Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/257



growing impatience with our courts in America is very evident. The relation of the principles discussed in this book to court procedure needs some further explanation. Thus far the legislature and the administration of the laws have been the subjects of comment and it is with great pleasure that some consideration is now given the Wisconsin courts. But before so doing, a moment's pause to reflect on the whole question of judge-made law, economics and statute making may not be out of place.

We have been so thoroughly disciplined in America to the infallibility of a written constitution as interpreted by the courts, that only recently have we had impressed upon us instance after instance which disclose the hiatus between economic conditions and court decisions, culminating in the decision of the New York court of appeals in the workmen's compensation case. Can it be possible that a court would practically recognize the humanity, justice, right and necessity of a law prepared with the greatest care by the legislature and at the same time declare it unconstitutional? Can it