The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-17
Attorney General Bitterly AS- sails Progressive Policies
 As f'InSenSate"
HITS PARTICULARLY THOSE
 FOR JUDICIAL REFORM
Recommends Bigger Salaries And Longer Terms To kt-
 tract Better Judges
esoecial from United Press.)

St. Louis, Mo-, Feb. 17.-Progressive policies es@particularly for judicial re- form-were bitterly assailed as in sensate'' in a speech bearing the pres identiaI O. K. and delivered here be- fore the City Club, this afternoon, by Attorney General Wickersham in the direct interest of Taft's renomfnation campaign.
 The attorney general did not mince words in referring to the peoPie ed he was in favor of direct nomlna- tion of candidates. He sarcastically referred to the initiative and reteren- dunn as "'postaL-card law making" and declared popular legislation and dl- rect primaries destroyed the dignity of office
 talked of late" he declared, "concerD- ing the usurpation of power by the federal judiciary in pronounc1ng laws be unconstitutional. The very nature of a written constitution implies that the peoples representatives can exact only the powers conferred upon them and the judiciary must. of necessary adjudge to be void any act of Con xress not authorized by the constitu- ton. This does not suppose super iority of the judiciary to the legisia- tive power. It only supposes that the power of the people is superior to both. and that where the will Of the
 
 stands in opposition to the will of the people, declared in the constitution, the judges ought to be governed by
 1sEven more insensate is the clam or against the courts for interpreting statutes in the light of their under standing. The English language IS not an exact medium for commun1- eating thought. We have not reQu3r- ed of our legislation the scientific pre- cfsion of formulation which business men require in important contracts. When the rights of litigants depend on the provisions of the statutes 1t IS them in the light of reason It seems incredible that any men of age intelligence should be found to take any other view of Judicial duty
 fTUnIess we continue to have judges whose tenure of office does not hang upon any mOmentary popularity with the crowds and who are not to De by any amount of clamor, these ques- tions may not be decided in accord ance with the constitution I am strangely indifferent to righteous public sentiment and allow themselves to be influenced by class pretudices or personal considerable. Where judges become so blinded by class prejudice or personal consideration that they cannot fairly administer the law, they should be impeached.
 '1 am in entire sympathy with the reasons which have led to the enact znent of laws providing for the nomi- nation of candidates by direct cleo tion But systems whereby laws are made by postal card and popular petition tend to so destroy the dignity Of office as to make it unattractive even to those who might otherwise subject themselves to the scramble of the primary in order to reach a field of public usefulness
 As remedies for present judicial conditions, Wickersham recomm ended better salaries and longer terms 70 attract better judges to the bench and a simpler method of impeachment For "intolera ble court delays, in themselves deniaIs of justice" the bar, legislatures which enact laws of procedure and the people for not se- 1ecting better men as judges, are to blame, he said.