The Alaska socialist., 1913-12-20

branches Of govesnment, and iii effect to declare that our judicial system as it now exists has proved failure and that we are to substitute for it one in which the decision of questions of law is to be influenced largely, If not determined, by the vote Of majority Of the people
 In support of this proposed change it is said that we have some judges who are incompetent, others who are corrupt, others who have shown disposition to favor certain classes in the decision of cases, others w ho have misused their power ill one way and another, and that if judge of this kind happens to get on the bench the people should ot be obliged to wait until the expiration of his term to get rid of him. Is there any reason to believe that this system, even if put into effect, will result in getting who are either more competent or men more honest?
 do not propose to stop to consider whether there is any real foundation for the complaints which we hear against the judiciary I think it fair to say, how ever, that when we consider that there are more than 5000 judges iii this country to. day, there has never been ii any branch of public service in any nation, or at any period of the worlds history, body of men who have been actuated by higher motives, and who, taken as a whole, have endeavored more honestly and sincerely to do what they believed to be right. Here and there may be an exception, but judges after all, are only human. The lawyer undergoes no mys- terious transformation when he becomes judge, by which h c is given new brain with which to think or by which | he is invested with ideas of right and wrong different from those which Il he possessed when he was elected. Ii would be strange indeed if, in so large a body | of men. there would not be found here and there n exception to what I believe 10 De the general rule of honest and faithful public service.
 Let it be assumed, however, that there has been just ground for complaint, and that there is need for improving the public service OH the bench Will the proposed reform tend, even remotely, to accomplish this result? Will it tend to place more competent men on the bench? By that mean men who are deep stud ents Of law, who understand it's funda- mental principals, and who are actuated by no other motives than a detertnin- ation to apply those principles. Is it not the general rule that the man who is best qualified to make the good judge is the student and the thinker, rather than the plausible and persuasive speaker who has the power to attract the attention of the people and to impress them with depth of thought and learning which he does not in fact possess?
 It IS rnquestionably true that, taking human nature as it is, many of the most able and learned men in the profession would refuse absolutely to go on the bench under a system whereby they knew that they must be prepared to defend the decisions which they might make i'll a campaign which involved their right to continue to sit on the bench Tie real student of affairs knows from experience and from 3 reading of history, that in many cases nlen who have acted from the highest motives and who have done tie right thing, have been misjudged, and .that. 1t may require months, a'nd