Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-07-01

commission form of government
The tendency is to extend rather than
TO curtall The movement and to carry
the principal into local government as
we'll as 10 The state at large. / SER
louSly doubt Ii our circuit and su-
preme courts In the course of year
deal with matters which involve as
much In The aggregate as do the de-
clSlonS or the railroad commission
alone. We have in addition the tax
commission, the industrial commits
sion, the state board of control and
dozens OF other bodies. The legisla-
tive reference bureau should not be
forgotten. 1t has exercised a power
full influence in shaping our legisla-
tion in recent years. 1t is well nigh
impossible 10 carry any measure
through the legislature against the
active opposition of strong commission
1t is practically as difficult to defeat
any measure advocated by such a
body.
1.-The masses have no voice in the
selection of these officers. They are
all appointed for long terms. 1t may
seem incongruOus that those who
assert that the people have the ability
and intelligence to govern themselves,
as In pure democracy, and to initi-
ate laws and to pass on legislative
acts by referendum vote and TO recall
officers however chosen, should in
practice deny them the privilege of
selecting their own most important
agents"
He favored the commission idea and
its extension, trying the experiment
in our small political units. He said:
Excluding the cities of Madison and
Stoughton we have $50 school officers
and 500 town and village officers, be-
sides the usual complement OF county
officers in Dane county. 1t is not
improbable that single ordinary
sized commission could do the work
better than it is being done. Our
city governments are as near to the
people as any we have. Yet, unless
the popular conception is wrong, there
is more corruption and imbecility in
the administration of our city affairs
than anywhere elSe."
In the afternoon, Andrew Alexan-
der Bruce, justice of the supreme
court of North Dakota, addressed the
meeting of the subject of his address
being "The Call of Today"
"Cicero, in his commentaries, stated
that true law is right reason con-
fOrmable to nature, universal, un-
changeable, eternal whose commands
urge US to duty and whose prohibit
tions restrain us from evil" he said
whether it enjoins or prohibits,
the good respect its injunctiors and
the wicked treat them with indiffer-
ence. This law cannot be contra
dicted by any other law, and is not
liable to derOgation or abrogation.
Neither the senate nor the people
can give us any dispeISa tion for not
obeying this universal law of Justice
1t needs nc other exposition and in
terpreter than our own conscience.
sit is not one thing in Rome and
another at Athens-one thing today
and another tomorrow, but lin all
times and nations this universal law
must forever reign eternal and inn
perishable. 1t is the sovereign mas
ter and moderator of all beings. All
men is its author, its promulgator,
its enforceS, and he who does not
obey It's flies from himself and does
violence to the very nature of men,
severeSt penalties, even if he avoid
the other evils which are usually ac-
counted punishment.
Theoretically Cicero was right.
He spoke, however, of the ideal law,
and not of any system th36 man has
yet promul gated He spoke of the
law of conscience, rather than of the
law which was, or could be, enforced
by the edictS of man. We never have
had, and perhaps never will have this
true law. / am bold enough to say
that we will hardly have it even if
the time comes that there shall be
pure democracy, for there is tyran-
ny and an ignorance and selfshness
on the part of the multitude as well
as on the part of the few.
Universal justice means univer-
sal conscience, a conscience, a univer-
sal christianity in the highest sense
of the term, and this is perhaps far
off. The hinderance is to be found
in the greed of the average man. 1t
is also impossible to disseminate the
truth. How can our legislatures
who meet together for but few
weeks and come to our legislative
halls absolutely ignorant of the great
struggle of the race and of the
great body of the law which
they are seeking to change,
remedy and reform, acquire know
ledge sufficient for the purpose? They
must necessarily at times, even
though with the purest motives, leg
islate for classes and overthrow rules
which are founded upon centuries of
experience and centuries of heroic
martyrdoml
at costs today $4,000 to send a
single letter to every voter in Wis
consin. If woman's suffrage comes
among us it will cost $4,000. How
can we disseminate knowledge of
the facts and of history, economic
and sociology which will make our
law universally beneficent and uni
versally just, even though the people
vote upon that law themselves?
so, too; it is we'll for us to remem-
Der that we are all miserable sinners
and that we are all tainted with the
stain of seltiShness. Not only indi-
vidualS, but localities have been jeal-
Gus of one another since the world be-
gan. Tie democracies of the middle
ages were sordidly selfish when it
came TO the rights of other democ-
FacieS and of other towns.
Il am often ashamed of the history
of our courts and of the history of
the lawyer. | am, however, equally
ashamed of the history of the legiSla
tor and of democracy. To be candid
with you, l am not proud of my an
| cestors. Our past has been TOO much
| a past of selashneSs and of barbarism.
lit is only recently that We have be
gun to catch even glimpse of the
real meaning of Christianity, and TO
understand in any measure the social
and economic message of the Great
Teacher of Men,
Justice Bruce made an eloquent de-
| Tense of the courts and the lawyers,
although he said he he did not hold a