TEE STRUGGLE FOE EQUALITY 481 



in keeping with democratic institutions. The right of the people to 

 impose such a limited veto upon their representatives and upon the im- 

 pulses of a temporary majority is as much a part of their prerogatives as 

 anything else. Moreover, the willingness of the people of any country 

 to adopt a written constitution and to invest in the courts the function 

 of seeing that it is not overridden by the caprice of the moment is one 

 of the surest signs of their capacity to govern themselves. The fact that 

 the judicial veto does not exist in England and other important nations 

 does not prove that it can be safely dispensed with here. Any institu- 

 tion that is so closely interwoven with the warp and woof of a political 

 system as is the power of judicial veto can not be safely thrown over- 

 board at a moment's notice. There is probably no charge that can justly 

 be brought against the courts that can not be met by remedies that leave 

 them the power of a suspensory veto, such as enlightened criticism, an 

 elevation in the character of the bench, and setting the courts free from 

 the letter of the law that killeth and from too abject an adherence to 

 judicial precedent. Especially should impracticable methods of amend- 

 ing our organic law be avoided. The case of our highest court is par- 

 ticularly hopeful. In the words of James Bryce : 



The Supreme Court feels the touch of public opinion. Opinion is stronger 

 in America than anywhere else in the world, and the judges are only men. To 

 yield a little may be prudent, for the tree that can not bend to the blast may be 

 broken. There is, moreover, this ground at least for presuming public opinion 

 to be right, that through it the progressive judgment of the world is expressed. 

 Of course, whenever the law is clear, because the words of the constitution are 

 plain or the cases interpreting them decisive on the point raised, the court must 

 look solely to those words and cases, and can not permit any other considerations 

 to affect its mind. But when the terms of the constitution admit of more than 

 one construction, and when previous decisions have left the true construction so 

 far open that the point in question may be deemed new, is a court to be blamed 

 if it prefers the construction which the bulk of the people deem suited to the 

 needs of the time? 50 



The moment progressives offend good sense, they may expect to be 

 deserted by large numbers of their devotees. Take the movement for 

 the free coinage of silver. There is no doubt that the country acted 

 wisely when it rejected " free silver." But it is equally true that the 

 silver propaganda set back the cause of social and industrial reform for 

 nearly ten years. It accentuated and prolonged the hard times following 

 the panic of 1893 until the country was so intent upon the recovery of 

 prosperity that it was almost indifferent to anything else. Many indi- 

 viduals took advantage of the lack of public vigilance to grab franchises, 

 to enact an excessively high protective tariff, and to organize industrial 

 combinations on a scale that ended in startling the financial world, un- 

 settling business, and in reawakening the sense of public duty in the 

 mass of self-seeking individuals. 



so "The American Commonwealth," edition of 1910, Vol. 1, p. 274. 



vol. lxxxiv. — 33. 



