The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1912-02-01
SORE
STILL OVER
HIS DEFEAT
And He Makes a Fresh AZ
tack. on Theodore
Roosevelt.
TAKES HIM TO TASK
For Recent Utterances Con-
corning the Courts and
Recall Of Judges.

COLUMBIA, S. C.. Jan. 90
Judge Alton B. Parker, of New
York, who once contested the presi-
Dental election with Theodore
Roosevelt, delivered an address in
this city last night before the South
Carolina Bar Association, in which
he expressed himself as opposed to
the recall OF the judiciary, and took
exception to some of the criticisms
of che bench made in the past by Mr..
Roosevelt
He said in part:
IF put into practice and carried
to its inevitable conclusion, recall
Of judges is the substitution OF pop
u!ar opinion for legal procedure--it
is justice, or justice melted out
not according to the law of the
land but according to supposed pub
lie sentiment. Recall of judges
spells in the ultimate result a recall
Of the judicial system and the sub
stitution of vigilance committee.
There is rude state of civilization
in which a vigilance committee is a
blessing, but as the race or country
develops, laws and courts take the
| place of these make-shift tribunals.
"Neyer before, think, in the his
tory of civilization has any blind
7 Ino1o, &c tbo I,l;p5 od,onaEaJ &c
\ progressive a return to the chaotic
conditinons inherent in administra-
K ton of justice by caprice rather
than by rules Of law.
! 1.-THE recall of judges, however, is
but the first step toward the
cherished goal OF the leaders OF the
4 movement against the Judiciary
s. Their ultimate aim is the recall OF
4 the power of the courts to declare
void such legislative acts as are for
\ pidden by the constitutions, state
and federal.
3 what has happened of late to
lead so may to favor stripping the
members of the Judiciary of their
independence and shearing them Of
! the power to enforce the constitu-
ton? Surely the judicial standard
has not been lowered OF late. Presi-
4 dent Taft must be given great cred
\ it for his judicial appointments. The
J cause of the change in public sentl-
ment then is not to be found in the
4 lowering of the judicial standard.
1 it had its beginning during the in
cumbency of the last President.
More combinations to restrain trade
and prevent competition came into
existence during his incumbency of
the office than in all our previous
, history.
when the protests of the people
! against the rising tide of higher
I prices began to be heard, ne sought
( with his accustomed political
I shrewdness to shift the responsible
4 ity from the shoulders of his party.
1 To that end he inveighed against
the impotency of the law and the
'well-meaning but fossilized-of-min1
judges laying the responsibility OF
our evil state to the law and its
ministers.
+ WAS ever accusation more un-
+ just? From whence came the spe-
I cial privileges against which pro-
X test is raised? From the court?
No, not in single instance. They
came by statutes passed by legisla-
tive bodies and in most instances APP
proved by chief executives.
4 "The reports which came to him
of the effect of his campaign against
the judiciary enabled him to go out
of Office fully approaching that
through his skill his administration
and his party had escaped, for a
time at least, the responsibility
which was justly theirs So sue.
cessful had been his campaign
against the law and the judges that
he started it anew on his return
from Africa. What his present mo
tive may be we need not con
lecture.
His grievance is that the de
II cisions are in such fragrant and di
rect contradiction to the spirit anc