The plan would tend to solve both the labor and the rate problem. Rates and wages are the two factors on which more than any other the prosperity of railroads depends. Rates would be fixed by some government agency which would be interested to see that they were fair, since the guarantee of the government and the profit-sharing features make it a partner in the enterprise. If the demands of labor should disturb the equilibrium of the conflicting interests the government would be confronted with the alternative of (1) making good a part of its guarantee and losing its share over the guaranteed amount of earnings, or (2) authorizing an increase in rates to meet the increased wage scale, or (3) using its power under appropriate legislation through suitable commissions to regulate and standardize wage scales. In other words, the proposed plan would tend to tie up wages and rates in such manner that they would be interdependent. X RECALL OF DECISIONS 1 A MODERN PHASE OF IMPATIENCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL RESTRAINTS THE function of the judiciary branch of the government is to try and decide controversies according to law and justice, without being swayed by considerations of governmental or political expediency, or by what judges suppose to be the temporary desires of a majority of the electorate. In the distribution by the Federal Constitution of the powers of government, the judicial department was made free of checks upon its powers like those imposed upon the executive and legislative departments. After the judges had been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and their salaries had been fixed by Congress, they were to hold office during good behavior and their salaries were not to be reduced during their terms of office. Hamilton explains the reason for these provisions as follows: "The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited constitution. By a limited constitution I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to the legislative authority; such, for instance, as that which shall pass no bills of attainder, no ex post facto laws, and the like. Limitations of this kind can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution, void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges will amount to nothing." 1 Paper read at the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association, held in Utica, N. Y., January 24-25, 1913. |