Pocahontas star herald., 1912-05-17

a contest with wealth or influence.
cit is" said the senator, "my dell6'
crate and uncompromising opinion
without a free, untrammeled, inde-
pendent judiciary popular govern
ment would be a taunting delusion."
Ladies and gentlemen, a popular
government is not a governmentot
the majority, by the majority, and
for the majority, rather it is a gov
ernment of all the people, by the
majority under such rules, checks,
and regulations that will secure a
lust and benefclent government for
all the people.
Honorable Judges, consider the
recall as applied to the Arizona pro-
vision, the state that has recently
adopted it. A judge may little
more than take bis oath of office un-
til one fourth of the voters OF the
last election have right TO petition
for his recall. He is permitted to
choose between two alternatives, he
may either resign within five days
or make his defense in two hundred
words and have the people pass up
on his record. What kind of
Judges would exist under such a
system? A system that judges
would have to fear after each
decision, that they effected some
powerful interest, some great corpo-
ration, employing thousands of
stockholders, or some labor union,
on which their recall may be de-
pending. Ladies and gentlemen,
what justice would exist under such
a system? Instead OF gong to the
sources of the law before deciding a
case the judges would simply antic-
ipate the drift Of the majority and
render their decisions accordingly.
Under this plan judge is not only
subject to the momentaryc will Of
the majority but to a contest which
is not based upon his record alone
but on questions whether or not
some other and more popular can
didate has been found to unseat him.
So the independence of our judici-
ary will be destroyed, their sense of
dignity which is the first import
ance to the stability of the state.
Honorable judges, before the re-
call can be established as consider
ed in the debate, the state and fed
eral judges both must be elected by
popular vote; and not only that
but justice must correspond to pop.
ular impulse and popular iudgmenC.
The majority of the common
voters may dec ide whether a man is
qualified to make a good represen.
tative of a district or whether he
he's a good reputation, but they
cannot perform very intelligent
opinion as to the exact knowledge
of the law he possesses beyond his
fellow men for the bench.
The executive and legislative
branches of governments should to
some extent follow the views of the
party or majority which elected
them. They go before the people
and place their views as to how
they stand upon certain questions.
They are the popular representa-
tives chosen to carry out the will
of the majority. The judicial
branch of government does not and
should not represent a majority,
even if the mode of electing Judges
is by popular election. They
should recognize no followers of
party or majority. They are not
the popular representatives of the
people. Therefore, to fill their
office properly, they must be
wholly independent of each. The
need of independence Is greatest
where the individual Is one litigant
and the state guided by the success
full majority or party is the other.
Therefore in order TO maintain the
rights of the minority and to pre-
serve our constitutional balance, we
must have judges with courage to