The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1912-02-29
ef the people instead Of by indirect
tote through an untrammeled electoral
tollege, so actual experience has con-

IL =. t4-4Stt FCte c. tie PEE re IUSteaU
of i--:.e tly throreh the various lesis-
lat,
,slere T., s-a :..t.ctir2 tie re-
cre -5t 10
Cas IT. but
Il exec La-5 MS
representative. 1-s.e sGa.a Z an con-
cernod not with theories but With ac-
tual facts. Il in an sta.e t'.a pcopla
are tneEee.,e5 s@..s~ed U..th their
present .rc.lre>ent2t,Te system then it
is, of course. their ri~,lt to l.eaD that
system unchanged. and it is nobody's
business but theirs. But in actual
practice It has been found il very
many states that legislative bodies
have not been responsive to the popular
will; therefore I\beleve that the state
should provide for tie possibility OF di-
rect popular action in order to make
good such legislative failure.
Recall OF Judges.
IS to the recall, I 60 not balieve that
there IS any great necessity for It as
regard short tenn c,ective offers. On
abstract grounds I was ORIGINALLY n
. cli1eL ID q, hostile ID t. I know OF
one case where l. was actually used
with r,fsch.avous uesu, s.. On ne o. b
G. hand. Il three cases in municip2li-
ties on The Pacific coast which have
come to my knowledge it was used
with excellent results. l believe it
should be generally provided, but with
81
able only when there is a widespread
and genuine public feeling among
majority Of the voters.
There remains the question Of the re-
call Of judges. One Of the ablest jul
rists in the United States, 4 veteran in
service to the people, recently wrote
me as follows on this subject:
"There are two causes Of the agita
ton for the recall as applied 10
JUDGES. First, the administration Of
justice has withdrawn from life and
become artificial and technical. The
recall is not so much recall Of judges
from Office as it is 4 recall OF the id
ministration of justice back to life, 50
that it shall become, as it ought to be,
the most efficient Of al agencies for
making this earth better place to live
in. Judges have set their rules above
life. Like the pharisees Of old, they
have said, The people be accursed;
they know not the law chat is, our
'ruleO. Courts have repeatedly defeat
! ed the aroused moral sentiment Of a
whole commonwealth. Take the eX-
ample of the st. Louis boodlers. Their
guilt was plain and in the main con-
fessed. The whole state was aroused
and outraged. By an instinct that goes
to the very foundation Of all social
order they demanded that the guilty be
| punished. The boodlers were convict
ed, but the supreme court of Missouri,
never questioning their guilt, set their
conviction aside upon purely technical
grounds. The same thing occurred in
California. Nero, fiddling over burning
Rome, was patriot and statesman
in comparison with judges who thus
trifle with and Illustrate the aroused
moral sentiment of great people, for
that sentiment is politically the vital
breath of both state and nation. It Is
to recall the administration Of justice
back from such practices that the re-
cent agitation has arisen.
Second, by the abuse of the power
to declare laws unconstitutional the
courts have become a lawmaking in
stead Of law enforcing agency. Here
again the settled will of society to cor
rect confessed evils has been set at
naught by those who place metaphys-
les above life. It IS the courts. not the
constitutions, that are at fault. It is
only by the process which James Rus
sell Lowell when answering the critics
Of Lincoln called 'pettifogging the con-
stitution' that constitutions which were
designed to protect society can thus be
made to defeat the common good Here
again the recall II a recall of the ad-
ministration Of justice back from AGA
demical rednements to social service"
An Independent and upright judiciary
which fearlessly stands for the right,
even against popular clamor, but which
also understands and sympathizes with
popular needs. IL great asset Of popu-
10I &OVSIumS0S. xuSIS ID AO HuUAAC
servant and no private man whom I
place above a judge Of the best type
and very few whom rank beside him.
I believe in the cumulative value Of the
law and in its value as an impersonal,
disinterested basis Of control. I be-
heve In the necessity for the courts
Interpretation Of the law as law with
out the power to change the law or to
substitute some other thing than law
for 1t. But agree with every great
jurist from Marshall downward, when
say that every Judge Is bound to con-
slider two separate elements in his de-
cision Of a case, one the terms Of the
law and the ether the conditions Of ac
tual life to which the law is to be ap-
piled. Only by taking both Of these
elements into account is it possible to
apply the law as its spirit and intent
demand that it be applied. Both law
and life are to be considered in order
that the law and the constitution shall
become, in John Marshall's words, "a
living instrument and not a dead let
ter"
Justice between man and man, be-
tween the state and it's citizens, is q
IivinU thing whnraac 1aOolicfio i11efioo