Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-08
ROOSEVELT
Discusses Judges and
in The Outlook.
Believes Country Wise in CIV
ing Judges Great Power,
But Also, Like Other Powers, II Can
Be Abused.


in an editorial appearing in the cur
rent issue of The Outlook. He says
in part:
Let me, at the outset, put so
clearly that only wilful misinterpreta
tior can deceive people. just what my
position as to the courts is. l have
the very highest regard the highest
respect and admiration, for the judi
ciars. As q whole, / think that our
judicial officers stand on higher
level than any other body Of public
servants, or, for the matter Of that,
Of private citizens. | could name off
hand at this moment number of
judges new on the bench who render
to the people more substantial service
o. pore far-reaehing value than is
| rendered by any other men in public
| or private life-aud all OF these judges
substantially agree with the position
| herein taken, which. indeed. i large
| Is derived from them. | believe the
courts have rendered our people in
| e9leulable services. hold that the
attitude Of our people towards them
| shaald ho one Of appreciation and
respect; but not Of sevility.
- | most emphaticallY be
lieve that we have been wise in Civ
ing great power To our judges. In
| Guiding this power of judicial inter-
| probation OF statutes To see whether
they conform with the fundamental
| law of the land. But also most
firmly believe that. like any other
| power. this power can be abused and
that it is power with which the peo-
pie have merely temporarily parted
| AMI not one Which they have perm
| anentlv alienated. Used cautiously
and moderately and only in the clear
est cases, as it has been used by our
greatest judges from the days IT .iar-
| shall tn the present time, as il is de
Tended by writer's such as Mr.. fhayor,
il is fraught with the utmost good 10
the body polite. Used recklessiy.
| wantonly, and foolishly. whore tn.
case is so doubtful that the judges
themselves may be divided nearly
equally on the two sides lin the Bake
shop decision. frst and last. twelve
judges held the law constitutional
and only ten including, however I'M
fortunately five of the nine Supreme
Court judges, held it unoonstitution-
ali, as it has again ard again been
used in recent Years. it results in very
great evil.
- am not speaking of the
judges performance of the ordinary
judicial function as performed By
Judges in all lands, the function of
| the type which people all over the
| world have in mind when they speak
of the uprightness of the judge. of
the Independence Of the judiciary.
am speaking of the peculiar junction
I 4 A H.,
!, of no other judge in the world. the
| function of declaring whether or not
| the people have the right to make
| laws for themselves on matters which
| they deem of vital concern. | am not
speaking of the judge in his attitude
| of Judge between one individual and
| another. or one individual and the
| state; / am speaking Of the Judge
| when, by virtue of his position. he
| declares that the people as q whole
| have, or have not, the right to carry
| out a given policy, a power which
may give one man or three men or
five men the right to nullify the wish
es of the enormous majority of their
| ninety million fellow citizens pow
| er which has been exercised repeated
| ~ sometimes wisely, sometimes very
/
not at this time even referring to de-
| cisions dealing with the question of
| the respective spheres of action OF
| Nation and State; / have in mind de-
| eisions which declare the people
| themselves have no power to act,
| through either the National or the
State governments.
| During the last twenty-five years
| the courts here in New York, helped,
| am sorry to say, once or twice by
| the Supreme Court of the Nation,
have thrown what at times have
| proved well-nigh or altogether insur-
| mountable obstacles in the path of
needed social reforms. | have al
ready alluded to the decision of the
| New York Court which forbade the
people of New York through their
| Legislature to interfere with certain
| kinds of tenement-house factories.
| Almost without exception every in
| telligent social worker whom | have
| ever met, every man really interested
| in the betterment of social and in
| dustrial conditions among our working
| people, in giving better homes to the
| working people in great cities and
+! in giving better conditions of labor to
! them when they are at labor-almost
| without exception everyone qualified
| to judge on these matters has agreed
| that this decision was q blow to de-
cent citizenship, a blow TO the effort
| to achieve genuine reform, genuine
/ betterment of social conditions. of so
| severe a nature that its mischievous
| effects can hardly be overestimated
have no doubt that the men making
| the decision Were upright men of high
| character; but they did as much dam
| age as the worst legislative body,
aetuated by the worst motives could
possibly have done.
81 hold, not only that the courts
in these matters have usurped. or at
least exercised in wholly wrong fash
ion, a power properly and clearly
abiding in the people, but that they
have thus strained to the utmost land,
indeed. in my judgment, violated) the
Constitution in order to sustain do
nothing philosophy which has every !
,oIa JaY,