The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-04
THE CIRCUIT JUDGEsHIp.

The middle Judiciary of Hawaii was
never at a lower ebb than, it is now
and there seems to be no Immediate
prospect OF rise in its moral and in
tellectual tides. The initial blame is
partly chargeable to Congress and
partly to the apathy of those among
u.s. including, the Bar Association,
whom Congress would listen to if they
would only speak.
When the Organic Act was framed
the salary of Circuit Judge was put at
$1,000, sum which a first class lawyer,
practicing in Honolulu, may easily
earn in three months 1t followed,
therefore, that the only lawyers likely
to accept appointments to the bench
are of the following classes:
I. Those whose public spirit may
prompt them to leave rich and grow
ing practice for the sake of securing an
honest or efficient administration of
Justice;
II. Those who want the title of
Judge to help them in their future
practice and whose stay on the bench
would necessarily be short.
III. Politicians who conceive that the
bench would be stepping stone TO
higher office and who would carry the
arts and methods of politics to the
woolsack.
". Shysters who need 5udgeship
for it's salary.
BY grace of President Mckinley, who
has been unfortunate enough to advise
with absentee Committeeman Sewal,
we have had, now. have or are in the
way of having, representatives on the
Circuit bench of the second third and
fourth classes, as described above.
There is no representative at all of the
first class, nor does it seem that there
is likely to be. Even If third bench
was to De erected in the Honolulu cir
cult, we should not be surprised to see
it filled by such character. as George
A. Davis.
So much for the effect of small sal
airy on the quality of the circuit judges
We now come to the influence of public
apathy.
Barring rather perfunctory petition
for Mr.. De Bolt, there has been no evil
dence of any attempt on the part of
really influential classes in Hawaii to
oppose bad judicial appointments.
There was no protest lodged against
Humphreys, though he had been a
street brawler here and had left Ari-
IONA for Arizona's good, running from
record which, when arrayed in the
public press. will read like a leaf torn
from the records of Pinkerton's bureau.
Little, whose mainland career was well
known, and Edings, whose qualities
even Humphreys rushed into print to
eriticfse, were permitted to apply for
judgeships without a word of objection
from any one. People of the strongest
character here might have saved Pres
ident Mckinley from the consummate
error OF these appointments; but they
were too busy with their private affairs
to bother about it and may, there
tore, When some of their important
&causes are sacrificed by bad judge or
"a weak judge, suffer for their neglect
of public duty.
In some respects the worst appoint
ment of all is the latest one, that of
George D. Gear, a lawyer who belongs
TO the third and fourth classes de-
scribed above. His practice, as we
showed when his record was contrasted
in these columns with the one of Mr..
De Bolt, was that of an attorney who
had been employed upon very few cases
In the Supreme Court and had lost
most of them. Politically. Mr.. Gear
was a bolter last fall, his influence.
such as 1t was, going against the cleo
ton of a Republican Territorial Sem
ate. If 1t was the Presidents belief
that 1t would strengthen the party to
give the Humphreys-Gear faction an
other judgeship, he was woefully mis-
led; for no native Hawaiian, belong
ing to the Home Rule party, will have
much to do with an organization whose
leader, the President of the United
States, has highly rewarded the man
who went to Washington to unseat
Delegate Wilcox; and the party as a
whole will be hurt by having to bear
the odium of the Gear preferment. To
sum up, there is neither lawyers rea-
son nor politicians reason why Mr..
Gear should be made a circuit Judge;
on the contrary, there is every law
yer's reason and every politicians rea-
son why he should not have been ap-
pointed and should not be confirmed.