Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1913-01-08


Judicial Abuse Of Power.
The history of men and nations
shows that abuses which strike at
human liberties eventually destroy
themselves. From inconspicuous
beginnings, they expand with cumu-
lative rapidity to a supreme orgie
that seems to mark their greatest
triumph; yet in the moment of
their browning saturnalia the sun
Of freedom is dawning. The out
ragged sense of public justice spurs
to prompt and drastic action a peo-
pie who have too long endured; the
rising tide of public indignation
sweeps all bounds and the people
regain. with one blow, the vantage
ground they have lost through the
decades or even the centuries
Events in Idaho since Thursday
indicate that the arbitrary and law
less action Of Its supreme court is
a blessing In disguise. The people
of that commonwealth have been
aroused to the magnitude of the
power which has been usurped by
their servants in the judicial branch
of the government. They compre-
bend its dangers and the further
tyranny that may follow unless
sternly checked. The result is a
public demand for legislation linn
iting the power of the courts to
punish for contempt. and for such
unequivocal rebuke to judicial law
lessness as will forever stand as a
solemn warning against another en-
croachment.
The authority of the courts to
punish for contempt is not right
but an abused privilege; It is not in
herent but Is partly conferred and
partly usurped without constitu-
tional or statutory warrant. Every
citizen recognizes that the courts
must be able to inflict penalty for
direct contempt, for contempt that
consists in violation of a judicial
order. disturbance that initiates
against the dignity of the court, or
interference with the .administra-
ton of justice.
Such authority is vital and es-
sential and every good citizen up
holds it; but the abuse of 1t, the ex-
tension of this power to construc-
tive contempt. has grown so flag
rant that a Judicial oligarehy has
been gradually constructed. 1t
reached its apotheosis in Idaho on
Thursday and the wave of anger
that has swept over that state in
dieates that the people are to be de-
livered from THEN thralldom.
lD,,Lx
teach the peoples representatives
on the bench that they are actually
servants. not masters. The abrupt
recognition of the fact that an
extra legal system, that holds power
over the life and property Of the
citizens and need give no reason for
its actions, has arisen and is
strongly buttressed, has come like
blow in the face A people ae-
customed 10 oppression would sue
cumb with muttered regret at their
own futility; Americans, however.
unused to f-abnegation, will not
kiss the rod. They mean to break
into their own house and occupy it.
BY its archaic despotism. the Idaho
court has attracted to itself the
attention of the entire nation The
close connection of MIR. Roosevelt
with the case has given the cir
cumstanees a news value il might
not otherwise have achieved, and
the leading newspapers of the coun-
try are discussing 1t. Columns of
press matter have been carried by
the wires to the four quarters of the
nation; adverse comment is the or
der of the day and those who read
the indignant outburst of the Roose-
Welt state chairman in Idaho may
rightfully consider these as the
opinion of most men. not only OF his
party but of every shade of politi-
cal belief. No happening of re-
cent years. and no structure of logic.
has given the judicial recall fallaey
such an impetus as this autocratic
exercise of tyrannical power by
reactionary court that encourages
contempt by its very method of
seeking to punish 1t.
Mr.. Roosevelt should welcome
the martyrdom that has been forced
upon his Idaho friends. Sensible.
thinking citizens who were dis
gusted by his radical criticism of
the judiciary, by his advocacy of
the recall of judges and of judicial
decisions, will unwillingly reflect
that his position is not wholly with
out justification. AS the most alb
horrent and repulsive of the doc
trines he advanced, the control of
the courts by popular vote. fright
ened from his banner those who
might have endured without visible
evidence of pain his amusing full
limitations regarding industrial de-