The

section of workingmen, so far as they are subjects of political action. In addition there are some complaints, which have not been made the basis of regular demands. Among these one of the most common is an allegation that the judiciary of the country are in sympathy with the capitalist classes to the extent that justice can not be had of them for others. This is not true, for judiciary is not corrupt, nor is it biased; or if it is biased in any instance, it is almost invariably in behalf of the weak. The statement that great cooperations usually win their cases is doubtless true, for they act under the advice of great lawyers, and in ordinary cases are within the law in all their acts. If they win when they should not in equity, the remedy is in a change of the law, and not in an abuse of the judiciary, who simply declare the law as they find it. judiciary and the military are the bulwarks of all honest men against the violent and the crafty. Under no circumstances should the independence of the judiciary be impaired. A mob is far more likely to intimidate a judge than a capitalist to corrupt him. That justice is unreasonably delayed and extravagantly costly in most civilized countries is unquestionably true. That the fault lies largely with the judges is also true, for they have failed to withstand if they have not actually encouraged the tendency to employ legal refinements to . the delay or the perversion of justice. And yet all those legal "refinements" which stand the analysis of the higher courts, and finally become incorporated in the body of judge-made law, are founded on sound principles and a correct understanding of statute law as it exists. The expression "judgemade law" has come to be a term of reproach. It is frequently used as such among farmers. This is wrong. Judges can not help making law. When counsel raises a point as a necessary inference from undoubted statute law, the judge must decide it. He can not put it aside. When he has decided it, and the decision is sustained by the highest courts, it becomes judge-made law-that is, it is found to be law, upon examination, by virtue of its necessarily following from a proper interpretation of statute law, although the authors of the statute may have never thought of it. The ignorance and

bad English of many of our legislators are responsible for a great part of the judge-made law of America. When a law is invoked before a judge he is compelled to do something with it, and when he tries to unravel its meaning, he often has a very hard time. If he can attach any reasonable meaning to its words, he is bound to do so, and very often the language of the act compels him to decide that the law is very different from what it was intended to be, of which fact the judge can take no notice. He must read the law as it is, and not as he may suppose it was intended to be.

The remedy for the injustice which is wrought in the courts under the forms of law, is in forbidding appeals or writs of error except upon the certificate of the judge that substantial justice has not been done, and the disallowance of postponement except upon those serious occasions which seldom happen. Let the facts be brought out when fresh and a verdict given upon them, and then let it stop. It will be. better for litigants and far better for the community.

This subject is germane to the labor question, for the reason that labor agitators attack our courts more viciously than any other class. The farmers should sustain the courts, and if they do not like the decisions, should change the law.

Thus far I have considered the demands only of the trade union wing of the workingmen. The views of the unorganized majority we do not know. But there is another wing, quite small in organized members, but filled with determination. The Socialist Labor party is composed of Socialists, who see in the demands of the trade unions nothing worth agitating for except as a very short step towards something else. Socialism is increasing its votaries in America, as elsewhere in the world. It is not likely, within any future that we can forecast, to be even a very powerful minority in this country, but as its strength will be concentrated in cities and be supported not only by its own honest membership, but by most of the bad elements of society which favor any destructive proposals, its apparent strength will be greater than its actual strength.

In brief, the demands of the Socialist Labor party are as follows, in the language of a late national platform of the party:

"1. Reduction in the hours of labor in proportion to the progress of production.

"2. The United States to obtain possession of the mines, railroads, canals, telegraphs, telephones, and all other means of public transportation and communication; the employees to operate the same cooperatively under control of the Federal government and to elect their own superior officers, but no employee shall be discharged for political reasons.

"3. The municipalities to obtain possession of the local railroads, ferries, water works, gas works, electric plants, and all industries requiring municipal franchises; the employees to operate the same cooperatively under the control of the municipal administration, and to elect their own superior officers, but no employee shall be discharged for political

reasons.

