A POROUS CQW
A milkman in 4 country fown not far j
from New York was brought before the
local court to answer to a charge of ad
ulteration of milk.
“You are charged,” said the judge,
•“with a most serious offense—selling
adulterated milk. Have you anything to
say in answer to the charge?”
“Well, Your Honor,” ggs^yered the
milkman, “the night before it was rain
ing very hard and the only cause I can
give is, the cow must have got we*
through.” — -1'X.
JUST THE ONE
' ‘I wonder where we could get a goofl
man to swear to our circulation, ” said
the great publisher of the great paper
that was slowly going to the bad.
“I know just the fellow,” said hi$
underling.
“And who is he, pray?”
“The man who predicted that the bull
Moose party would wipe out the Socialist
party.” replied the other.
OLNESS BAB11
OPPOSITE MIEWAY STATION
OLNESS
George and Charlie
- ~ , i r_»J
^ I
1 OLNESS LAUNDRY 1
: v !
All Kinds of Repairing 1
f: MEN’S FURS AND GARMENTS I
- NEATEY REPAIRED.
1 MRS. ROWE. OLNESS ^1
: - H.y, • ••• • ■ • t~. 1
I
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A CAPITALIST JN EMBRYO.
“Here’s a nickel,’’ saiil a thrifty house
wife to a tramp at her door. Now, whfd
are you going to do with it?’’
“Well, mum,” replied the hungry
man, “if I buy a touring car, I shan’t
have enough left t o pay my chauffeur;
if I purchase a steam yacht, there won’t
be eiiougli left to defray the cost of
manning her ; so I guess, mum, I’ll get
a schooner agd handle it myself,”—Ex.
If you *rg a worker you need
THE ALASKA SOCIALIST
subscribe for it $5.00 per year
A PARODY ON J. D.
(Tune: “America.’’;
(Anonymous) *
My country, ’tis of thee,
My private property,
Of thee I sing.
Land where the millions toil
In serfdom on thy sqil
That out of “Standard Oil’’
I wealth may wring.
My native villany
Is what enables me
To make my pile.
I have the Rocks and rills,
Of oil Qiy barrels rills.
With gold and bonds and bills
That’s why I smile.
Then there’s his sou, John D.,
A pious youth is he—
Takti§ after “Ma,"
And through the needle’s eye
With outstretched wings he’ll fly
Up to a home on high,
Bought hy “Papa,"
Goldstream Hotel
JOHNSON AND BARBETTINE
TELEPHONE EOX CITY, ALASKA
WINES, LIQUORS AND CIGARS
ROOMS AND BUNKS GOOD WARM STABLE
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g'ji.1 t
Wholesale and Retail Bread, Cakes and Pies
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HOT BREAD FOR DINNER
SECOND AVENUE Next Orpheum Theater PHONE 186
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Proceedings of a Session of the Illinois State Bar Association
April 26, 1912, 8 0’Clock P. M. '
i ARGUMENT AGAINST THE RE
.
CALL OF JUDGES RY .MR. JAMES
H. WIEKERSON, OF THE CHICAGO
BAR.
: MR. WIEKERSON ; Ladies and
gentlemen of the State Bar Association :
I appreciated that this discussion on the
other side would of necessity take the
j shape of an-attack, not upoiy the integ
j rity of men, but upon the integrity of
tour institutions, and for that reason,
I
I appreciating that this discussion should
, be characterized by fairness of thought
and temperence of speech, 1 have foll
owed the example of the gentleman who
has preceeded me, and prepared an out
line of the points which 1 urge upon the
other side.
i No more important question lias been
' debated by this generation than the one
1 which is now under consideration. In
] fact, presented as it is by its advocates
j as a step forward in the growth of pop
j ular government, and in the assertion of
: the rights of the people, it is one of the
! most serious questions in our whole na
, tional history.
These and similar questions which in
j their last analysis involve a vital change
; in our entire theory of republican gov
; ernmeut are more than mere political
questions. They involve a great deal
! more than the political ambition of any
individual, or the success of any politic
| al party. The fundamental question pre
j sented is whether republican govern
! ment as it was conceived and established
■ by the framers of our federal constit
ution and as it w a s followed out in the
scheme's of government adopted by the
states for more than a century, is to be
! preserved, or we are to adopt an entirely
new conception of the division of the
powers of government and of the func
tions of its different branches.
It will not do to say that although in
theory this may "Seem to be the effect of
this proposed reform, yet in practical
operation it will produce no such result
because the power is one which rarely
will be exercised by the people. It may
%
be true that in ordinary times and under
ordinary circumstances the power is one
which seldom would, be exercised ; but it
would be a part of our system of .govern
ment, read}- to be used at times of excit
lnent and popular disturbance, the very
times w h e n its exercise would be most
disastrous, and when the people are in
need of the protection of those safe
guards which under a wise form of gov
ernment they throw around themselves
to protect themselves from the evil con
sequences of tlieir own intemperate and
unwise actions.
