But that was not all. I am dealing not with Massachusetts only; I am dealing with the 40 or 50 Commonwealths that go to make up this country as a whole.
THE TRAITOR JUDGES.
In some of these Commonwealths there have been put on the bench judges who have betrayed the interests of the people. [“Right!”]
If you doubt my words, you study the history of the cases in California in which Frank Heney was engaged, you study the history of the cases in Missouri in which Folk and Hadley were engaged. In those two States, gentlemen, I would have gone to any necessary length to take off the bench the judges who had betrayed the interests of justice and of the plain people. [Applause.]
In certain other States, my own State of New York, the great State of Illinois, we were fronted with an entirely different situation. In those States, as far as I know, there was no trouble with the judges being corrupt.
In New York I know that the court of appeals is composed of upright, well-meaning men.
DO NOT KNOW VITAL NEEDS.
But the courts in those States have been composed of men who know nothing whatever of the vital needs of the great bulk of their fellow Americans, and who, unlike your courts in Massachusetts, have endeavored to impose their own outworn philosophy of life upon the millions of their fellow citizens.
Now, I want to give you certain examples, concrete cases of just what I mean, because I have always found that a concrete case explains my position better than a general statement.
Almost as soon as I left Harvard I went into the New York Legislature. And my education began. [Laughter.] Now, I did not come to my present position as a result of study in the library, in the closet.