The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-06-28
KEEP IL our OF POLITICS.

Do the gentlemen who are promot-
ing the organization Of a Bar Asso
citation intend to keep it within the
lines usually followed in making up
such organization in the many States
and cities, or do they intend to turn
it into a political machine?
Bar Associations throughout the
country stand strictly neutral in po-
litical matters. Only in maintaining
the integrity of the Bench do they
venture to influence legislation, and
only when there is an almost unan-
imous feeling in favor of intervention
do they venture on political ground.
The line between professional and
one, and it is cautiously approached.
For this reason, any political action
by Bar Associations is invariably
spontaneous, united, and arises out of
some grave crisis.
No doubt it would have been wise
thing for the judges and the lawyers
to have cooperated before this time, in
organizing a Bar Association. The ex-
perienced members of the Bar should
have taken the lead in the matter. It
is unfortunate that they have not done
so. AT the same time, if the younger
members Of the Bar take the lead,
they should place the prominent men
in front.
The motives of those who are pro-
noting the. organization of Bar AS
sOciation are a little open to criticism,
when it appears that the chief object
of this rather sudden movement is to
influence Congress in its legislation
regarding the retention of the present
judges in office.
If there are reasons for turning the
present judges out of office they exist
ed when the Commission was in SEES
sion here. But no effort was made to
influence the Commission, and the
Commission was informed on all sides
that the present Judiciary was most
acceptable.
What, then, has suddenly stimulat-
ed members of the Bar to sudden hos
tility against the judges? Why do
they propose to make up Bar Asso-
citation, and club the present Judiciary
with it? The proposed law of Con-
gress, retaining the present judges in
Office has been before the public for
some months, and there has been no
opposition to it.
If the movement to get them out Of
Office is due to several recent decis-
ions, which are not held to be correct
by some attorneys, then it is a direct
blow at the independence of the judi
ciary. 1t means the dragging of the
Bar Association, if formed, into the
meanest kind of politics.
The Supreme Court of the United
States has been denounced time and
again by all sorts of people, who did
not like it's decisions, and a good
many voluble and foolish speeches
have been made in Congress about the
errors of that high tribunal, but no
Bar Association has ever criticised it.
The Labor Unions would reconstruct
that court today if they had the pow
er to do so, but the. people still have
faith in its intelligence and honesty.
1t would be more creditable for us
to show the people in Washington
that we are really an intelligent COM
munity than to fall to wrangllng
among ourselves, and create an i'm
preston there that We are lot OF
nondescripts and beachcombers, who
do not trust each other, and need close
outside supervision. fe.'
The members of the Bar who are re-
cent immigrants should understand
that the men who control the business
of these Islands do not forget that the
preservation of Anglo-Saxon institu-
tions here, during the last twenty
years, has been largely due to the in
dependence of the judges, and they
will not submit quietly to see those
men removed from office, who have
done so much to build up this little
State. The citizens of this little CON-
munity must submit to the rule of
democracy, but the old kamaainas will
surely not forget the judicial bulwark
which has protected them so long.