrounded by fire and the blacks, so it meant a fight with odds against us. We ran from the building into the open and then for ten minutes poured such a hot fire into the enemy that they fled. I must say, though, they fought like demons for awhile with their bolos. Our sergeant lost his foot by a bolo cut, and several privates were also wounded.

"A soldier is sometimes superstitious," said McGhee, "and I am certainly so after a little incident that happened in a skirmish near our headquarters. I had in my shirt pocket among other mementos of home a picture of a young lady who lives on Church Hill. In the midst of the skirmish I felt a burning sensation beneath the pocket, just over my heart, as if a bullet had 'burned' me. I put my hand inside my shirt and sure enough my clothing was in flames. I slapped the blaze out and as the bullets whizzed past I felt in the pocket to see if the photograph had been injured. What was my suprise when I pulled it out to find that the bullet in its course had cut the face of the young lady from the photo and set fire to my clothes. I thought that was a sign of a hoo-doo and that something had hap

pened to the girl and would to me if I kept it, so I threw it away. When I reached camp, several days after, a letter was there from my home here (Richmond) saying that the young lady had been married. Isn't that enough to make a man feel nervous?

"I have seen the water cure practiced," said the soldier in answer to a question, "and have helped in the administration. It is not brutal, although it is prohibited by the commanding officers. The soldiers use it effectively in making the natives divulge the location of stolen arms. The native is bound and the water poured down his throat until he chokes and his stomach is swollen disproportionately. If he does not squeal, then the man with the biggest foot in the cure-cure squad steps on the native's stomach and immediately he emits the water in agony for himself and disgust for those around, who are generally drenched by the human geyser. It is an amusing sight to the whites and does not injure the Filipino, but scares him so that he generally tells all he knows and more besides.. Another practice for securing information, a most humane one, is to make the Filipino believe he is going to be hanged. He is led away from his companions into a body of woods. Here a grave is dug and a rope thrown over the limb of a tree. The native looks at the grave, then at the noose, and tells all he knows. He is

taken away and concealed. Another native is put through the same game of 'sprouts,' and he tells his story. If it is any ways near like the other's the fake ends, but if at variance another native is brought up, and so on until the truth is learned.

"The women of the islands are largely responsible for the continuation of the war as they excite the men to fight. They, also, marry the Americans and by persuasion, gain from them information beneficial to the insurgents. They have little respect for morality and the marriage laws are so that after they have carried out their treacherous plans they abandon their American husbands for their own people."

Mr. McGhee says that jealousy often exists among American officers over the women and is the cause of petty feuds and has a demoralizing effect upon the army. In Manila this practice of the women is carried on to a large extent.

"Of the Filipinos now in the field," Mr. McGhee continued, "a large majority of them are led by deserters from the American army.

"These deserters are nearly all negroes who seem to hypnotize the Fez and do with them as they please. The negro troops are liked and when a white company relieves a negro one, the natives of the place or province make an excuse for renewed fighting.”

Automatic Couplers

And Continuous Brakes. Supplemental Statement of Mr. H. R. Fuller.

WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 15, 1902.
HON. J. B. FORAKER,

Chairman Senate Subcommittee on Interstate
Commerce, having under consideration
Senate Bill 3560.

DEAR SIR--As the legislative representative of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Brotherhood of Locomotive

Firemen, Order of Railway Conductors, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, I have the honor to hereby submit to you the reasons why we ask for the passage of said bill. This bill was drafted with the view of meeting the following contingencies, which have arisen through

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