Just as the strength of a chain is to be
measured by that of its weakest li.nk, so
in framing a system of government the
wisdom of each prevision must be meas
ured by its ability to stand the test of
these circumstances which will put it to
the severest trial. It is perfectly qbvious
that a change such as' the one which is
proposed, should be made only after the
most careful, consideration and upon the
clearest ground. It is well in considering
these changes which go to the very]
foundation of cur government to re
member the words of Lincoln, who said:
‘‘I do not mean to say we are bound
to follow implicitly in whatever our
fathers did. To do so w ould be to discard
all the lights of current experience—to :
reject all progress, all improvement.
What I do say is that if we would sup
plant the opinions and policy o f oar
fathers in any case, we should do so up- ;
on evidence so conclusive and argument i
s o clear that even their great authority
fairly considered and weighed cannot
stand”
Just what is this proposition as ii app-:
lies to the courts of our own state ? Our
judges are elected by the people for de
tinate 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
itical parties select their candidates. It
is now proposed that the judges so nom
inated and elected slia[l not have a clear
title to their offices for the term for
which they ape elected ; but that at any'
time during their term they may be!
ousted fpom office if a petition signed by
a certain peicentage of the voters is filed
and a majority of the voters at an elect
ion declare in favor of the recall of the
judge.
Of course, thereis no practical way of
providing that a petition for the recall
of a judge may he filed under one set of .
circumstances and not filed under ano
ther. The only kind of a provision which
would be at all practicable would be one
which w'ould require submitting tlie
question of the recall of a judge to a vote
upon the filing of a petition signed by a
certain percentage of the voters. In sign
ing such a petition voters -night be actu
a ted b y m a n y different motives. They
might be displeased with the .decision of
the judge in a particular case. They
might regard h is attitude and course of
conduct out he bench as unduly 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 in the minority at the time of his
election suddenly found itself in the
majority and in control of the state or
city administration or some other in-i
struidentality which is helpful in 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 the opposite
party who remained on the bench were
not fit, from their standpoint, to serve
out their terms of office. Again, as fre
»
quently happens in great industrial com
munities like Chicago, there might be a
time of industrial disturbance during
which questions relating to the rights of
employers 'and employes came to the
courts for decision. The judge who, un
der his oath of office, is bound to deter
mine those rights not in’aceordance 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 the con
troversy. .The aggriev'd parties, natnr-,
ally looking at the matter from the
standpoint of personal interest and sway
ed bv the feeling incident to bitter con
flicts of this kind, would natural! v reach :
*
the conclusion that the people should
have a chance to say something upon the
question of law involved, and would file
a. petition to have the question of the
judge’s right to continue on the bench
passed upon by popular vote. It is im
possible to foresee all the conditions un-;
der which this power, if it existed, could j
be invoked. But it requires only a super-'
ficial familiarity with the conditions of a j
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 i
this proposed reform, it will be helpful
to turn our thoughts to the process of j
reasoning and the conceptiou of govern-'
meut which moulded our federal, con
stitution. This conception, particularly:
with respect to the .function of the dif- •
ferent branches of government, has been j
accepted as fundamental, in. both the;
. ' 1
nation and the state, and until within
the last few years there has been no
serious proposal to depart from it. In
the early history of the colonies there
was emphasized what Edmund Burke
characterized as “the fierce spirit of
American Liberty. ” Many of the cob
onists had left the old countries to get
away ) roi;i what-they looked upon as the
oppressions o f autocratic government
and arbitrary power. They came to look
upon the right of free thought, free
speech, and the right to worship God
according to the dictates of their own
conscience, as things to lie prized more
highly than life itself, but with this idea
of individual freedom there was another
idea as deeply imbedded in their minds
and as highly prized. That idea was the
one which has been vital and controlling
iivtlie development of Anglo-Saxon civ
ilization. It is that individual liberty is
not synonynmous with individual license,
that true freedom must lie accompanied
by the exercise of self restraint, not only
on the part of individuals but of peoples.
Not only must the individual bridle liis
tongue and defer his decision on matters
with respect to which he is called upon
to act until after his anger has subsided;
but a community in governing itself
must provide some check or safeguard
whereby it may be able to control its
temper and to defer its judgment until
sucli time as that judgment represents
not temporary prejudice or passion but
is the deliberate expression ot the cool,
clear-headed judgment oi the commun
ity.
The revolution hail been the express
of the spirit ot mciyiduai liberty, and a.
victory lor the idea of indepennence ill
all that the term implied. This accom
plished, however, the new nation had to
tace the problem of devising a system ot
government which would be stable and
permanent. Self preservation, the high
est law of individuals and of nations,
made this necessary it there had been no
other reason, The darn, years which
followed immediately alter the close of
the war only emphasized that unless
some such plan were devised the exist
ence of the new nation would be a short
anil ignominious one. And so, the men
who met in the constitutional convention,
one of the most remarkable gatherings
in the history of the entire world, came
there appreciating to the full the spirit
of individual liberty and. the desire of
the ptople to rule themselves, and yet
conscious that the one tiling of supreme
importance was that the people shoulu.
impose upon themselves the same
checks, tile safeguards against hasty aim.
intemperate action, that the wise man.
imposes upon himself in his personal,
dealings and business affairs. They knew
that it was the verdict of history that
pure democracies as forms of govern
ment liad been failures as disastrous' as
liad absolute monarchies. The\ knew
that the whim of the people was just as
apt to result in oppression and injustice
as the whim of the monarch.
• (To be continued)
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