The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1912-01-11
Judges Should Recognize
Right of The People to
Garry Out a Policy

!
path OF needed social reforms.
have already alluded to the decision
of the New York court which for
babe the people of New York
through their legislature to inter
fere with certain kinds of tenement
house factories. factories. Almost
without exception every intelligent
social worker whom / have ever met,
every man really interested in the
betterment OF social and industrial
conditions among our working PEG.
pic, 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-al-
most without exception everyone
qualified to Judge on these matters
has agreed that this decision was a
blow to decent citizenship, genuine
betterment of social conditions, of
so severe a nature that its mis-
chievous effects can hardly be over
estimated have 40 doubt that
the men making the decision were
upright men of high character;
but they did as much damage as the
worst legislative body, actuated by
the worst motives could possibly
have done.
as I hold, not only that
the courts in these matters have
usurped, or at least exercised iu
wholly wrong fashion, a power prop
erly and clearly abiding in the PEG
pie. but that they have thus
strained to the utmost land, indeed
in my Judgment, violated) the con-
stitution in order to sustain do
nothing philosophy which has every
where completely broken down
when applied to the actual condi-
Etions of modern life. These good
judges, these upright and we'll
meaning men, who champion an. out
worn philosophy, do not realize that
the changed conditions mean
changed needs and that the ire
mendous social problem Of today
cannot be solved by methods ade-
quate to meet the infinitely simpler
problems offered by industrial and
social life a century ago.
"" =" " When L was President,
the man to whom 4 owed most for
guidance as to the proper attitude
that courts should take in matters
such as these was Mr.. William H.
Moody, afterwards justice of the
supreme court who during his la
mentally short term of service gave
promise of being one of the greatest
justices who ever sat on the court.
1t was he who called my attention
to the first essay in Professor
Thayer's book of Legal Essays on
The origin and Scope of the Amerl-
can Doctrine of Constitutional Law
Nowhere else is there a clearer
statement both of the advantage of
comforting upon the courts the
power that they possess under our
system and also of the further fact
that unless that power is wisely ex-
ercised it must inevitably be re-
strained. 1t is, I believe, an adj
vantage to have fixed in the court
the power to state that legislative
active is unconstitutional, but only
provided that the power is exercised
with the greatest wisdom and self
restraint II the courts continue to
use it with the recklessness that has
too often been shown in the past, 1t
is almost inevitable that efforts will
be made to amend or abolish it;
know, for instance, that, as far as l
am personally concerned, I earnest
ly hope to see in the next New York
state constitution convention pro-
visions incorporated in the consti-
tuition which will enable the people
to decide for themselves, by popular
ballot after due deliberation, finally
and without appeal, what the law OF
the land shall be in cases such as
those l have mentioned, where the
courts of the state have refused tc
allow the people to establish jus,
tice and equity.
80 =" Il am sure that ultimately
: our people must, and will, come tc
the view that the nation and the
states within their several spheres
: spheres which must cover every par
ticle of the ground where it is pos
, sible for government to act at al
have not only the right but thu
duty to decide as wisdom and ex
= perience shall dictate as to all thu
F, conditions which shall obtain il
r tenement houses, in factories, il
e mines, on railways, for preserving
~ . = =, : n