New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-15
orr pAUPRR JUDGES.

The resignation of a Judge who has held
| s1ch q conspicuous position upon the Federll
bench as Judge Choate, and has filled 1t with
such satisfaction to the profession ana the
business community, on the sole ground that
his salary is inadequate, ought to set Congress
thinking. The question raised hy Judge
Cboate's resignation is not a new one. The
povertv of the Federal judicial salaries is
and has been for years a National scan
daI. The time has arrived when there
should be an energetic effort to remove H. ID
order that the Federal bench shall be pad on
scale decently commensurate with Its
dignity, and in order that it may be saved
from deterioration, which seems almost meyl-
table. if Congress pursues its present nigeaTdly
nolicv. The bar of this city has been atitaung
tbe subject during the past year, and an
earnest memorial was addressed to Congress,
to which that body, of course, paid no atten-
ton whatever. Perhaps Judge Choate's resig-
nation, by directing public attention sharply
70 the matter, may effect the object which all
the efforts of the legal profession and all the
earnest discussions in the newspapers for years
past have not been able to accomplish.
1t is fortunate for the country that IN ap-
pointment to any grade of the Federal bench
has always been regarded as a personal dis
tipction. There has been nothing else to save
If from degradation by the accession OF in
competent or corrupt men. With the Chief
.Justice of the Supreme Court Of the United
States receiving only $4,000 year, and his
associates only $4,000, the Circuit Judges
$4,000, and the District Judges only $500
and $4,000, according to the classes into
which they are divided, it is easy to see that
there is nothing except the personal honor at
tached to these places to induce men
of the requisite ability to take them, but it is
n matter to be seriously considered how long
it will be safe to trust to this safeguard. The
income which a great lawyer can command
il increasing every year with the growth of
the wealth Of the county, and the point may
soon be reached when lawyers of the first
class cannot be tempted by the idea OF a
permanent fame into even the highest of all
these places. 1t is notorious fact that
number Of the prominent places i'll the Federal
| Judiciary are held now by excellent lawyers,
who could not hold them if they were not so
| fortunate as to have private fortunes which
support them while they give their whole time
| to the Government for pittance, In country
| where moderate incomes are the rule. and the
average man begins life without any income at
all, there is risk, to say the least, in a Gov
erInnents specializing upon the possibility
that il will always be able to command the
| services of rich men for next to nothing. In
q public sense, this may be justly said to be
| unsafe; n a moral sense, it may almost be
said to be wrong. The obligation upon
solvent Government to pay proper salaries
seems quite as strong as its obligation to pay
its just debts
The comparison that is often made between
| the salaries of the Federal Judges and the
Judges in this city, both State and Municipal,
| is hardly just to the former, elaTing as the
contrast is, because it is Sgenerally felt that
| the New-YOrk salaries ave unnecessarily high
In the lower grades they are still absurdly
extrayagant in spite of the reductions that
have been made. They range now all
the way from $4,000 to $4,000. The
higher class OF Judges, usually excellent men,
receive on the average salaries larger by so
per cent than that of the Chief Justice Of the
United States and the lower class, who are
usually not excellent Judges, but are more apt
to be politicians put on the bench asa reward
for doing dirty work, receive as much as or more
than q Blatchford or a Lowell. A much fairer
method OF comparison Is 10 contrast the Saia-
| aries of the United States Judges with those
| received by other persona in the service of the
Government. The Circuit Judge, who is rs
hard worked as a Judge can well be,
and who, If his duties lett him any leisure,
would still be debarred by propriety from
engaging in any business or professional la
Dor, receives $4,000 a year, while the Con-
gresham, who is more or less occupied during
perhaps seven months of the year. but is al
ways at liberty to argue cases in the courts
or pursue any other calling. is paid within
81 900 as much, Judge Samuel d. Batch
ford, wihe circuit covers NIL the three
judicial districts of New-Y0rk with