Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-08-26

necessitate the establishment of ma
chlnery for making much easier OF
amendment both the national and
the several state constitutions, es-
peclally with the view of prompt ac-
tlon on certain judicial decisions
action as specific and limited as that
taken by the passage of the 18th
amendment to the national constitu-
tion. We are in this decrying the
courts. That was reserved for the
Chlcago convention in its plank re-
spectlng impeachment. Impeach-
ment implies the proof of dishonesty.
we DO not question the general hon
esty or the courts. But in APPLYING
10 present-day social conditions the
general prohibitions that were in
tended originally as safeguards to
the citizen against the arbitrary
power of government in the hands
OF caste and privilege, these prohibi-
Clons nave been turned by the courts
from safeguards against political and
social privilege into carriers against
political and social justice and ad-
Vancement. Our purpose is not TO
lmpugn the courts, but to emancipate
them from position where they
stand In the way of social Justice:
ana TO emancipate the people, in an
orderly way, from the iniquity of en-
forced submission to doctrine
winch would turn constitutional pro-
visions which were intended to favor
social justice and advancement into
prohibitions against such Justice and
advancement.
Courts Subject to People.
we in America have peculiar need
thus to make the acts of the courts
SUBJECT to the people, because, owing
TO causes which | need not now dis
cuss, the courts have here grown to
occupy position unknown in any
other country, position of superior
lty over both the Legislature and the
executive. Just at this time, when
we have begun in this country to
move toward social and industrial
Detterment and true industrial
democracy, this attitude on the part
OF the courts is of grave portent, be-
cause privilege has intrenched itself
In many courts, just as it formerly
intrenched itself in many legislative
bodies and in many executive offices.
Even in England, where the consti-
tuition is based upon the theory of
the supremacy of the legislative body
over the courts, the cause of democ-
racy has at times been hampered by
court action, In a recent book by a
notable English liberal leader, l.. T. |
Hobhouse, there occurs the following
sentences dealing with this subject: |
Labor itself had experienced the |
full brunt of the attack. 1t had come, |
not from the politicians, but from |
the judges; but in this country we
have to realize that within wide linn
is the judges are in effect legislators, |
and legislators with a certain per-
sistent bent which can be held in |
check only by the constant vigilance
and repeated eforts of the recognized |
organ for the making and repeal of |
law"
1t thus appears that even in Eng
land it is necessary to exercise vigi-
lance in order to prevent reactionary
of the popular will by
courts that are subject to the power
of the legislature. In the United !
States, where the courts are supreme
over the legislature, it is vital that
the people should keep in their own
hands the right of Interpretation OF
their own constitution when their
public servants differ as to the inter-
pretation.
| am well aware that every up
holder of privilege, every hired
agent or beneficiary of the special
interests, including many well-mean-
ing parlor reformers, will denounce
all this as socialism" or anarchy"
the same terms they used in the
past in denouncing the movements
to control the railways and to control
public utilities. AS matter of fact
the propositions | make constitute
neither anarchy nor socialism, but,
On the contrary, a corrective to So
cialism and an antidote to anarchy.