Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-01-05
JUDICIAL CONVENTION.
Address OF the Committee Of ,North=
ern Lawyers TO the Bar and People
of the State.

The committee appointed at
the meeting of lawyers held at
Marshheld on the 29th day of
December, 1892, for the purpose
of carrying out the object of
such meeting IN calling q conven-
ton of the lawyers Of the State
of Wisconsin to be held in Mil
waukee on the Goth day of jan
uary 1898, address the bar and
people of the State of Wisconsin
as follows:
Chief Justice Lyon Of the SUI
preme court sometime ago
announced his purpose to retire
to private life at the close Of his
present ter1n,of Office. The peo-
! pie Of the State will elect his
successor at the next spring
election, whose term Of Office
will commence in January 1894.
The Justices of that court have
heretofore been chosen as non
partisan, all parties acquiescing,
The choice of our Judiciary has
been kept almost uniformly free
from party politics and party
machinery. We believe thesame
policy should be continued. 1t
has SO happened, without design,
that the present justices Of the
supreme court have been chosen
from the southern part Of the
State, while the northern part
has at no time furnished a mem
Der Of that court It was generally
conceded that the successor of
Justice Lyon should come from
the northern part of the State.
In view of this sentiment, steps
were taken to ascertain who III
the north should be selected as the
candidate. Several worthy gen
tlemen were named. Those who
early became most prominent
were Judges Charles NJ. Webb, of
Grand Rapids, and R. D. Marsh
all, of Chippewa Falls. Later it
was announced that JudgeA W.
Newman, of Trempeleau, would
be a candidate. tits understood
that all desired to be non-part1-
san candidates. This being SO,
each must be nominated, if at
all, by means of nomination
Ipapers executed by the
requisite number Of electors
pursuant to the statute. The
| friends of each candidate were
proceeding in their own way when
a call was issued by the Eau
Claire Bar Association, inviting
the attorneys of certain designated
circuits alleged to constitute the
northern part of the State, to
meet at MarshheId on the 10Th
day of December, 1892, for the
purpose Of selecting a candidate
to be voted for at the ensuing
judicial election. This call was
issued without previous consulta-
ton with the lawyers of any other
locality, or with the friends Of
any of the aspirants except SO far
as Individual members of the Bar
Association calling it may have
been such. The call was published
but ten days before the time named
for the meeting. 1t named nine
circuits as entitled to represent
tatron, including the sixth, but
omitted the 3rd, which is more
northerly than the 9th. It named
no basis OF representation, but
proceeded upon the assumption
that its deliberations were to be
controlled by majority of the
lawyers present in person or by
proxy. This call was complete
surprise. The friends of Judge
Webb did not approve, and were
at all times unwilling to abide the
action of, any meeting thus consti-
tuted Similar efforts in the past
have failed to give the satisfactory
results anticipated. Conventions
acting for a constituency greater
than single locality should be
composed of representatives OF
the several localities interested,
1 based upon population or upon
the popular vote. AS matter Of
fact, at the Marshheld convention
Douglas county, with thirty
thousand or less population,
claimed the right to cast $50 votes,
or Whereabouts, while other coun-
ties with equal or greater popu-
lation had only about 25 votes, or
less, each, and as a consequence it
was within the power of the single
county named, upon the basis of the
call, to out-vote at least four entire
circuits The call was issued by a
body of honorable men, though
few in number, and upon their own
responsibility, but presumably with
IN honest rD,,-,oCa 70 hriDr toUatb q =