The Alaska socialist., 1913-12-05

judges are elected by the people for de- i fnate terms. Those candidates for the ! position who are put forward by political parties are nominated at primary elect ions at which under the safeguards of law, the members of the different pol itica1 parties select their candidates. It is now proposed that the judges So nom mated and elected shaLl not have a clear title to their offices for the term for which they are elected but that at any time during their term they may be busted from office if petition signed by certain percentage of the voters is filed and majority of the voters at an elect ion declare i'll favor of the recall of the judge.
 i Of course, thereis no practical way of providing that petition for the recall Of judge may be filed under one set of circumstances and not filed under ano- ther The only kind of provision which would be at all practicable would be one which would require submitting the question of the recall of a judge to a vote upon the filing of a petition signed by q | certain percentage of tJle voters. In sign-
 irg such petition voters might be actu ated by many different motives. They might be displeased with the decision of the judge in a particular case They might regard il $ attitude and course of conduct Il he bench as undu1y favor able to one. class of the community. Or, after a judge Is elected, political con- ditions may change, the pendulum ! swinging back so that the party which was iii tile minority at the tine of his 1 election suddenly found itself i'll the majority and ill control of the state or ! city administration or som z other ill strulhentality which is helpful ill carry { ing elections. The members of the party which has found itself in the position of political power might naturally reach the conclusion that the judges of tile opposite party who remained on the bench were not fit, from their standpoint, to serve out their terms Of office Again, as ire quent1y happens ill great industrial coni- munities like Chicago, there might be q time of industrial disturbance during which questions relating to the rights of employers and employees came to the courts for decision, The judge who, un- der his oath of office, is bound to deter mine those rights not ii accordance with the wishes Of a committee of either em- ployers or labor unions, but in accord ance with the constitution of the nation and the state and the decisions of the supreme courts, must inevitably give offense to one of the parties to tue con troversy. ! The qggrievd parties, natnr- ally looking at the matter from th e standpoint of personal interest and sway ed by the feeling incident to bitter con- ficts of this kind would naturally reach the conclusion that the people should have chance to say something upon the question of law involved, and would file q petition to have the question of the judges right to continue on the bench passed upon by popular vote Ii is inn possible to foresee all the conditions un- der which this power, if 1t existed, could be invoked. But 1t requires only a super fcial familiarity with the conditions of a . great political and industrial center like Chicago to appreciate that this provision, if made. a part of our organic law, will be one which will be frequently, if not almost continuously invoked.
 To understand the full consequence of this proposed reform, it will be helpful to turn cur thoughts to the process of