The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1912-02-29
lf the people instead Of by indirect
tote through an untrammeled electoral

" Tue people 1uStedU Oh ny luUlT0CC
tote through an untrammeled electoral
tollege, so actual experience has con-
vinoed rs that senator's should be elect
CT = direct vote CT TIE people instead
OF lire II through the various leGis-
latvgC
Il--ve in t-e ;-:t..e ir2 the re-
das-cr o2vo It. bCt
10 o--cC 1t L. lc5 Iei5-
reprasent ,ive. I-a.a 2ra,n an cen
cerHcd rot with theories. byt With ac-
tual facts. Il in am state lie people
are tlenTe.ve5 SIZED U-.,h their
present representative system then it
is, Of course. their ri~ht to teen 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\believe that the state
should provide for the possibility Of di-
rect popular action in order to make
good such legislative failure
Recall OF Judges.
IS to the recall, 90 not believe that
there IS any great necessity Tor it as
regerGa short term elective officers. On
abstract grounds was ORIGINALLY n
clinel 70 la hostile ID It. I know OF
one case where Il WAS actually used
with r2ischlavous results. On The c. b.
CT hand. II three eases in municipaIt-
ties On The Pacific coast which have
come to my knowledge it was used
with excellent results. | believe it
should be generally provided. but with
such restrictions as will make it avail
able only when there is a widespread
and genuine public feeling among a
majority of the voters.
There remains the question Of the re-
call Of judges. One of the ablest jul
rists in the United States, 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 to
judges. First, the administration Of
Justice has withdrawn from life and
become artificial and technical. The
recall is not so much Il recall Of judges
from Office as it is 4 recall OF the adj
ministration of justice back to life, 50
that it shall become, as it ought to be,
the most efficient Of all 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
trife with and Illustrate the aroused
moral sentiment of great people, for
that sentiment is politically the vital
breath Of both state and nation. 1t 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-
sEitution' 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 aca-
demical reanements 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. II great asset Of popu-
lar government. There Is no public
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. be-
neve 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 I agree with every great
jurist, from Marshall downward, when
I say that every Judge Is bound to con-
slider two separate elements In his de-
cision Of case, one the terms Of the
law and the ether the conditions Of &C
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 Marshalrs words, "a