The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-01-09
ABOUT THOSE JUDGES.
GO. Clemens Makes Statement About
Their Situation.

Their Situation.
G. c. Clemens, who is attorney for
Judge Thomson in the judicial muddle,
is up in arms because of the reports
that Governor Stanley and other state
officers advising the judicial ap-
pointees to seize the offices without due
process of law, and he writes the fol-
lowing piece" to the State Journal on
the subject:
To the Editor of the state Journal:
Although 1 look upon the press as
rather court of appeals than a, court
of original jurisdiction, still, for some
reason, possibly because I can write
little, am not so averse as some law
yers seem to be to trying a case in
the newspapers" and as the attorney
general, the governor and the state
auditor have begun such a trial to
the biennial election law as it affects
judges. proceed to argue briefly the
other side.
T will take District Judge Geiger as
an illustration. He was regularly elect
ed. He is at present, at least, lawfully
in office. He claims the right to con-
tinue in office, and claims that right in
good faith. Our supreme court in
Brady V. Sweetland, 13 Kan. Al, and in
Brady v. Theritt, II Kan. Al, settled a
rule of law as to such cases which has
since gone over the Union: that the
claimant to an office cannot take the
law into his own hands and either by
other officers get possession of the office
without due process of law. He must
bring in regular proceeding in quo war
ranto, and in the meantime the officer
de facto must remain undiSturbed. Yet
we are informed that the attorney gen.
eral and the governor have advised the
claimants of judicial offices that they
are to take possession of the bench next
week by force, by strategy, or by the
recognition of the sheriffs. This is in
the very teeth of supreme court decis-
ions and, of course, is anarchy pure and
simple. As If this were not enough, the
state auditor announces that he has
also become a convert to the principles
which L am supposed to have been in
culcating for years and, to accomplish
partisan ends, has also become an an
archist. I feel flattered at having made
a convert of so level-headed a man and
I sincerely hope he may stick next
closed and the picnic season has be-
gun. l am so proud of my conquest
that l wish the public to know that the
state auditor has really become a sure
enough anarchist and 1 therefore wish
the people to know that ff he pays a
dollar to the new judges or refuses to
pay their regular salaries to the old
judges, he is one of my folks for sure.
To this end / call attention to the
fact that the supreme court has stead
lily ruled that the salary must be paid
to the de facto officer and never to the
claimant. Not to multiply citations, it
was also held in Saline Co. V. Anderson,
20 Kan. 29S, and lately in Lawrence v.
Leidigh, 5S Kan. 676. AS to recognition
of the new judges by the sheriffs and
clerks, it may be pertinent to quote
what was said, in Saline county ".
Anderson, 20 Kan. by a distinguished
justice not entirely unrelated to the
present attorney general:
How are they to know that he is
wrongfully in possession of the office? and
how are they to know whether he is in
the possession of the office rightfully or
wrongfully? Are they bound to know
who is entitled to the office in advance of
any final adjudication of the question by
the courts? Are they bound to anticipate
the decision Of the courts? Are they