The Winslow mail., 1923-07-06
COY. HUNT SPEAKS TO
LARGE CROWD AT DOUG
LAS fourth OF JULY
Continued from page a

(COuLluuGu llOuI page z
several Of the original states chal-
Ienged the right of the courts to de
clare acts Of their Legislatures void
Chief Justice Marshall took the posi-
ton that the Supreme Court had the
right to declare acts of Congress as
unconstitutional and he applies this
philosophy in the case of Marbury
versus Madison, holding that if Con-
gress enacted a law beyond its au-
thority, it was void and that it was
not only within the provinces of the
Supreme Court to declare such laws
void, but it's duty to do so.
GAS a result of this philosophy
there has grown up a condition in
this country whereby the Supreme
Court has declared void acts of Con-
gress which have been approved by
the President and acts of legislature
which have been approved by the
Governors Of the States, and even
laws enacted by a vote Of the people
in States where the Initiative and
Referendum prevails In the great
majority of cases where laws have
been declared void the decisions
were made by a divided court, in
many cases by five to four or four
to three decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States, and in
the State courts by a vote of two to
one.
In other words, we have develop
ed condition of affairs in this gov
ernment whereby great and momen-
tous questions, which have been the
subject of political controversy and
ich hox
been waged and upon which the peO-
pie have given their mandate, have
been declared to be unconstitutional
by the odd vote of one man, and Of
time, for reasons which lawyers
have been unable to understand to
say nothing of the inability of lay
man to do so.
at, has been said that, "The let
ter killeth, but the spirit giveth life"
In many of these cases it has been
the letter" rather than the spirit
which has been the guiding force Of
the majority of the court The phi
losophy of the first Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court was that the Con-
stitution was made to establish a
government of laws, not a govern
ment of men. This was not the phi
Iosophy of Lincoln. You will recall
his great Gettysburg speech in which
he declared for a government "Of
the people,, by the people and for
the people, mot government of
laws. The philosophy of Lincoln
was the philosophy of Jefferson and
it is always the philosophy of men
who have confidence in the people.
It is only aristocrats who place the
letter" of the law above the spirit
of the people, because no law, no
matter how moral it may be, or how
equitable and fair it is, will be OBJ
served or enforced unless there is
moral power underneath it which
makes it possible to obey.
81 am one of those who have faith
in the people. L am one of those
who believe in the rights of the peo-
pie to enact laws to meet changing
economic conditions and the needs
of the twentieth century with it's
telephone, telegraph, radio, transcon-
tinental trains and palatial ocean
liners We have far different con-
ditions today than we had when the
Constitution of the United States
was adopted A United States SEN
ator recently called me on the tele
phone from his office in Washington
D. G. on matter of great public i'm
port At the time the Constitution
was drafted, it would have been
months for a communication to have
been passed between the United Sta
tes Senator in Washington and my
self in Arizona, and the communica-
ton would either have had to have
been conveyed verbally through a
messenger or would have had to
have been written out in long hand.
"Under modern conditions, there
fore, we cannot permit precedents