The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-06-23

North Woods" pleased us too. It
was also an old friend in disguise,
THE Right of Way" The charact-
ers were we'll taken, especially that
! of the north woods pastor. Labelle
had the big part and got away with
| it nicely.
The absence of stage settings sug-
gested many things. One of them
is that the American stage has ac-
quired in the years of striving for
realism a certain artificial perfec-
tion. The scenery may be in every
way just as in actual life and even
the cat has been used to emphasize
the air of a home. But we know
always it is only a stage setting.
These contraptions can not make us
forget that. Sometimes they force
us to bear in mind that it is only a
play, because of their identical detail.
We think: How natural that stage
is-how good an imitation" The
only thing that can take our minds
for ride into dreamland is the play
itself. If that is good enough to
carry the audience away it doesn't
need stage settings at all. If it is
llot SOou OhouolA, pIo5S oCCClh6o WA4A
never save it. The artists of stage
setting today are turning more to
suggestion they arrange the walls
and scene-canvases rather to remind
the audience of certain thoughts,
than to seem real.
Judge Wanamaker
Here is a man who is eminent
enough in his profession of law,
Judge of the supreme court Of Ohio,
whose articles on humanizing the
government are sought by magazines,
and yet he will spend his summers
on long hard lecture tours instead
of camping, fishing, sightseeing or
resting. 1t is because he feels the
call of a message to the people and
he knows that he can deliver it to
them in terms they understand. We
do not think, to hear him and talk
with him, that he follows this ardu-
Gus form of vacation for the fame
and money to be gained, for he does
not need these things. He has at
tanned high place.
The points that stand out in his
lecture, which he insisted was just
a little talk, are these: The public
does not pay enough attention to
judicial bench warmers the best law
is sketched in the golden rule, and
not in fee-fo-fum law procedure; and
voting the ticket straight is no way
to get good men in public offices,
for the bad will creep in among the
good.
He said we care a great deal who
represents us in the legislature, in
the law making bodies, but give
small thought to those who sit on
high, the judges, and construe the
law when it Is made, or decide that
it is no law at all. The judges on
our supreme bench are a court of
last resort and surely they should
be big men of character and feeling.
Law should not be couched in legal
cipher and carried out by code or
letter; but it ought rather to depend
upon simple, fair reasoning as to the
right or the wrong Of question.
1t seems that every man who un-
derstanus democracy and sympa-
thizes with the people comes natural
ly by an admiration for the greatest
American, Abraham Lincoln. Judge
Wanafnaker believes in keeping up
the traditions of the man who split
rails and studied law, became presi-
dent and did not split hairs. Abra-
ham Lincoln's unmatchable strength
lay in his almost divine unselfish-
ness, as the speaker pointed out. And
we need that kind of men in public
offices and on supreme benches. This
is the gospel the able Ohio judge is
bringing into the camps of the peo-