THE UNION LABEL.
DECISION CONDEMNED. LABOUR AND THE CONSTITUTION. MORE FEDERAL POWERS. (by telegraph—press association— copyright ; Melbourne, August 8. The Trades Hall Council condemned the Union label decision as being against the spirit of tho Constitution and inimical to the interests of the people, and asked that the Federal Parliament bo clothed with powers to prevent its legislation being invalidated by a section of Judges of the High Court. THE HIGH COURT JUDGES. Within the space of a few weeks the High Court has legally shattered two labour ideals —the union label and tho new protection. In each case the decision was _ by_ a three-two majority, and the minority is, in each case, composed of i the same'two judges—Justices Higgins and Isaacs; The Chief-Justice (Sir Samuel Griffith), Justice Sir Edmund Barton, and Mr. Justice O'Connor—the triumvirate who have interpreted the constitution in _ a way Labour does not like—are the three original members of the High Court. Sir Edmund Barton was one of the principal frumers of the constitution, he was the first Prime Minister, and the present Mr. Justice O'Connor was a member of his Cabinet. Justices Higgins and Isaacs were not appointed to the High Court till 1906, after they had seen five or six years of • experience in Federal Parliamentary politics, with its new wave of labour ideas. Mr. Justice Higgins was Attorney-General in Mr. Watson's short-lived Labour Ministry in 1904. Mr. Justice Isaacs was the first Attorney-Gen-eral in Mr. Deakin's second Ministry. l '
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Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 272, 10 August 1908, Page 7
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246THE UNION LABEL. Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 272, 10 August 1908, Page 7
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