THE FARMER AND THE LABOR QUESTION. 393 



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 

 tlie 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 viciou.sl}^ 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. Social- 

 ism is increasing its votaries in America, as elsewhere in the 

 world. It is not likely, within any future that we can fore- 

 cast, 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 :— 



