The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-09-13

SOLuo JUICES nave uOt ucocINCu 10 Do
recalled. That isn't the point. The
point Is that the recall of judges ID
treating the symptoms instead of the
disease. The disease lies deeper, and
sometimes II Is very virulent and very
dangerous. There have been courts
In the United States which were con-
trolled by private interests. There
have been supreme courts in our
states before which plain men could
not get justice. There have been cor
rupt judges there have been con-
trolled judges; there have been judges
who acted as other mems servants and
not as the servants of the public. All
there are some shameful chapters in
the story The judicial process is the
ultimate safeguard of the things that
we must hold staple in this country.
But suppose that that safeguard is
corrupted; suppose that it does not
guard my interests and yours, but
small group of individuals; and, when
ever your interest clashes with theirs,
yours will have to give way, though
you represent ninety per cent of the
citizens, and they only ten per cent.
Then where is your safeguard?
The just thought of the people
must control the judiciary, as it con.
trolls every other instrument of gov
eminent. But there are ways and
ways of controlling it. If-mark you,
say fiat one time the Southern
Pacific Railroad owned the Supreme
Court of the State of California, would
you remedy that situation by recalling
the judges of the court? What good
would that do. SO long as the Southern
Pacific Railroad could substitute 9TH
ers for them? You would not be cut
ting deep enough. Where you want
to go is to the process by which those
judges were selected. And when you
get there you will reach the moral OF
the whole of this discussion, because
the moral of it all is that the people
of the United States have suspected,
until their suspicious have been justi-
fled by all sorts of substantial and
unanswerable evidence, that, in place
after place, at turning points in the
history of this country, we have been
controlled by private understandings
and not by the public interest; and
that influences which were improper,
if not corrupt, have determined every
thing from the making of laws to the
administration of justice. The disease
lies in the region where these men
get their nominations; and if you can
recover for the people the selecting of
judges, you will not have to trouble
about the recall. Selection is of more
radical consequence than election.
Their Private Game Being Spoiled.
am aware that those who advocate
these measures which we have been
discussing are denounced as danger.
Gus radicals. | am particularly inter.
ested to observe that men who cry
out most loudly against what they call
radicalism are the men who find that
their private game in politics is being
spoiled. Who are the arch-conserva-
tives nowadays? Who are the men
who utter the most fervid praise of
the Constitution Of the United States
and the Constitution of the states?
They are the gentlemen who used to
get behind those documents to play
hide-and-seek with the people whom
they pretended to serve. They are
the men who entrenched themselves
in the laws which they misinterpreted
and misused. If now they are afraid
that "radicalism" will sweep them
away-and believe it will-they have
only themselves to thank.
In the year 1910 there came a day |
heart to believe that something could |
be accomplished. | had no merit as a
candidate for governor, except that
said what | really thought, and the
that the people paid me
vas in believing that / meant what |
'aid. Unless they had believed in the
Governor whom they had elected, I'm.
ess they had trusted him deeply and
he could have done abso-
ltely nothing. The force of tn public
hen of nation lies in the faith and
ne backing of the people of the coun. [
y, rather than in any gifts of their '
wn. In proportion as you trust them, {
proportion as you back them up, in t
'oportion as you lend them your
rength, are they strong The things e
at have happened in New Jersey d
ace 1910 have happened because the a