, 1889-07-25

fzes the remaining two Judges 10 select
some member of the supreme court bar
ITO sit with them as a Judge, a provision
which he gave notice he should always
oppose, and should move to strike out
when il WAS reached in its order.
Mr.. b1nnear opposed tho substitute,
saying that the greatness of the state
would depend solely upon the ability OF
its people to be. great. We have about
25O, 900 population and u tax valuation
lust year of about ss4, 100000, which, al
lowing $l5,0OO000 or $4,000 ,00C
for loss in Seattle and Elensburg,
will make IL about the saine
next year, and on this amount tn,
people are already paying about $i70,o
per year for territorial expenses. State
hood would increase this TO 100000 ol
ready provided SOS, 200 per annum fol
Judicial expenses, and that amount
should not be increased. A bench of
THREE JUDGES
will give a good supreme court and
talent of the bar. In q few
years the legislature may increase il
To live and in the prosperous future II
may be raised to nine or more. Many
OF the otherstates Of greater wealth and
population have but three supreme
Judges, and we ought to regulate our
courts by our ability to pay.
Mr.. Gritlitts said that when he knew
ho was to be a member of this convcn
tion he took pains to study the judicial
systems of the several states and also to
get the opinions of the people around
him as to the number ofjudges, etc, out
of more than 100 men with whom he had
talked, outside OF members of tho
bar he had not found single man who
favored having three judges only. Even
the Farmers Alliance land the farmers
are certainly on economical class),
whose memorial the gentleman last up
(kinnear) had presented to this tonvcn
ton, demanded
Five JUDGES.
He observed that the sole argument or
the other side was the plea of economy
None of the arguments for hvejudges had
been answered save only by the cry OF
economy. But there was a trueeconomy
and false economy, and II woulc
be false economy To save few
thousand dollars u year by decreasing
the number of judges, while the way
was left open to ineihcency, delay, and
greater chances of one-man power and
improper influence in the court The
calling in of members of the bar to sit ~
occasional judges was all wrong, and
section %, which proposed TO allow IT,
was'an absurdity. IL was
A DANGEROUS AND CARELESS PROVISION
of law to let two judges select third
man from the limited number of fortu
nate attorneys sitting around the bar oi
the supreme court and give to him the
casting vote in making up the decision
of the court in cases of the highest i'm
portancc In the state. As to letting tho
N yt4 Ian n IN ~ fNfa afNI IaT .f 3 lI
court from time to time he was opposed
to having any sliding scale on the bench
and'in favor of letting the people say
by constitutional amendment when
they. wanted to change the supreme
bench.
Mr.. Sturdeyant followed, making the
same claim that the plea of economy
was the only argument presented against
having five Judges, while IL was
admitted a that after four %
be needed. As for himself he
likened the territory TO u
new ship just being launched
and starting ON her trial trip, and the
supreme court to the pilot who was To
guide her on her. most important voy-
age-the first-and he considered It of
OF the highest importance to have good
guidance now more than at any time.
Within the next five or ten years the
foundation of the states Jurisprudence
is To be laid and those prece-
dents established that would in all
human probability be the guide for all
the future decisions of the courts, and
he favored the best possible establish
mcnt of the courts right here Mt the
start. As to the expense, he called at
tcntion to the fact that this article pro.
vided later on for the absorption of the
probate courts by the superior courts,
which would have the effect of saving at
least one-halt the expense of the supe-
rior court salaries, a saving which ought
TO be credited to this new system in
making any reckoning of expenses.
Mr. Turner, 0s chairman of the com.
mittee which had made the report under
consideration, submitted the argument
in behalf of a bench of three judges. lie
believed that quality was of far more
consequence than quantity, and that If
the bench was to he filled by weak men
or bad men, then the more of them the
worse off the new state would be, while
on the other hand, if the judges were to
ard intellectually int ' and dP'URsa morally, s'n the
difference in efficiency between
five judges and three would be
inapprecable. The history of other
states did not, he considered bear out
the gentlemen on the other side in their
direful and dolefuhprognostications of
what would happen if bench of three
Judges only should be created, He read
Il statement of the constitution of the
courts in other states, showing that fif-
teen states had three supreme court
judges. Eleven states had five or more,
and that in nine the number was either
not fixed or else was made up from the
judges of the lower courts. Only those
states that were strongest in wealth and
had more than three judges.
He did not take any stock in tho idea of
one man controllers or of the possibility
of
CORRUPT INFLUENCES
having any operation, for since the time
of Francis Boean the courts both in
and this country, had been re-
free from corruption and In
spite of much frivolous talk about at
he declared himself to be proud
Of the fact that the courts whose Judges
have been chosen from the ranks of the
attorneys had always been so far above
As to section %, tire selec-
ton of lawyer to sit on the pench as a
third Judge will be a matter
of such infrequency of occurrence per-
haps not more than once or twice in a
term of six years, that he thought no
great harm could come from leaving this
matter in the hands of the other two
judges. He also objected strongly To
cutting of the Legislature from increas-
ing the number of judges, because later
on the state will surely need larger
Mr.. Buchanan indorsed Mr.. Turner S
views, and he thought there would be
very little business to come before the
supreme court until the state had Il
much larger population, and thought
that for some time to come the three
judges would have "soft snap and
that TO make-the number five would he
ridiculous. He did not fear