The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-10-27
JUDICIAL CONTROL IN
PEOPLE
OPINION OF ROOSEVELT AS EX-
PRESSED IN NEW YORK
SPEECH.
Good Legislation Made of No Effect
Because Some Judges and Some
Courts Are ''Steeped in Some Out
worn Political or Social Philoso-
ply


worn Political or Social Philoso-
ply"
New York, Oct. 21.-The judiciary
of the United States must be brought
within the control and made answer
able to the we'll thought out judg-
ment of the people, in the opinion of
Theodore Roosevelt, who spoke last
night on 'The Conservation of Wo-
manhood and Childhood before the
Civic Forum.
This control, in Mr.. Roosevelt's
Judgment, should be exercised more
cautiously and in different fashion
than that by people in control over
the legislator and executive, "but the
control must be there
Control of judges, Mr.. Roosevelt
said, was but half-al although by far
the more important part-of a pro-
gram which should be carried out
for proper conservation of manhood,
womanhood and childhood. The first
half of the program, he said, "con-
sisted in placing upon the statute
books of nation and states legisla-
ton to remedy existing defects
The former president spoke at
length of what he termed "crying
abuses connected with child labor. ;"
He urged working women to or
ganize.
Certain Courts Worn Out.
Experience in the last twenty-five
years, the speaker declared, had
shown that while the people might
be aroused to sound and high think
ing and their legislative and execu-
tive officers try to carry out their
purposes, yet the whole movement
for good might come to naught, "be-
cause certain judges, certain courts
are stepped in some outworn political
or social philosophy and totally mis-
apprehend their relations to the peo-
pie and to the public needs
Expects to Be N1isrepresented.
II am entirely aware" he con-
tinued, "that what l say assuredly
will be misrepresented by certain per-
sons with a deliberate purpose of
misleading honest and conservative
citizens into the belief that 1 am
making an attack on the judges.
But 1 feel that it is my highest duty
to speak plainly on this subject SO
vital to our welfare
Mr. Roosevelt said he had the
highest regard for the judiciary.
Cites Washington Decision.
81 criticise the decision of judges"
he asserted, "only by adopting as nay
own the language used about these
same decisions by the highest judges
in the land, by, for instance, the
present chief justice of the United
States, Mr. Justice White; by that
great and upright servant of the peo-
pie, the lamented Justice Harlan; by
the supreme court of the state of
Iowa; and the supreme court of the
state of Washington. l have never
taken a position in advance of that
taken by Abraham Lincoln.
Il most emhpatically believe that
we have been wise in giving great
power to our judges. But also
most firmly believe that, like any
other power, this power can be
abused, and that it is a power from
which the people have merely tenn
porarily parted and not one which
they have permanently alienated."
Obstacles Are Surmounted.
In the last twenty-five years, Mr..
Roosevelt said, the courts of New
York once or twice have thrown down
what proved well nigh insurmount-
able obstacles to needed social re-
forms.
II for one hold that If majority
of the people, after due elaboration,
come to champion such social and
economic reform as these we cham
pion tonight" ne continued, "they
have the right to see them enacted
into laws and become a part of oar
settled governmental policy; and l
shall never abandon the effort to see
this view triumph.
For the People to Say.
II am asking you to declare une-
Quivocally that it is for the people
themselves to say whether or not
this policy shall be adopted.
"If the courts continue to use
their power with the recklessness
that has too often been shown in the
past it is almost inevitable that eff
forts will be made to amend it.
81 believe that the only ultimate
safety for our people is in self-con-
troll; not in control from the out
side. / believe that this people must
ultimately control its own destinies
and cannot surrender the right OF
ultimate control to q judge any more
than to legislator or any executive.
lone word in closing. What 1
have advocated is not revolution. It
| is not wild radicalism. It is the
highest and wisest kind of conserva-
tism."
]