statute book.

When you come to the recall, the principle is that if an administrative
officer,--for we will begin with the administrative officer,--is corrupt
or so unwise as to be doing things that are likely to lead to all sorts of
mischief, it will be possible by a deliberate process prescribed by the
law to get rid of that officer before the end of his term. You must admit
that it is a little inconvenient sometimes to have what has been called an
astronomical system of government, in which you can't change anything
until there has been a certain number of revolutions of the seasons. In
many of our oldest states the ordinary administrative term is a single
year. The people of those states have not been willing to trust an
official out of their sight more than twelve months. Elections there are a
sort of continuous performance, based on the idea of the constant touch of
the hand of the people on their own affairs. That is exactly the principle
of the recall. I don't see how any man grounded in the traditions of
American affairs can find any valid objection to the recall of
administrative officers. The meaning of the recall is merely this,--not
that we should have unstable government, not that officials should not
know how long their power might last,--but that we might have government
exercised by officials who know whence their power came and that if they
yield to private influences they will presently be displaced by public
influences.

You will of course understand that, both in the case of the initiative and
referendum and in that of the recall, the very existence of these powers,
the very possibilities which they imply, are half,--indeed, much more than
half,--the battle. They rarely need to be actually exercised. The fact
that the people may initiate keeps the members of the legislature awake to
the necessity of initiating themselves; the fact that the people have the
right to demand the submission of a legislative measure to popular vote
renders the members of the legislature wary of bills that would not pass
the people; the very possibility of being recalled puts the official on
his best behavior.

It is another matter when we come to the judiciary. I myself have never
been in favor of the recall of judges. Not because some judges have not
deserved to be recalled. That isn't the point. The point is that the
recall of judges is treating the symptom instead of the disease. The
disease lies deeper, and someti