Daily Kennebec journal., 1899-02-17

ing forced to engage in other business
or In speculation. am aware that
there are many who will say that we
nave no right to even argue that
judges Of our courts under the tram
mels OF office will be partial or viii
lack Independence, no matter what
may De their salaries, no matter who
may be the men who are appointed,
but answer to this that since Adam
and Eve plucked the fairest and sweet
est fruit that ever grew in Paradise,
frailty has been the attribute OF every
son OF women born, and that the ap-
pointing of any citizen of this state 10
the supreme bench, clothing him with
the ermine of office, empowering him
with its attributes and authority, will
not necessarily render him impervious
to those motives that insinuatingly
and subtly possess mans soul and
make him involuntarily and uncOnsci-
ously the instrument of pronouncing a
decision contrary to that which judg-
ment and honesty should convey.
Make our judges independent: place
them on such a plane that they may
never bow to the storm of heated
political discussion. that they may
never be influenced involuntarily and,
as they believe honestly, by the argu-
rnents urged in favor of great corpora
tions. There stands today between the
plain people and the grasp and greed
of corporations the supreme court OF
this State, and l submit that they
should be rendered SO strong that they
shall be as a wall over which corpora
tions shall never get, to infringe upon
the rights and the privileges of the
people.
Now, say, demanding as we do from
the judges of the supreme court learn
ing. ability and Independence, we. the
Legislature of Maine. have assumed
the obligation, do assume the obliga- :
ton, ought to receive the obligation to
be the defenders of their independence
and the guardians of the families. so
that neither the one nor the other shall
suffer. The volume of business that is
done by the justices of the supreme
court has grown to remarkable de-
gree even within my time. Litigation,
in it's forms varied, has increased. Act
ual trials perhaps have not increased
to the same extent. but arising from
year to year all over the State are a
multitude of new questions that grow
out of new conditions and result
upon increased wealth and increased
activity. That great younger sister OF
the common law has grown until she
has thrown her mantle of protection
over all the vested interests and busi-
ness interests of the State of Maine,
he system of guilty Jurisprudence.
In the early days of my practice the
lawyer who knew how to draw u bill
in equity was regarded somewhat as a
wonder in the country districts, but
now the most obscure country lawyer
finds the drawing of bill in equity as
simple as anything else, and the sys-
tenn has grown apace and with 1T the
knowledge of the provisions and the
capacity of the court to grapple with
problems that were unknown even
generation ago. The growth OF the
State in all those things. that require a
judge of enhanced qualities and ability
and social graces has been remarkable.
All over the State learning and refine
ment are on the increase and all these
require of the judge a corresponding
growth. There is now no longer any
district of the State where the people
are utterly rural as they were once,
but in the country as well as the cities
people have grown. adopted a new
style of living and have acquired habits
that necessitate corresponding
growth on the part of the court.
All this compels new and increased
outlays by the judges as they travel on
their circuits throughout the State.
that they may be not only fit COM
panions of the gentlemen of the bar
and their families but of those people
who occupy the highest social positions
in the different communities where
they hold their court. Great outlays
are required by the court to pay the ex-
penses of the inns, whose charges have
steadily grown within my time.
There is another item of expense
that is very considerable that has been
thrown upon the judges within the last
few years, because of this, that the IN
tense activity and the vast interests
of our business now wait not upon the
slow process of writing with the pen
but our work is done by stenographers
and typewriters. and the judges of the
court who draw opinions and pro-
nollnce DEGREES, who have written doe
uments to make, can no longer con-
sistently with the proper discharge OF
their duties requiring intellectual abil-
ity continue to do the mere menial
work of wri,ing that they formerly did.
There lis no provision in the law what-
ever to allow the judges compensation
or reimbursement for the amount that
they pay out for typewriters and stem
ographers fer reproducing their @opin-
ions. | submit that they ought to be
given a sufficient salary to provide for
their outlays while upon the circuit in
the discharge of their duties, as well as
20 furnish them the means of subsistence,
to educate their children and also to
law aside something that might be a
competence, or at least pittance. to
keep the wolf from the door in their
old age. "a ,+eea, es Z rt5
| Now. it has been frequently stated
that the judges when they were ap-
pointed knew that their salary was five
and thirty hundred dollars and that
therefore, so far as the question of the
present ineumbents goes. they have
nothing to complain of. having accept
cd an appointment with the salary fix
ed and this. it is urged to me. is an an
swer to any proposition to increase
+ha;r salaries. / say that this argu-