The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-01-05
JUDGES AND PROGRESS"
ROOSEVELT TEXT
People As Whole Have the Right to
Decide For Themselves on Condi-
tions in Factories, Tene-
ment Houses, TIC.


an editorial appearing in the current
issue Of The Outlook He says in part:
Let me. at the outset, put so clear
Nv that only wiful misinterpretation
can deceive people, just what my posi-
ton as to the courts is. | have the very
highest regard, the highest respect and
admiration, for the judiciary. As a
whole, ] think that our judicial officers
stand on higher level than any other
body of public servants, or, for the mat
ter of that, of private citizens. | could
name offhand at this moment, num-
! Der of judges now on the bench who
render to the people more substantial
| service of more arreaching value than
is rendered by any other men in public
or private life-and all of these judges
substantially agree with the position
| herein taken, which, indeed, is largely
derived from them. | believe the courts
| have rendered our people incalculable
| services / hold that the attitude OF
! our people towards them should be one
of appreciation and respect; but not OF
| seryility.
50 / most emphatically be-
lieee that we have been wise in giving
great power to our judges, including this
| power of judicial Interpretation OF stat
utes 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 a power with
which the people have merely temper
arily parted, and not one which they
4 /. al Head
| tiousv and moderately and only in the
clearest cases, as it has been used by
our greatest judges from the days Of
Marshall to the present time. as it Is
| defended by writer's such as Mr.. Thay-
er. ii is frAught with the utmost good
to the body polite Used recklessly,
wantonly, and foolishly, where the case
| Is so doubtful that the judges them
selves may be divided nearly equally
on the two sides lin the hakeshop de-
leision, first and last, twelve judges held
| the law constitutional and only ten in
Guiding, however, unfortunately, five OF
the nine supreme court judges, held il
| UNCONSTITUTIONAL as it has again and
again and again in recent years, 1T re-
suits in very great evil.
80 | 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 upright
ness of the Judge of the independence
of the judiciary / am speaking of the
peculiar function OF the American judge,
! the function Of no other Judge in the
4 N & u H. .rtaa hath
err 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 Que individual and the
| state: ! am speaking of the judge when,
By virtue of his position, he declares
! that the people as a whole have, or have
not the right to carry out given pol
| lev. a power which may give one man
! or three men or FIVE men the right to
nullfy the wishes of the enormous ma
| iority OF their ninety million fellow
citizens. power which has been exer-
cised repeatedly, sometimes wisely, some
times very unwsely, Bear in mind that
| | am not at this time even referring
| to decisions dealing with the question
of the respective spheres of action OF ma
! tional and state; | have in mind de-
cisions which declare the people them
selves have no power to act, through
either the national or the state gov
! ernments.
During the last twenty-five years the
/ courts here in New York, helped, | am
sorry to say. once or twice by the SUI
! preme court Of the nation have thrown
/ what at times have proved well-nigli
! or altogether insurmountable obstacles
4 in the path of needed social reforms. |
have already alluded to the decision Of
I the New York court which forbade the
people Of New York through their leg
| islature to interfere with certain kinds
Of tenement house factories Almost
/ without exception every intelligent So
/ cial worker whom ! have ever met, every
| man really interested in the betterment
| OF social and industrial conditions among
our working people, in giving better
homes to the working people in great
cities. and in giving better conditions
iof labor to them when they are at la
/ bor-almost without exception everyone
/ qualified to Judge on these matters has
! agreed that this decision was blow
4 to decent citizenship blow to the effort
I to achieve genuine reform, genuine bet
terment of social conditions, of so Sc
4 we're a nature that its mischievous ef-
4 fectss can hardly be overestimated |
have no doubt that the men making
I the decision were upright men Of high
/ character; but they did as much dam
age as the worst legislative body, ac-
\ t,ated by the worst motives could pos
! sibly have done.
- hold, not only that the
courts in these matters have usulped,
/ or at least exercised in wholly wrong
| fashion, power properly and clearly
abiding in the people, but that they
| have thus strained to the utmost land,
irdeed. in my Judgment. violated the
4 constitution in order to sustain do
nothing philosophy which has every
where completely broken down when APP
I piled to the actual conditions of mod
ern life. These good judges, these up
right and well-meaning men, who cham
pion an outworn philosophy. do not realize
! that the changed conditions mean
changed needs and that the tremendous
social problem of to-day cannot be
solved by methods adequate to meet
the infinitely simpler problems offered
4 by Industrial and social life century
ago.
/ "A When ! was pres'-
dent, the man to whom | owed most for
/ guidance as to the proper attitude that
z IL aA