Arizona republican., 1912-03-10
THE PEOPLE" AND THE REST
 OF US.

If everybody who could vote dii vote. the United States would be govcrene by considerably less than one-sixth of the population. IL would be governed. moreover. by q majority of this frac- l ton. or what is more important, the part of it that chose to exercise the franchise. In other words. it would be governed by about one-fifteenth of the population of the United States. When Mir. Roosevelt. or MT. Bryan. or other leaders talk about the people" they mean one thing. while the con5titu- ton of the United States. when it says. We. the people of ;he United States. 10 Ordain" means something quite different and greatly broader It means all the people. as one is in- clined 70 suspect Lincoln did. in his greatest utterance.
 Knowing that this small body of voters would be Swayel. and indeed ought to be swayei in order to edu- cate itself by the winds of passion an the fallaCies of sentiment. the consti- tution Of the United States which is to say all the people of the United States, tried to establish conditions of peculiar independence for the judici- ary. It did not initiate the confusion of the British constitution. which makes the high court of parliament a judicial body as well as a legislative one. l. realized that a majority of congress could make laws, but that it's members. moved and innocently nov cd. by prejudice and partisanship. were unfitted to interpret them The legls- lators could not possess the necessary detachment: and their dependence upon the whims of the voters made their interpretation a peril to all the people of the United States.
 The constitution. then. recognized that the one thing to avoid was m ,b rule. There must always be a man at the wheel. and the ship must never get out of hand. Its position must he ascertained by the sextant. and not by vote of the third class passengers. In his speech at Columbus Roosevelt justly praised the Massachusetts method Of removing judges by q vote of the legislature m charges. The navigating officer can be discharged
 
 same safeguards against an unjust judge are provided by the power to imr each. and this is sufficient recall.
 But ROosevei's proposal to review constitutional decisions through an ap- peal to that lemOnstrabiy small frac- tion which he Is pleased to call the people is another matter. This Is mob rule. T. failed in Athens. failed in Roms. failed everywhere it has ever been tried. because it converted judge from an impartial arbiter to a demagogue. The idea is neither new nor progressive. Our constitution is sneciaily devised to avoid it. because all experience shows that it is. in prac- tice. tho absolute nagation of free gov ernment.
 A crowd is not the aggregate intel 1 ligence Of the people who compose fl: it iS an unreasoning mob. even if it is entirely made up of college professors. ministers of religion or members of congress. The appeal of q supreme court decision tn a mob of :lpwspapar editors is a possibility too appalling to contemplate.
 We shall preserve those inaiienable ! rights and that equal opportunity l upon which We pride ourselves just so | long IS this country is not governed 1 by what Roosevelt arbitrarily calls 'the people. Wall Street Journal.