the majority of the court are as infallible as they think.

I cannot better conclude than in the following words of the late Judge Seymour D. Thompson in his address to the State Bar Association of Texas, in 1896. Judge Thompson was one of the leading lawyers of this country. He was the author of many legal works, for many years editor of the American Law Review and at one time Judge of the Court of Appeals of Missouri. I quote from 30 American Law Review, September, 1896, pp. 697-699. He said:

"There is danger, real danger, that the people will see at one sweeping glance that all the powers of their government, Federal and State, lie at the feet of us lawyers, that is to say, at the feet of a judicial oligarchy; that those powers are being steadily exercised in behalf of the wealthy and powerful classes, and to the prejudice of the scattered and segregated people; that the power thus seized includes the power of amending the Constitution; the power of superintending the action, not merely of Congress, but also of the State Legislatures; the power of degrading the powers of the two houses of Congress, in making those investigations which they may deem accessory to wise legislation, to the powers which an English court has ascribed to British Colonial legislatures; the power of superintending the judiciary of the States, of annulling their judgments and commanding them what judgments to render; the power of denying to Congress the power to raise revenue by a method employed by all governments; making the fundamental

sovereign powers of government, such as the power of taxation, the subject of barter between corrupt legislatures and private adventurers; holding that a venal legislature, temporarily invested with power, may corruptly bargain away those essential attributes of sovereignty and for all time; that corporate franchises bought from corrupt legislatures are sanctified and placed forever beyond recall by the people; that great trusts and combinations may place their yokes upon the necks of the people of the United States, who must groan forever under the weight, without remedy and without hope; that trial by jury and the ordinary criminal justice of the States, which ought to be kept near the people, are to be set aside, and Federal court injunctions substituted therefor; that those injunctions extend to preventing laboring men quitting their employment, although they are liable to be discharged by their employers at any time, thus creating and perpetuating a state of slavery. There is danger that the people will see these things all at once; see their enrobed judges doing their thinking on the side of the rich and powerful; see them look with solemn cynicism upon the sufferings of the masses, nor heed the earthquake when it begins to rock beneath their feet; see them present a spectacle not unlike that of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. There is danger that the people will see all this at one sudden glance, and that the furies will then break loose and that all hell will ride on their wings."

Raleigh, N. C.

WALTER CLARK.

institutions and principles of government. He is given the appointing power in the judicial department, which is a potent means of securing the services of those who agree with his views and policies, and who may be trusted to carry out and enforce them, conscientiously, of course, because they do believe in them. In the legislative branch of the government, his power is much more potent and farreaching. He has control of the vast federal patronage to bestow it where he chooses. By a pernicious custom, which however, the president may violate, at his will, a large part of this patronage in the way of appointment to office, has been farmed out to senators and representatives in their respective states and districts by permitting them to name the appointees to certain offices. It is one of the singular phases of political life that these officials should prize this questionable privilege so highly. But, as they do, for that and other reasons such senators and representatives, elected to serve the country, and not seekers for place, are anxious to keep in favor with the president. To do so, they must, if he demands it, support his policies and do his bidding. The demand has undoubtedly been made, and the fear of just such consequences has warped the judgment and influenced the conduct, on public questions, of vital interest to the country, of many law-makers. Not that the President has threatened such consequences, to secure such action, but the mere knowledge that he possessed the power to deprive them of the patronage they so highly prize has been enough. It is a sad commentary on our institutions and laws, and our public officials, that the performance, or failure to perform public duties, should be influenced by such selfish and ignoble desires and base purposes. But no observer of events can doubt it. The domination and control of the legislative department of government, serious as it is, is of infinitely less consequence than the intimidation or attempted intimidation of the judiciary.

It is no idle saying that the judiciary is the great bulwark of human liberty, protector of individual rights and the preserver of our most sacred institutions. The federal judiciary stands preeminent for intelligence, fearless honesty and integrity, and judicial knowledge. There may be some individual exceptions, but they are rare and few in number. If reports be true, the President has denounced, in unmeasured terms, at least one federal judge for differing with his views of the law and its enforcement. By so doing, he has made it publicly known that all judges so differing with his views will fall under his displeasure. No one would be found to intimate that the President would purposely interfere with the due administration of justice, or attempt to intimidate a judicial officer in the performance of his duties. Nevertheless, the open denunciation of the judicial act of one judge for a decision rendered by him, is calculated to influence his action if the question should come before him again and would be well calculated to influence other judges in the performance of similar duties, in the result of which the President is known to be interested.

This tendency of the President to denounce those who do not agree with him has led him into many indiscretions, and his arbitrary methods, his lack of restraint, and determination to have his own way, have made him a conspicuous example of the danger to our institutions of unchecked, and uncontrolled power, intended to bring both the legislative and judicial departments into his way of thinking, and thus accomplish his ends. The existence of the custom of distributing patronage to legislators at the will of the executive, and which, under such conditions, allowed as a favor, is a political power in the President that may be fraught with far-reaching consequences. The power to withdraw the favor is a constant menace to any law-maker who is independent enough to act in opposition to the wishes of the executive. The estimate placed upon

