A mood of criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the
method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be
abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted.
That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be choosen
by chance and against their will, instead of by fraud and against the
will of all the rest of us, as now. But isn't the jury system itself
imperfect? Isn't it occasionally disgraced by gross abuse and
scandal? ... [The jury system] has its failures and its absurdities,
its abuses and corruptions, but taking one day with another
manifestly works. It is not the fault of juries that so many
murderers go unwhipped of justice, and it is not the fault of juries
that so many honest men are harassed by preposterous laws....
"So I propose that our legislatures be chosen as our juries are now
chosen- that the names of all eligible men in each assembly district
be put in a hat (or if no hat can be found that is large enough, into
a bathtub), and that a blind moron, preferably of tender years, be
delegated to draw out one. Let the constituted catchpolls then
proceed swiftly to this man's house, and take him before he can get
away. Let him be brought into court forthwith, and put under bond to
serve as elected, and if he cannot furnish the bond, let him be kept
until the appointed day in the nearest jail.
"The advantages of this system would offer are so vast and obvious
that I hesitate to venture into the banality of rehashing them. It
would in the first place, save the commonwealth the present excessive
costs of elections, and make political campaigns unnecessary. It
would in the second place, get rid of all the heart-burnings that now
flow out of every contest at the polls, and block reprisals and
charges of fraud that now issue from the heart burnings. It would in
the third place, fill all the State Legislatures with men of a
peculiar and unprecedent cast of mind- men actually convinced that
public service is a public burden, and not merely a private snap. And
it would, in the fourth and most important place, completely dispose
of the present degrading knee-bending and trading in votes, for
nine-tenths of the legislators, having got into office unwillingly,
would be eager only to finish their duties and go home, and even
those who acquired a taste for the life would be unable to do
anything to increase the probability, even by one chance in a
million, of their re-election.
"The disadvantages of the plan are very few, and most of them, I
believe, yield readily to analysis. Do I hear argument that a
miscellaneous gang of tin-roofers, delicatessen dealers and retired
bookkeepers, chosen by hazard, would lack that vast knowledge of
public affairs needed by makers of laws? Then I can only answer (a)
that no such knowledge is actually necessary, and (b) that few, if
any, of existing legislators possess it. The great majority of public
proplems, indeed, are quite simple, and any man may be trusted to
grasp their elements in ten days who may be- and is- trusted to
unravel the obfuscations of two gangs of lawyers in the same time. In
this department, the so-called expertness of so-called experts is
largely imaginary. My scheme would have the capital merit of barring
them from the game. They would lose their present enormous
advantaages as a class, and so their class would tend to
disappear....
Dieser stammt von H.L. Mencken:
method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be
abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted.
That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be choosen
by chance and against their will, instead of by fraud and against the
will of all the rest of us, as now. But isn't the jury system itself
imperfect? Isn't it occasionally disgraced by gross abuse and
scandal? ... [The jury system] has its failures and its absurdities,
its abuses and corruptions, but taking one day with another
manifestly works. It is not the fault of juries that so many
murderers go unwhipped of justice, and it is not the fault of juries
that so many honest men are harassed by preposterous laws....
"So I propose that our legislatures be chosen as our juries are now
chosen- that the names of all eligible men in each assembly district
be put in a hat (or if no hat can be found that is large enough, into
a bathtub), and that a blind moron, preferably of tender years, be
delegated to draw out one. Let the constituted catchpolls then
proceed swiftly to this man's house, and take him before he can get
away. Let him be brought into court forthwith, and put under bond to
serve as elected, and if he cannot furnish the bond, let him be kept
until the appointed day in the nearest jail.
"The advantages of this system would offer are so vast and obvious
that I hesitate to venture into the banality of rehashing them. It
would in the first place, save the commonwealth the present excessive
costs of elections, and make political campaigns unnecessary. It
would in the second place, get rid of all the heart-burnings that now
flow out of every contest at the polls, and block reprisals and
charges of fraud that now issue from the heart burnings. It would in
the third place, fill all the State Legislatures with men of a
peculiar and unprecedent cast of mind- men actually convinced that
public service is a public burden, and not merely a private snap. And
it would, in the fourth and most important place, completely dispose
of the present degrading knee-bending and trading in votes, for
nine-tenths of the legislators, having got into office unwillingly,
would be eager only to finish their duties and go home, and even
those who acquired a taste for the life would be unable to do
anything to increase the probability, even by one chance in a
million, of their re-election.
"The disadvantages of the plan are very few, and most of them, I
believe, yield readily to analysis. Do I hear argument that a
miscellaneous gang of tin-roofers, delicatessen dealers and retired
bookkeepers, chosen by hazard, would lack that vast knowledge of
public affairs needed by makers of laws? Then I can only answer (a)
that no such knowledge is actually necessary, and (b) that few, if
any, of existing legislators possess it. The great majority of public
proplems, indeed, are quite simple, and any man may be trusted to
grasp their elements in ten days who may be- and is- trusted to
unravel the obfuscations of two gangs of lawyers in the same time. In
this department, the so-called expertness of so-called experts is
largely imaginary. My scheme would have the capital merit of barring
them from the game. They would lose their present enormous
advantaages as a class, and so their class would tend to
disappear....
Dieser stammt von H.L. Mencken: