The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-01
RECALL OF JUDGES.

Evidences multiply that the flood of social, institutional and economic change may not pass without modi- flying to a greater or less extent, the status and function of the courts, not in respect to their powers in the ad- rninistration of private justice, when they decide suits between man and man, but in the matter of their exer- else of functions essentially legisla- tive.
 The change of public thought is shown by the popularity of the re- call for judges. exhibited in many of tho western states; by the attitude of Influential western senators of both great parties. and by a. mass of agi- tation in the magazines, and other periodicals in which the powers of the judiciary are analysed, the source of these powers scrutinized. and the use of them severely criticised.
 IaFo1lette's has been running for some time an article on "Our Judi cial Oligarchy" written by Gilbert E.. Roe. a we'll known lawyer. The pub lication is significant, as there is a strong presumption that the views of MT. Roe are also the views of Sena- tor LaFollette. whose political philos- ophy the magazine represents. The tenor of these views may be gleaned from a perusal of paragraph. which is e summing-up statement under the head Courts Thwart Legisla tive Remedies" The paragraph says:
 So{he1 Judges are sof .course.a more re- actionary thano others,s but .sthe fact is that with a few great exceptions, the bench. as a whole has shown itself not only out of sympathy with the new economic and industrial legisla- ton of the country, but positively hos tile to it.
 Senator Owen of Oklahoma has ex- pressed his convictions that judges of the sUnieed E TStaae5bn Supreme court should be subject to the recall, which is carrying the theory of recall of judges to its utmost limit.
 These views are not the views of theorists, but of men entrusted with a large measure of political power In fact the recall of judges seems 10 be a fixed part of the policy of the western insurgent movement, wheth- CT the insurgents are Democrats or Republicans The recall is therefore to be considered from the viewpoint of practical craftsmanship, and not as the expression of the remote pur- pose of persons entirely without present means of making their views effective.eS a 1ifTT
 Nor is the bar itself altogether un- affected with the new view of the re- lations of the people and the judges. There was a lively discussion of the recall of judges at the recent session of the Minnesota Bar Association in Duluth, upon which occasion James G. Manahan, a noted lawyer, and a close personal and political friend of MT. Bryan's, used the following lan- guage:
 "It is urged that the recall of judges would subject the judiciary to the cla- nor of the mob; that we must have fearless judiciary. The man who believes the people are mob does not believe in republican form of gov ernment He should leave this coun- try He has no place here; his spirit is reasonable. I deny that any peo- ple capable of self-government are ev- CT unfair or unreasonable. A few may clamor, but the people never They never have and never would re- call judge except in clear case of proved dishonesty, and in such case he should be recalled.
 A fearless judge would. never fear the people. A cowardly judge would fear the people less than he would the political boss and big business men who made him.
 The country has apparently enter ed upon a period of criticism and sweeping change. The lines of crit icism are we'll developed. What chan ges are to follow, or how sweeping is not so clear. But nothing can be gained by keeping the people in ig- norance of the facts, for facts are the substance of the knowledge upon which the voter must act.