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ing the subject-matter involved, or is it an assumption on the part of the committee? Surely it will not be claimed that the committee, however learned its members may be, as a body, is infallible, although they seem to have assigned to them, or have arrogated to themselves, authority hardly less than pontifical. Second: The proposition is scarcely correctly stated, for the reason that the "leaders of thought and publicists" who advocate and have brought about statutes providing for the recall of judges, equally with other public officers, do not assert that the object and purpose in instituting and enforcing the recall of judges is "to control the judiciary so as to prevent the courts" from "declaring statutes in contravention of fundamental law to be unconstitutional,' '26—and any one who

Rhode Island in censuring and refusing to re-elect the judges who refused to enforce a paper money legal tender law in Trevett v. Weeden, 1 Thayer's Cases on Constitutional Law, 73, 77, 78; Cooley Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed., 229, note?

8. Do you approve or disapprove the action of the Legislature of Ohio in attempting to impeach two of the three judges who refused to enforce a law partially abrogating the constitutional right of trial by jury (1 Chas Statutes of Ohio, 1833. pp. 38-40; Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, 7th ed., 229, 230, note)? 9. Do you approve or disapprove the action of the Governor and Legislature of Kentucky who tried to remove by address Circuit Judge Clark for holding that the law staying replevins for two years unless the creditor endorsed on his execution a consent to take notes of red dog and wild cat banks impaired the obligation of contracts?

Do you approve or disapprove of the action of the Governor and Legislature in attempting to remove by. address the judges of the State Court of Appeals for affirming the above decision, and then passing a law purporting to abolish the old court in favor of a so-called new court (Sumner's Andrew Jackson,

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11. Do you approve or disapprove the action of the federal authorities in arresting a number of elective state judges who refused to enforce the first civil rights bill (Flack, Adoption 14th Amendment, 50, 51)?

26a I do not take into consideration mere politicians or impractical theorists who "catch their ideas at rebound," and who seem obsessed with the glamor of an "iridescent dream" put forward as a campaign expedient in the hope that it might prove a vote-catcher. Some of these latter are serving up some well-deserved strictures upon courts which have taken unto themselves functions and powers not conferred; and particularly the United States Supreme Court for some unwarranted constructions given to the 14th amend

will take the trouble to look into the decisons of the courts in those states in which the recall of judges has been esestablished, will see that, in its practical application, the provision for recall of judges does not have that effect upon the courts. The sole object of the recall of judges is to secure, and to enforce, an able and impartial and an honest administration of the laws; not to control the decisions of the courts, or to in any manner interfere with the independence of upright, right-minded and well-meaning members of the judiciary.

It is to be noted that the theory of the recall of public officials, including judges, is not merely doctrinaire, or academic, and unsuited to the practical requirements of public offices, but, on the other hand, is adapted to and potent in promoting the attainment of the highest efficiency in public service, judicial or otherwise. A judge on the bench, where learned and upright and just in all things, as it is given to him to see the right, uninfluenced by any selfish and selfserving influences, and unswayed by any outside dictation, is one of the noblest creations of modern civilization; but in the ultimate analysis he occupies no other or higher position than any other servant of the people in so far as his tenure of office is concerned; there is no special and peculiar privilege of inviolability of possession attaching to the office and honor going with the ermine and the woolsack." In this ultimate analysis, and in fact, a judge is nothing more than the paid servant of the people-in a high position of trust and responsibility; and whenever that servant ceases to perform efficiently and faithfully

ment-which decisions cannot be justified or defended on principle, or because of any existing "public policy," and which have wrought grave injustice to the people at large, while greatly to the advantage of the "favored classes."

27 The declaration of Mr. Justice Miller in the case of Citizen's Savings & Loan Assoc. v. Topeka, 87 U. S. (20 Wall.) 655-663, 22 L. ed., 455,

461, that "the theory of our governments, state and national, is opposed to the despotism of unlimited power anywhere," applies with especial force to the "despotism" of an inalienable tenure of judges. The provision for impeachment of judges has, by practical experience, shown itself inadequate to the proper and expeditious purging from the bench of unworthy members thereof.

those services for which he was singled out from among his fellows to do and perform, there is no good or tangible reason why his master, the people, should not discharge him from his position and stop his salary, the same as a lazy, drunken, inefficient, or dishonest farm-laborer is dismissed by his employer. The purpose of the provision to enable the people thus to dispense with the services of and dismiss from their position unworthy or inefficient employes by a recall of judges, is not anywhere claimed,to my knowledge, by any discerning person familiar with the doctrine, to be for the purpose of in any way influencing or controlling the honest and independent action of courts or judges in passing on the constitutionality of statutes, or to prevent the courts from holding and declaring to be unconstitutional statutes contravening the fundamental law.

