The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1911-08-10


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cial of honesty and integrity and cour-
age. who prefers his duty to his Office,
will stand by what he believes to be
right and sound and wise, even though
for the time being he may stand alone
1t has happened very often that the
governor of state or the mayor of
city has incurred the violent Opposi-
ton of temporary majority by the an
nouncement of policy which, when
put into operation, has been found to
work TO the advantage and urbuilding
Of the community. With the recall in
existence, such an officer would have
been swept out of office in RESPONSE to
a GpaSmOdic impulse afterwards fOun5
to be wholly unwarranted. II is far
better in the long rur that our public
officials be permitted to serve ont the
short terms for which they are elected.
unless they so conduct themselves as
to become amenable to removal by i'm
parchment or by punishment under
specific provisions OF law.
JUDGES AND CONSTITUENTS.
While | thoroughly disapprove OF
the initiative and the modern refer
endum and the recall as applied to ex-
ecutive and legislative officers, | could
well subordinate my judgment to that
of the people of Arizona if they had
not gone further and provided that the
recall should embrace the judiciary as
we'll The power to recall a Judge who
renders an unpopular Judgment is to
my mind so utterly subversive of the
principles of good government that
can never get my own consent to with
hold my condemnation and disapprov-
al of it.
The senator from Oregon-not the
father of the composite citizen" but
the junior senator, Mr.. Chamberlain
in his speech of April II last, asks:
But abstract proposition. WHY
should judicial officer he Independent
of the wishes of his constituents?
Oh, MIR. President, much of the vice
and fallacy of the argument for the
right to recall judges rests in this
assumption that the Judge. like con-
gresham or a legislator, represents a
constituency. What is a constituent?
He is a person for whom another acts.
A constituent implies as a necessary
corollary, a representative who speaks
d ~
he is only in restricted sense a rep
resentative officer at all. The people
who elect him can with propriety
make known their wishes only through
! the laws which they enact. The Judge
/ is the mouthpiece of the law. His
constituents are the statutes duly
made and provided. If his decisions
are wrong, the remedy is to appeal to
a higher court-not to the people. The
scales of justice must hang level or
there is an end of justice. The re-
call puts into the scale. upon one side
or the other, in every case where
strong public feeling exists, the arti-
ficially induced anxiety of the Judge
for the retention of his place. Bound
by all the sacred traditions of his of.
flee to decide impartially between the
parties according to the law and the
evidence, he begins the discharge OF
his high duties with a personal inter
est in his own decision.
The Judge represents no constitu-
ents. speaks for no policy save the pol.
icy of the law. If he be not utterly
foresworn, he must at all hazards put
the rights of single Individual above
the wishes of all the people. He has
no master but the compelling force of
| his own conscience Every circum
stance which diminishes his independ-
ence and his courage, which closes his
ears to the righteousness of the causes
and opens them to the voice of clamor,
makes for injustice
II charged with incompetency, dis.
honesty or corruption, common fair
ness demands that he should be tried
in the open before an impartial tribu-
nal, where he may be heard, not with
a limitation of 200 words upon his de-
| tense, but in full. and where he may
! face his accusers. and test the truth
CT their accusations by those orderly
methods of procedure which the expe-
rience of centuries has demonstrated
are essential to the entertainment of
truth. But the recall institutes tri-
| bunal where everybody decides and no
body is responsible; where at least
20 per cent. of the membership have
already. as the judges accusers, pre-
| judged his case, and from whose arbi-
trary and unjust findings there is no
appeal. In such a forum idle gossip
and village scandal stend in the place
/ IF evidences; asser ion takes the Mace
vi sworn testimony; anu the foulesl lie
/ gees unchallenged by the tombstone
| or cross-examination. The voter will
make up his verdict of vindication un-
der the Illuminating radiance, of the
tcrchlight procession, in the calm, ju-
dicial atmosphere of the brass band
and he drum corps, and upon the log
zeal summing up of the spellbinder and
! pSign cuartette
Sir, ! hone / am not given to over
eytr2vagant stateTent. but / declare
| my solemn conviction that the moment
provision Tor the recall of the judges
of the Supreme court shall be written
| into the Federal Constitution that mo-
Fnent will mark the beginning of the
downfall of the republic and the de-