"4. The public lands to be declared inalienable, revocation of all land grants to corporations or individuals, the conditions of which have not been complied with.

"5. The United States to have the exclusive right to issue money.

"6. Congressional legislation providing for the scientific management of forests and waterways, and prohibiting the waste of the natural resources of the country.

"7. Inventions to be free to all; the inventors to be remunerated by the nation.

"8. Progressive income tax and tax on inheritances; the smaller incomes to be exempt.

"9. School education of all children under fourteen years of age to be compulsory, gratuitous, and accessible to all by public assistance in meals, clothing, books, etc., where

necessary.

"10. Repeal of all pauper, tramp, conspiracy, and sumptuary laws. Unabridged right of combination.

"11. Prohibition of the employment of children of school age and the employment of female labor in occupations detrimental to health or morality. Abolition of the convict labor contract system.

"12. Employment of the unemployed by the public authorities (county, city, state, and nation).

"13. All wages to be paid in lawful money of the United States. Equalization of woman's wages with those of men where equal service is performed.

"14. Laws for the protection of life and limb in all occupations, and an efficient employers' liability law.

"15. The people to have the right to propose laws and to

vote upon all measures of importanee, according to the referendum principle.

"16. Abolition of the veto power of the executive (national, state, and municipal), wherever it exists.

"17. Abolition of the United States Senate and all upper legislative chambers.

"18. Municipal self-government.

Uni

"19. Direct vote and secret ballots in all elections. versal and equal right of suffrage without regard to color, creed, Election days to be legal holidays. The principle of proportional representation to be introduced.

or sex.

"20. All public officers to be subject to recall by their respective constituencies.

21. Uniform civil and criminal law throughout the United States. Administration of justice to be free of charge. Abolition of capital punishment."

This statement of principles is not Socialism, but bears evidence of being a carefully-considered combination of "planks," calculated to catch everybody who is discontented with anything. Such of the demands as I desire to discuss are dealt with elsewhere. Those who hold these views have hardly the right to call themselves Socialists, although the platform includes many of the demands of Socialism.* In the main the Socialist Labor party represents the violent and revolutionary wing of the Socialists. Its declarations and sometimes its acts have created, among law-abiding men, a prejudice against the name of "Socialism" which is difficult

to remove.

The object of this chapter has been attained if the reader, by its perusal, obtains a clear idea of the real economic relations between farmers and workingmen. It is one of conflict. ing economic interests profoundly affected by common interests in relation to some other classes. So far as labor seeks the aid of legislation to accomplish its ends, the interests of farmers are sometimes with labor and sometimes against it.

*See Chapter VIII of this book.

Τ

CHAPTER VI.

THE FARMER AND THE TRUSTS.

HE term "Trust," in popular usage, has come to mean

any consolidation of large industrial or other enter

prises under one management. It will be used in that sense in this chapter. This use of the term originated in the practice of effecting a practical consolidation by placing a controlling majority of the stock of each of the concerns which it was desired to consolidate "in trust" in the hands of a new corporation especially created for this purpose. It was necessary that the Trusts be corporations, for individuals might die, or become unable to perform the duties, in which case it would be necessary for all parties to agree upon new trustees, which might or might not be possible. The Trust was always created for some definite term of years, during which the real owners of the stock could not withdraw it from the Trust. The new corporation, by means of its control of the stock of the consolidated companies, could select their managers and control or consolidate their management, thus avoiding any competition between them, and dividing the net profits of all among the stockholders of the different companies, according to the terms of the Trust. The Trust corporation was always composed of members of the companies consolidated. In due time litigation ensued in regard to those Trusts, which were attacked as "in restraint of trade," and the courts held them illegal on the ground that while corporations could be formed to carry on any kind of business, they could not, in the states where the litigation occurred, be formed for the sole purpose of controlling the business of other corporations. As stringent "anti-Trust" laws were promptly enacted in most of the states, and by Congress, the Trusts were dissolved and the practice was abandoned.

Nothing came of the anti-Trust movement, however, except