A concise review of the situation leading up to, and in fact making imperative, the enactment of a provision for the recall of officers, including judges, will be helpful to a better understanding both of the purpose of the recall of judges and the reasons for the enactment of such provision. The fundamental theory of government in this country, not always attained in practice, it must be sorrowfully admitted, has always been, as Abraham Lincoln so forcibly and tersely put it, a "government of the people, by the people, for the people. '28 This is the grand conception and theory upon which our governments, federal and state, were founded; but for a long series of years it was, --and continues to be even yet,—an unattained and an unattainable dream; yet this furnishes no reason why we should not still strive earnestly to attain that to which we have approached so appreciably nearer. We have had too much of late years at least-government of political bosses, by political bosses (through their creatures and tools in congress, in legislatures, in the executive offices, on the bench,29 and elsewhere), for the selfish and sordid 28 Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.

29 It is common knowledge, as well as undisputed history, that Boss

interests which prey upon the common people. These bosses, in collusion with all the "interests" that are in the sunshine, and with all the persons powerful in the “underworld;" with the buccaneers of high-finance, and with the nonproducing but predatory "operators'

on Wall

Street, as well as with the Ralph Nicholbys and the Arthur Grieves in the business world, captured the control of political parties, dominated political conventions, and dictated nominations; 30 filled the offices,-executive, legislative and judicial,--with persons lacking in an admirable strain of character and courage and honesty, but-in far too many instances-conspicuous for double-dealing where it promised temporary personal or party advantage; with an ever-present disposition to "trim sails" to the varying winds, and a never-failing loyalty to the wishes and dictates of the boss that made them.

The bouleversement of republican politics following the high-handed and outrageous proceedings-not to give a more proper characterization-at the Chicago convention in 1912, and which aroused a nation-wide disgust in all political parties, resulting in the utter defeat and dethronement for the time being, at least-of these bosses; and the state of mind created and the advantages in position and power gained by the masses, has made for better conditions among all class in all walks of life, and for betterment in the whole realm of civic life and social justice throughout the nation; with the result that forward-looking laws have since been placed upon the statute books and inserted into constitutions in many of the states of the Union; all of which gives reason to hope that the forwardlooking movement has come to stay, and will continue until the ideal pantarchy shall have been attained-until the

Tweed, Boss Croker and other bosses in New York, and Boss Herrin in California, and other lesser luminaries in the realm of bossism, as the bosses installed and maintained at Omaha, Neb., by the B. & M. R. Co., filled the benches of in

ferior courts and courts of last resort with men who could be depended upon to do their will.

30 See Hichborn's "The System," p. 63. See also, as fully elucidating the boss system in operation, Judge Lindsey's, "The Beast," passim.

dream of our forefathers shall have been realized, and the people shall rule in all things in fact, and not merely in

name.

The thinking public in America today is fast arriving at a complete conception of, and attaining to a practical application of, the fundamental maxim of the Sophists, to-wit, that "the measure of all things is man," that is, the people at large; that laws and conditions of life and labor are to be adjusted to his changing aspects and needs; that the laws are, as Kritias maintained, artificial rules of convenience calculated to protect the weak against the strong and opulent and grasping; and the people are laying hold of the broad humanitarian ideas of the later Roman philosophy which paved the way in the pagan world for the beginning of Christianity and the genuine progress of mankind.33

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The alliance of the political bosses with greed and crime, and the actual crimes of the political bosses against the rights of the people generally, the toiling masses,-for the benefit of the pampered and favored classes, brought the people generally to look with distrust upon all bosses, bossism, and the instruments,-that is to say, the bossselected and boss-elected officials,-by and through which the various branches of the government were conducted and the business of the people transacted. This distrust, it is sorrowful to be compelled to record, extends even to the courts-and in some instances seems to have been only too well justified. To remedy the evil of boss-rule the initiative and referendum in legislative matters and the recall of officers, including the judges, were provided for by con

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