Valdez daily prospector., 1912-03-15
FRIDAY, MARCH IS, 1912.
ROOSEVELT ON RECALL.

call in which l very earnestly be- lieve and the immediate adoption of which I urge. Every public servant, no matter how valuable, and not emitting Washington or Lincoln or Marshall, at times make mistakes Therefore, we should be cautious about recall ing the judge and we should be cautious about interfering in any way with the judge in decisions which he makes in the ordinary course as between individuals. But when judge decides a constitu- tional question, when he decides what the people as a whole can or cannot do, the people should have a right to recall that dccis- ion if they think it wrong. We should hold the judiciary in all respect, but it is both absurd and degrading to make a fetish of a judge or of anyone else.
 "Abraham Lincoln said in his first inaugural:
 If the policy of the govern ment upon vital questions affect ing the whole people is to be ir- revOcably fixed by decisions of the supreme court, the people will have ceased to be their own rul- CTS, having to that extent prac- tically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the courts or judges
 Lincoln actually applied in successful fashion the principle of the recall in the Dred Scott case. It became a dead letter without the need of any cOnstitu- tiOnal amendment. In any con- test today where the people stand for justice and the courts do not, the man who supports the courts against the people is untrue to the memory of Lincoln.
 "Again and again in the past justice has been scandalOusly Ob- Structed by state courts declaring slate laws in conflict with the fed eral constitution. Although the supreme court of the nation has never SO decided, or had even de- Cidcd in a contrary sense. When the supreme court of the state declares given statute uncOn- stitutional. because in conflict with the state or the national constitution. it's opinion should bc subject to revision by the pcO- pie themselves. If il is sustain- cd, well and good. If not, then the popular verdict is to be ac- cepted as final; the decision is to be treated as reversed.
 Many eminent lawyers who more or less frankly disbelicve in our entire American system of government, for, by and of the people, violently antagonizc this proposal. They believe, and sometimes assert, that the Amer ican people are not fitted for pop ular government, and that it is necessary tO keep the judiciary independent of the majority or of all the peoplc:' that there must be no appeal to the people from the decision of a court in any case; and that therefore the judges are to be established as sovereign rulers over the people. ! take absolute issue with all those who hold such a position. If the American people arc not fit for popular government, and If they should of right be the servants and not the masters of the men whom they have put in office. thcn Lincoln's work was wasted and the whole system of government on which this great democratic republic rests is failure. l believe, on the con- trary, that the American people arc fiL for complete sclf-govcrn- mcnt and that we of this republic have more nearly realized than any other people on earth the ideal of justice obtained through genuine popular rule. If the courts have the final say-5o on all legislative acts and If no ap. peal can lie from them to the people, then they are the ire sponsible masters of the people.
 "Tbe only tenable excuse for such position is the frank avow- al that the people lack sufficient intelligence and morality to be flt