I regret that we have not time to consider further these particular decisions. In my opinion they correctly and wisely applied established principles of constitutional law and constitutional justice and were morally right and just. I am now pleading for fairness and temperance in discussing the decisions of our courts and for the imperative necessity of founding these discussions upon the truth. Ambassador Bryce said in a recent address: "To counsel you to stick to facts is not to dissuade you from philosophical generalizations, but only to remind you ... that the generalizations must spring out of the facts, and without the facts are worthless." In other words, a regard for fact, which is but another term for truth, is or should be as indispensable in law and politics as it is in philosophy.
The criticisms of which the above are fair samples must be refuted because they find constant repetition and have the authority of distinguished leaders of public opinion, who at the present time seem to have the confidence of the people. Their statements are naturally accepted as true. The judges are being similarly misrepresented and assailed on all sides, and they cannot defend themselves. Thus far the bar at large has seemed indifferent, and a misconception of what constitutes good taste imposes silence upon the counsel engaged in the cases which are criticized. The people are being misled, prejudiced and inflamed by false statements and unfair criticism. If the courts are not defended, they may bend before the storm of undeserved censure. Constituted as humanity is, there is grave danger that the judges will be unconsciously intimidated and coerced by this abuse and clamor. Is it not high time that the members of our profession should charge themselves with the task of defending the courts by placing the facts before the people? The bar associations of the country will never be called upon to render a greater service to the profession and to the community than that of stemming this tide of misrepresentation and intemperate abuse and striving to restore confidence in the learning, impartiality and independence of our judges, in the justice of their decisions, and in the necessity of their enforcing constitutional restraints.