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Show RECALL OF JUDICIARY Proiidant Tft invited attention to th rat-all of th judiciary a threatening threat-ening to diminish atill further th authority au-thority of judge in this eonntry. and thus endangering tha movement to give dignity and efloetiveneta to mm inal procedure. The judge preaiding at trial tend, eapeciallr ia th wettern states, to Be hardly more, aa Mr. Taft aid. than the moderator ol a religious assembly, aa little author ity has he over the jury or the counsel coun-sel before him. And now it is pro posed to make an additional on-eroachment on-eroachment on the independence and influence of the judicial office by making mak-ing it incumbents aubjert to popular whim and gusts . of passion. That judges trying criminal rases would ha-e little occasion to .fear th recall ean hardlv be said, when the immense public interest in soma proceedings of that character is borne in mind ,C1 ifornja. for example, will soon vote op an amendment to it constitution giving giv-ing its citi7Jna power to recall it ju diciary. Had the recall existed at the time of the San Franciaeo graft trials the judge of seyeral courts, from the lowest to the highest, would almost eertainlT have been it targets. - San t"raneisco wss divided between two hostile bodies of public opinion, one insisting that all responsible for the corruplmn existing x should be brought to justice and the other holding hold-ing that the prosecutions should be dropped "bd for business." The whole state, though in a lea degree, ni agitated by the debate. A th .judges" decisions in those ease die-pleased die-pleased one or the other faction, the recall would certainly have been resorted re-sorted to. What those trials would have been like if thev had been con flilPted-rinder Ilie threat iif ieiiiul from office for . dipleasing the ma-joritv, ma-joritv, it is impossible to imagine. A worse travesty on a judicial system than that cannot be conceived. The recall of judgea is certain to be experimented with by some of the western state, and we share Mr. Taft s hop that the publie will soon see the uselessnes of th "nostrum. But-in any event, admirable as the English system is. there is little prospect pros-pect that judgea in this country will ever obtain the authoritative position in court possessed by an English judge. The authority of aa English judge is largely a survival, a valuable on indeed, from an aristocratic y-tem. y-tem. The nidge were member of the "ruling elisses." Th juror and the public were in the habit of looking up to them, even in their private capacity, ca-pacity, as superior in birth, education, opportunities and all th other advantage advan-tage that carry weight in an aristocratic aristo-cratic ocitv. Thi tradition more than anything el-e baa made th English judge the nseful institution that he is today. It is impossible for this country to look upon judge in the same light. A democracy ha no uch traditions, and th constant tendency hero I away from th English view of judicial activity. Western statute ar full of a lesions regard for the importance im-portance of juror. But if it is improbable that American Ameri-can judges will ever receive th authority au-thority and poaeeaa th trm grasp npon the busmen of the court which President Taft, from hi experieac on th bench, regard so highly in th Engliah system, parhap th present im-paOenee im-paOenee with th judiciary for the serious consideration of th recall in om place must be regarded as a symptom of uch impatience will result re-sult in causing the courts to abandon their love of subtleties and technicalities, technicali-ties, and introduce more popular common com-mon sens into the buine of law enforcement. en-forcement. Much of the law' delay consist in tryin; to trap trial judge in th mam which courts themselves have woven and in appealing to the higher judges to determine whether they have been o trapped. Judge in a large part of the tountry may never have more authority than "moderator of religion assemblies" possess, but rule under which trial ar conducted before them ean be so simplified as to secure in some measure the dispatch of th English avetem. Wood row Wilson, Wil-son, governor of New Jersey. |