Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-01-19

for establishing some reserve fund or
life insurance for the future necessi-
ties of his family.
But however this may be / feel quite
sure that the present salary, consider
ing all things, is entirely inadequate
to provide a support for a judge and
his family in any such manner as one
in my position is reasonably entitled
to. / am quite sure that not a mem
Der of our present bench finds his sal
airy sufficient for his support without
some other means in addition to the
salary more or less.
And in this connection / will state
my own experience. / have been on
the bench continually for % years last
May, and my salary, at first 100000
and since 1887 $3,500.0O, has never for
single year paid my years expenses or
anywhere near it. The nearest 1t has
ever come to making the two ends
meet was in 1874 the year next after
my appointment, when my expenses
of support We're $44l6.00. And this sum
did not include house rent q own my
house, but did include house repairs:
nor did it include taxes, nor expense Of
board and travel when at court away
from home, nor money paid for law
books, nor gifts to friends and reia-
tives excepting small current charities.
The next nearest to this was in 1880.
when my living expenses, making the
same exclusions or deductions as be-
fore stated were $4 1900 The dis
parity. in all the other years of my oc-
cupancy of seat on the bench be-
tween receipts and expenses was
greater than in the instance named.
And while it may not be worth while
to expose the facts in detain. / will say
in general terms, that for the period
of more than a quarter of a century
during which l have been member
of the court, and wholly in the service
of the State. my ordinary living eX-
penses, not including any of those
items enumerated above. exceed all
the amount of salary received by me
from the State by more than the sum
of 100000. And | am not aware that I
am regarded by my friends and neigh
bors as living at all extravagantly.
do not intend to state these things at
all reproachfully nor to express any per-
sonal discomfort, because / really feel
none on my part with the past. and while
would be better pleased to make no
statement at all of these facts. still | am
impressed with the belief that II is my
duty to do so, as the same may be con-
sidered important as bearing on the ques-
ton as to what would be the just thing
to do for others in the future.
Now ii may be said, and | think prop
erly, that the honor conferred by the
position is of itself some partial compen-
sation for the official services which Il
agree to that, and that was a considera-
ton of weight and Importance with me
when took the office in the year 1879 at
the age of 81, thinking at the time that
as [ have since found to be true, judicial
work would be agreeable to me. But
there have been vast changes since 1873
and before 1899 and the compensations
paid for professional services are vastly
larger now than then. and there are now
no such inducements as there were for
able lawyers to leave the Bar for the
Bench. and naturally enough so when IL
is not an uncommon thing for lawyers
in Maine as we'll as elsewhere nowadays
to receive for a single fee or in single
litigation more than the judges salary
for year. Buzz the destinations of the
judicial office are not d reason why just
and reasonable salaries should not be
paid by the State to its judges. And Is
there any reason why the judges in this
State should receive SO much less. as Is
the case, than the average judicial sala-
rieS paid in other states and in our CIR
cult and district federal courts? From
the schedules going the rounds Of the
newspapers it appears that our Judicial
salaries are well night at the very bot
tom of the list.