this privilege of controlling appointments, within their districts, and the eagerness with which they take advantage of it, shows what a powerful weapon it is in the hands of the President. It is one of the greatest evils of this country to-day, and the use of it is most shameful. That the fear of losing the political advantage it affords members of Congress has warped their judgments, caused them in many instauces to betray the interests of their constituents and their country, to subserve the purposes of the executive, no one can reasonably doubt. The crying evil of the day, in official life, is too much politics, too much selfish striving for political office and preferment. What the country needs, most of all, is broad-minded, unselfish, patriotic statesmanship, and a President of the United States, who stoops to accomplish his purposes by pandering to this debasing appetite for the spoils of office, however worthy those purposes may be, is an enemy to our republican institutions and the abetter of the most unworthy and dangerous tendencies in public life. The one thing that seemed, at the outset of Mr. Roosevelt's career as President, to appeal to public favor was his fearless independence. It is a quailty much to be commended, and a necessary qualification for the high office. But it must be accompanied by clear judgment, due caution, discrimination, conservatism and strict integrity, or it may be a most dangerous quality. In some of these the President has shown himself to be sadly lacking. If he sets his mind upon a certain course, he throws caution, discretion, to the winds. It must be so in his estimation, if he wills it to be so. If it is desired legislation, Congress must bend to his will. If it is a construction of an existing law, the judge must construe it his way or fall under his displeasure and meet with open criticism and denunciation. If, in his estimation, some person or corporation has violated the law, instead of placing the matter in the hands of the judicial, or law department,

to be dealt with in a legal and orderly way, he makes it an executive matter, takes it in control, denounces the supposed offenders as criminals, before trial and conviction, and tells the whole country what he is going to do about it and how. So, we have the unpleasant spectacle of the President of the United States going about the country denouncing its citizens as criminals, and enemies of the people, and telling the people what the policy of his administration is, and will be, in the prosecution of trusts and other alleged law-breakers.

No right-minded citizen will question the right of the President to call upon the law department of the government to prosecute and bring to justice any offender against its laws, whether he be high or low, rich or poor. That men in high places, possessed of great wealth and power, have shamelessly violated the laws of their country, and should be punished accordingly, is evident. But they should be tried, and punished, if guilty, according to the laws of the country, unaffected by the towering influence of the President. To denounce the supposed offender, before trial, thus prejudging his case, is in itself an offense against our principles of government, and is calculated to arouse violent prejudices and result in injustice and oppression. Indeed, it is is seriously claimed that the intemperate assaults of the President on what is sometimes termed predatory wealth, and upon men at the head of large commercial and other business institutions; has precipitated a financial panic and business depression that has caused great loss and much suffering and distress. This charge is probably unjust and unfounded. The determination of the President that men and corporations believed to have violated the law shall be prosecuted and if found guilty, be punished, is to be commended. If this shall cause a financial panic, so be it. Let it come. If this country can prosper only by shielding criminals from prosecution and con

viction it has no right to enjoy prosperity. The claim that protection of offenders against the law is necessary to protect the country from financial distress is a slander upon our institutions and our business standards of honesty and business integrity. The fact of the determination of the President to bring the guilty to justice, affords no reason for a financial panic. It is much more reasonable to suppose that the men suspected of crime, and denounced as criminals, and who possess almost unlimited power to bring on financial disorder, because of their vast wealth, have brought about such conditions, and have falsely attributed it to the action of the President. Nevertheless, the course of the President is justly subject to criticism and condemnation. His spectacular and intemperate attack, in public addresses, upon those whom he believes or suspects of being guilty of violations of the law are undignified and inappropriate and calculated to destroy public confidence in moneyed men and moneyed institutions. The course taken by the President is a species of imperialism and misuse of his great office and calculated to bring him into public disfavor and lower the office of President of the United States in the estimation, not only of our own people, but of foreign countries. The earnest and diligent prosecution of violators of law without respect to persons, by the law department of the government, is worthy of the highest commendation and should be sustained by public opinion, but the public utterances of the President upon the subject, are too obviously out of place, and savor too much of unworthy bravado and appeal to public prejudice, too much of the spectacular, too much of an effort to arouse public sentiment in his own favor to meet with the approval of the conservative thinking citizen.

The writer is a Republican, and in the main believes in its principles, but is without sympathy for the effort to place the party above the country, and turn

the government into a political machine, or the use of it for personal or political advantage. There has been altogether too much of this during the present administration. Therefore, it may be taken as fortunate for the country that Mr. Roosevelt pledged himself not to be a candidate for a third term. It will be more fortunate if the Republican party can rise above the influences of the present administration in the selection of a candidate for the presidency. The people are growing restive under the present party domination of politics for personal ends and selfish purposes. They are sighing for some revival of the old-time statesmanship and patriotic devotion to the country's needs, to the exclusion of mere party advantage. The former close adherance to political parties is fast giving way to a spirit of independence in political affairs that gives promise of better things. Perhaps nothing has contributed more to this spirit of independence than the unwarranted and arbitrary domination of every department of the government by the one man above all others who, while he occupies his present position should stand for the fearless and independent action of every department and every officer, in the interest of the whole country uninfluenced by public prejudice or clamor, party dictation, presidential domination or influence. In this respect the President has signally failed. Notwithstanding this, the country has never lost faith in the sincerity of his intentions or the integrity and honesty of his purposes. The country believes that his avowed intention to suppress crime and the violation of federal laws has been sincere, but the manner in which the avowals have been made, and the times of making them, have been unfortunate and not to his credit or the credit of the office of the President of the United States.

Los Angeles, Calif.

JOHN D. WORKS.