McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-10-02
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, d. c., Sept. 20, 'S4.

The retirement of Commissioner
Dudley from the Pension Office on
the 10th of November, will be hailed
with eminent satisfaction by all who
believe that the affairs of the Pension
Office can be more satisfactorily adj
ministered. Mr.. Dudley's manage
ment has brought the Office three
years behind in its business, although
he has had an army of clerks, and the
expense of running his Office for a
single year has amounted to sS5O,OOO.
The fact that applications for pensions
filed as long ago as 1882 are just be-
ginning to be reached in their order,
shows want of system or discipline
or both, which can be readily supplied
by some one who has better appreci-
alton of his official duties. If the adj
ministration carries out its ideas of
Civil Service Reform with sincerity,
Major Clarke, the present Assistant
Commissioner, with advanced ideas
upon a proper pension system, would
and should receive the appointment.
The necessity for a reorganization
of the United States Supreme Court
becomes more and more pressing with
the advent of each recurring session.
With nine Judges almost constantly
at work, the court is still so overrun
with new cases that it has become an
absolute impossibility to advance even
a step upon the three years that the
court has Jagged behind its calendar.
Sitting from October to May, these
judges dispose of about three hundred
cases, while the number of new cases
that it will encounter at the opening
of the session next month will be up
wards of 400, thus throwing its work
back still another year. Thrice has
the Senate passed bill looking to the
relief of the court, by reducing the
Of appeals and comforting i'll
creased jurisdiction upon inferior
courts, but the House mas each time
failed to reach the bills, though the
Speakers table was loaded with pc
titions praying for action upon them.
Under the present right of appeal,
this, the highest tribunal in the land,
has infinitely more of its time occu-
pied with petty cases that involve
neither principle nor property, than
with those involving grave constitu-
tional questions.
The personnel Of the Supreme
Court has often been remarked upon,
but | have never seen a newspaper
description that did the court justice.
with Chief Justice Waite,
whose grey hair and beard and big
mouth and big nose are all that bear
any resemblance to a judge, one is set
to wondering how any such look
ing man as that could ever get into a
seat once occupied by Marshall ? Mil
Ter, who sits at the right of the Chief
Justice, has the bearing, the learning
anil all the requisites of a judge, ex-
cept the appearance, which is that Of
a thrifty Iowa husbandman. Justice
Field, the left supporter of the Chief
Justice, is gander-legged, bald.
headed, full-bcarded, gold-bowed
specialized lawyer, whose chief quail
fication for his appointment consisted
of his being the brother of David
Dudley and Cyrus W. He is Dem
ocrat, and hard-shelled one at that.
Justice Bradley is small man, with
large capacity for somnolence on the
bench. He is, however, ear-headed,
and has no reason to keep awake to
listen to the sopori6c Supreme Court
arguments. Harlan is a handsome
kentuckian who is long all over as
well as long-headed. He chews to-
bacco amazingly, but withal is an ex-
cellent judge who writes excellent
opinions. Woods was little known
as a soldier in Georgia, but will be