Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-04-23
WALKER AGAINST
TAKING JUR|ES
FROM SHERIFF
Progressive Leader DenOunces
Proposed Change as UndemO-
cratic-Fay0rs Referendum.
PEOPLES WISH SHOULD
BE CONSULTED, HE SAYS
Platform Demanding Commits
sion System Was Voted for
by Minority, He Adds.
BY HERMAN B. WALKER

BY HERMAN B. WALKER
In public speeches and print, on a
number of occasions during the last
ten years, have opposed as un-
democratic and misdirected the pro-
position for taking from sheriffs the
power to draw jurles and the vest
ing Of that power in jury commits
sions.
hold no brief for any sheriff or
special interest of any kind. We have
had bad and good sheriffs and bad
and good juries. I do not even op-
pose the argument that we might
have better average juries drawn by
a commission than are drawn by the
average sheriff. Even If I believed
this would still be against jury COM
missions. Especially would 1 oppose
the creation of jury commissions
whose members were to be selected
by any judge.
"The remedy for the evils of de-
mocracy," said De Tocqueville "is
more democracy" and this applies TO
all governments and every depart
IHenl anu DIduCIl Ol II
is perfectly possible that the subjects
of monarchy, under kind and be-
nevolent monarch, may be better and
more justly governed than the citl-
zens of a democratic republic. But l
prefer the republic. In monarchy the
government is a thing apart from the
people. In democracy the government
must be the will of the people. If
there are mistakes in the government,
made by the people, they will remedy
their mistakes if they have the
chance, as soon as they learn what
the mistakes are. If the mistakes of
government, in a republic, are made
by the representatives of the people,
the remedy is more democracy-to
give the people better and more effec-
tive weapons with which to select
and control their representatives.
Certain Kind of Reformers.
There is a group of reformers who
pick chosen leaders and depend upon
their Judgment wholly for salvation.
The man of the hour is made the
hero and the white hope of the ma
ton. What he does must be right.
"My leader, and may he ever be
is the modern paraphrase of the one
time slogan of party loyalty, now
happily defunct. I do not agree with
this No matter how good and able
and honest and pure the dictator or
his motives, he may err in Judgment.
The Judgment of the whole people
is at all times better, more conser-
vative, and in the long run more
progressive and safer, than the hasty
Judgment of the individual. And
when a nation puts its trust wholly
and solely in an individual, then
democracy in is danger.
Democracy does not always mean
perfect government or ideal political
conditions. 1t does mean the kind of
government the people want if they
have their uncontrolled way in the
making and enforcement of laws. And
in a government like ours, there can
be no higher authority than the will
of the people. God speaks through
popular majorities. If we cease to
believe this. then we have abandoned
faith in self government. To one who
believes in democracy as opposed to
absolutism or dictatorship in any
form, the right of the people to have
bad government, if they choose is
as sacred as their right to have good
government if they choose. And only
through making and rectifying their
own mistakes can the people of a
democracy learn to make their gov
ernment good. While they trust 20
individuals to give them good gov
ernment, their powers and ideas of
citizenship and its duties and respon-
sibilities are very like to become
atrophied.
No Virtue, Necessarily, in a System.
There is no virtue, necessarily, in
a system or custom, because it is
established, and merely because
sheriffs have had the power to draw
juries does not mean 1t is a good
system. Contrariwise, it is a very
great mistake to abandon an old sys-
tenn unless a better one is offered.
Our courts are as much a part of
government as common councils and
governors and legislatures Laws are
not necessarily wise because they are
on the statute books, and there are
many foolish laws made, which can
not and should not be enforced. This
is especially true of sumptuary laws
made by State legislature for the
control of morals in community.
Everybody who has a grain of politi-
cal sense knows that Sunday closing
and prohibition laws, for instance,
cannot be enforced more than sporad-
ically in a community where the ma
jority of the people want the saloons
open. 1 do not believe they should
be enforced in such cases There
should be no such laws made by
foreign legislative body. The will of
the majority in the community con-
cerning them is a higher law than the
will of the foreign legislating body.
The sheriff is the one officer can
nected with our courts in New Jersey
CONTINUED on Page o, Column ~