The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-09
President ROOSeDeIf
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learning or correctness of abstract con
 viction on questions of public policy
 can serve as an offset to such short comings. But it is also true that judges.
 like executives and legislators, should l hold sound views on the questions of
 public policy which are of vital interest
 to the people.
 The legislators and executives are 1 chosen to represent the people in enact
 ing and administering the laws. The i judges are not chosen to represent the ] people in this sense Their function is | to interpret the laws. The legislators ! are responsible for the laws; the judges I for the spirit in which they interpret and enforce the laws. We stand aloof l from the reckless agitators who would i make the judges mere pliant tools of pop ular prejudice and passion; and we stand aloof from those equally unwise partisans i of reaction and privilege who deny the i proposition that, inasmuch as judges are chosen to serve the interests of the whole i people, they should strive to find out | what those interests are. and, so far as 1 they conscientiously can, should strive l to give effect to popular conviction when
 deliberately and duly expressed by the l lawmaking body. The courts are to be 1 highly commended and staunchly upheld l when they set their faces against wrong l doing or tyranny by a majority; but ] they are to be blamed when they fail | to recognize under government like ours ] the deliberate judgment of the majority as to a matter of legitimate policy, when , duly expressed by the legislature Such lawfully expressed and deliberate judg
 ment should be given effect by the courts. save in the extreme and exceptional
 cases where there has been a clear vio- lation of a constitutional provision. Any , thing like frivolity or wantonness in upsetting such clearly taken govern
 mental action is a grave offense against the republic. To protest against tyranny, to protect minorities from oppression, to
 nullify an act committed in a spasm of
 popular fury, is to render a service to
 the republic. But for the courts to ar-
 rogate to themselves functions which
 properly belong to the legislative bodies
 is all wrong, and in the end works mis-
 chief The people should not be per
 mitted to pardon evil and slipshod legis-
 lation on the theory that the court will
 set it right; they should be taught that
 the right way to get rid of a bad law is
 to have the legislature repeal it, and not
 to have the courts by ingenious hair
 splitting nullify it. A law may be un-
 wise and improper; but it should not
 for these reasons be declared unconsti-
 tutional by strained interpretation, for
 the result of such action is to take away
 from the people at large their sense of
 
 their capacity for orderly sef-restraint and self-government. Under such a pop ular government as ours, founded on the theory that in the long run the will of the people is supreme, the ultimate
 safety of the nation can only rest in training and guiding the people so that what they will shall be right, and not in devising means to defeat their will by the technicalities of strained construc- tion.
 For many of the shortcomings of justice in our country our people as whole are themselves to blame, and the judges and juries merely bear their share together with the public as a whole. It Is dis creditable to us as a people that there
 should be difficulty In convicting mur-
 derers. or in bringing to justice men
 who as public servants have been guilty
 of corruption, or who have profted by
 the corruption of public servants. The
 result is equally unfortunate, whether
 due to hairsplitting technicalities in the
 interpretation of law by judges, to sen
 timentality and class consciousness on the
 part of juries, or to hysteria and sen
 sationalism in the daily press. For much
 of this failure of justice no responsibil-
 ity whatever lies on rich men as such.
 We who make up the mass of the people cannot shift the responsibility from our own shoulders. But there is an important part of the failure which has specially to do with inability to hold to proper account men of wealth who behave badly.
 The chief breakdown is fin dealing with the new relations that arise from the mutualism, the interdependance of our time. Every new social relation begets a new type of wrongdoing-of sin to use an old-fashioned word-and many years always elapse before society is able to 4l,s
 effectively punished at law. During the lifetime of the older men now alive the
 social relations have changed far more
 rapidly than in the preceding two cen
 turies. The immense growth of corpora
 tions, of business done by associations
 and the extreme strain and pressure of
 modern life, have produced conditions
 which render the public confused as to
 who it's really dangerous foes are; and among the public servants who have not only shared this confusion, but by some of their acts have increased it, are cer.
 tain judges. Marked inefficency has
 been shown in dealing with corporations and in re-settling the proper attitude to
 be taken by the public not only toward corporations, but towarp labor. and to-
 ward the social questions arising out of
 the factory system, and the enormous growth of our great cities.
 The huge wealth that has been accumu-
 lated by a few individuals of recent years, in what has amounted to a social and in- dustrial revolution, has been as regards some of these individuals made possible only by the improper use of the modern corporation. A certain type of modern corporation, with its officers and agents, its many issues of securities and it's con- stant consolidation with allied under | takings, finally becomes an instrument so complex as to contain greater number | of elements that, under various judicial decisions, lend themselves to fraud and oppression than any device yet evolved | in the human brain. Corporations are | necessary instruments of modern business. | They has been permitted to become a | menace largely because the governmental l representatives of the people have worked 1 slowly in providing for adequate control | over them.
 | The chief offender in any given case 1 may be an executive, legislature, or 1 judge. Every executive head who advises
 violent, instead of gradual, action, or who | advocates ill-considered and sweeping 1 measures of reform (especially If they are 1 tainted with vindictiveness, and disregard | for the rights of the minority is particu- ! larly blameworthy. The several legisla- | lures are responsible for the fact that our laws are often prepared with slovenly | haste and lack of consideration More l over, they are often prepared. and still more frequently amended during passage 1 at the suggestion of the very parties | against whom they are afterwards en | forced. Our great clusters of corpor- | ations, huge trusts and fabulously wealthy | multimiilionaires, employ the very best | lawyers they can obtain to pick flaws in ] these statutes after their passage, but they