Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/283

 utility commissions all come within this class. They perform very important duties in our scheme of government, but they are not legislatures or courts. The legislative branch of the government by statute determines the rights, duties, and liabilities of persons and corporations under certain conditions of fact, and varying as the facts and conditions change. Manifestly the legislature cannot remain in session and pass a new act upon every change of conditions, but it may and does commit to an administrative board the duty of ascertaining when the facts exist which call into activity certain provisions of the law, and when conditions have changed, so as to call into activity other provisions. The law is made by the legislature, the facts upon which its operation is dependent are ascertained by the administrative board. While acting within the scope of its duty, or its jurisdiction, as it is sometimes called, such a board may lawfully be endowed with very broad powers, and its conclusions may be given great dignity and force, so that courts may not reverse them unless the proof be clear and satisfactory that they are wrong."

Proceeding on an entirely different theory and yet setting forth a more startling recognition of new, economic forces in legislation, Judge Marshall chides the legislature on the fact that it has not previously subjected to the court this question of workmen's compensation. The judge holds that the constitution must, through its very nature, contain power of this sort and practically invites the legislature to test the constitution if the legislature has a law which is made in accordance with economic industrial right. The judge evidently believes that the constitution was made to include a body of rights broad