Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1894-03-08
PUBLIC OPINION.

Cincinnati Tribune.
Mr.. Oates, of Alabama, a member OF
the Judiciary Committee, has submltteo
to the House of Representatives report
recommending the passage of his resoiu-
ton proposing an amendment to the
constitution to fix the term of Office OF
Judges of the Supreme Court OF tne
United States at ten years. This IS
novel and radical proposition, and one
that would be widely and warmly dis
cussed. Opposition to this plan has
already manifested itself in many places,
and it is likely that many of the attor-
news and bar associations of the country
will be heard from within the next few
months.
Mr.. Oates arguments that the trainers
of the constitution gave life tenure to
the Judges of the Supreme Court for the
| purpose of making them independent
and impartial, and so securing for the
people an unbiased, non-political judi
ciarv. Mr.. Oates thinks that the 100
years of experience show that this pur-
pose has not been adequately realized,
and maintains that some of the judges
are active participants in politics, and
| that they sometimes seem to be biased
in their judgments. Mr. Oates is willing
to make the generous concessions, how
| ever, that the majority of the Justices
are excellent men, of high character,
who discharge thier duties with un
common fidelity and ability. He is
equally sure, too, that some of the
Judges are incompetent, have no apti-
tude for Judiciary work, are lazy, careless
and full of prejudices.
Mr. Oates bill of complaint is long
one, and he must have been filled with
pessimistic gloom when he wrote it. He
finds that some judges are so far re-
moved from responsibility to any one
that they do things which they would
not think of doing were they more di-
rectly responsible. Mr.. Oates gives Mr..
Cleveland a cruel dig when he says the
standard for the selection of Judges by
! the President has not always been as
high and non-partisan as it should have
been. We do not see that the standard
of judiciary merit would be elevated or
| improved in any direction by limiting
| the term of service for United States
Judges to ten years. Indeed, it does
not seem probable that Mr.. Oates plan
will prove an active remedy for any of
the evils of which he complains. There
is pretty wide disseminated notion
| that the Supreme Court of the United
States is about as satisfactory tribunal
as there is in the world.
The people of this country would be
10th to sanction SO radical a change as
the one proposed by Mr.. Oates, and they
will be induced TO think that he is one
of those flighty Southern men referred
to by ex-Mayor Hewitt, of New York,
in his recent speech.
MosLEM AND CHRISTIAN IN THE soUDAN.
| Cleveland Leader.
The yigor and military skill with
which the French and British forces
operating in the western part of the
Soudan have been opposed in various
recent engagements illustrates the viril-
ity and old-time martial spirit of the
Moslem kingdoms and the principalities
in that interesting but little known part
of Africa.
The Sofas, the Tuaregs, and the other
| tribemen encountered are of many and
greatly mixed races and nationalities.
The one thing which holds them together
is the power of chieftains, mainly of Arab
blood, who are themselves the product
of the waves of Mohammedan conquest
which have overf1owed the vast plains
south of the Sahara within compare
lively recent period. Everywhere else
in the world Islam is waning, either nu-
merically or in its hold upon its adhe-
rents, except in the western part of that
region, where it has dashed against the
troops of France and England. AS in
other lands in the early days of Moslem
growth, the track of the conquerors of
Islam is marked by blood and ruin,
slavery and unspeakable outrages.
The fierce and cruel spirit of the
prophet and his lieuteI ants is brought
vividly before the more humane modern
civilization of the Christian world as it
was before the dark ages. The picture
is even more repellant now, though the
old sense of danger is wanting, and the
end must be. ere long, the overflow of
the young Moslem states in the Soudan
as the Mogul Empire perished in India
and as Turkey is now tottering to its
doom.