Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/204

 toward making their decisions come so safely within the decisions of the courts that no litigation results, because the persons affected are satisfied—sometimes too well satisfied. Justice is sometimes more thorough when it involves conflict and it is a healthy sign to see cases contested in the courts once in a while, with the commissioners on the one side and great corporations on the other. Of course, public sentiment bearing upon the commissions may make them somewhat arbitrary in their methods. If so, the courts will protect the corporations involved. But if a legislative law or a rule of a commission is always modified so that it comes within the court decisions and precedents, no progress will ever be made for real justice—indeed, it will result in a gradual retrogression and in the end, confidence in the system will be lost. There are certain kinds of progression in legislation, the results of which in relation to constitutionality as construed by the courts we cannot foretell and occasionally there must be encroachment upon precedent so that the subject may come before the courts in as good an economic light as possible. Similarly, there are certain decisions in commissions which have to be made boldly so that the aggrieved parties will use their entire powerful machinery in the court. The writer believes this to be a wholesome process and no commission should be afraid to boldly progress so that occasionally its decisions will be submitted to the courts.