Show IN A BAD PLIGHT recent proceedings in the zane dyer contempt case have developed some lively phases one of these Is the peculiar exhibition that ex chief justice zane has made of himself it is remarkable that a man of his extensive experience should have shown so little shrewdness as he has manifested in this matter in the whole affair in point with short spaces between he has been actively engaged in digging holes in which to insert his feet causing him in several instances to come near breaking his legs hr he has from the beginning struck out right and left giving one a cuff on the ear some one else a kick on the hip while he has attempted in other instances to pull a protruding nose when the owners of these tender spots and appendages of the figurative corpus have said what cihat did you do that for the judge hm has remarked substantially not the slightest offense intended I 1 can assure you 21 this is a piece of doubtful pleasantry however with which to cover a painful ful bruise braise A man who kicks an acquaintance can hardly satisfy the latter by an application of porous explanatory unintentional accident plaster by his indiscriminate legal judge zane has not been engaging in the industry of manufacturing friends A man never does that by virtually seeking to make it appear that there is but one honest man in this bu busi ai ness As to whether the showing has been clearly made is an open question this fact Is apparent when the proceedings are scrutinized as a whole in his argument the other day judge zane said in effle effect ct that he with his brethren who were on the bench with him decided that the edmunds tucker law was constitutional tut he admitted that the law was on the border of a subject on which legislators had ino no right to legislate because it took a large amount of property from a church if this public admission means anything it means that the law being on the border of that which legislators had no right 0 to legislate upon was in the mind of judge zane of doubtful constitutionality it is a principle of common sense and consequently of good law that when there is a matter involving doubt that doubt should invariably be thrown in favor of the party who is the object of pursuit in this instance it was thrown by judge zane according to his own admission in favor of the pursuer he doubtless regrets having admitted as much but he ought to be still more regretful that he acted in his judicial capacity in favor of a doubtful law which took a large amount of property from a church the necessity for throwing the doubt in favor of the party whose property it was proposed to take in place of the party proposing to take it is still more manifest when it if is considered that there is not the least particle of dispute in relation to the fact that the latter had not the slightest proprietary rights in the premises in consequence of his deciding while on the bench in favor of the constitutionality of the es cheating clause of the edmunds tucker law when its validity was a matter of grave doubt in his mind judge zane wants no scandal connected with it with special reference to his own name but does he not attach that scandal to his name himself by admitting that lie he decided as constitutional a law whose chief purpose was to take a large amount of property from a church when the constitutionality of the act was a matter of doubt with himself if he did so and his own statements seem to convey that meaning he could scarcely perpetrate an act that would be more scandalous and wrongful in its character the degree of injustice being placed beyond question by the foot fact that the deed was done while the eyes of the performer were open to its enormity from this standpoint a prof profession eWon of patriotic probity and anxiety to prevent the illegal squandering of I 1 a large amount of property taken from a church 11 by those through whose hands it passes in the process of e cheat ment does not come with elegance or grace hatt had he be in view of ids his expressed theory upon the doubtfulness of the law under which wholesale robbery is being gerpe grated insisted upon the large amount of means involved being placed back into the hands of those who earned and donated it to the church he would have been entitled to respect his professed probity and anxiety to have others keep their hands bands away from the peopled people Is means would have had some kind of a foundation to stand upon As it is his overweening anxiety looks like a basel baseless ess and slender fabric if there is incidental robbery under the law past present or prospective is he not in part responsible on the ground that he decided to be constitutional a law providing for the taking of a large amount of property from a church f when its validity was doubtful in his own mind why should he object to what he holds to be robbery on the retail plan when he took a hand in warding forwarding foi the scheme for the wholesale seizure |