The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-11-26

THE JUDGESH1P.
Things moved with sudden and start
ling rapidity about the noon hour at
Washington yesterday when the federal
judgeship was up before the Kansas
tol and before the president and the at
torney general at the other end of Penn
sylvania avenue
The pending crisis seems to have been
wholly unsupported by at least seven
of the ten members of the senate and of
the house from this state.
The people on the Kaw apparently
were more quickly informed of the
situation than were the Kansans on the
Fotomas. Sharp at IL O'Clock yesterday
came the word to the State Journal
through the Associated Press that Jus
tice John Pollock of the supreme court
of Kansas has been selected as the sue
cessor to United States District Judge
Hook
The news was bulletined on the win
dows of this office and the exciting,
long drawnout contest was known here
to be over and up to the United States
senate.
Tagging along after comes the report
that the Kansas delegation met,
voting with slight changes from former
positions. no candidate with more than
three votes, four still in the race and
none with less than two members be-
hind him Then the dispatch says after
voting seven more times without fur
Their change they sedately moved, and
the motion prevailed, to adjourn fur
Their deliberations till Friday morning.
All this leads all of US who are fifteen
hundred miles away in fact, but closer
in reality to facts than the White
House and the capitol, to wonder
WHERE or in which box. was the Kan
sas delegation when the curtain was
rung down.
The quick result. without the appar-
ent knowledge, and certainly without
the action of the Kansas delegation as
a body, can only be explained on the
theory that the president and attorney
general were fully satisfied that the
charges against Pollock were unwar-
ranted, and that being the case. in
view of the prominence given them
that to turn down Pollock now would
work great injustice to a judge on the
supreme bench of his state.
The charges placed before the attor-
ney general, whatever they are, have
not been made public, but whatever
they may be, did not weigh, as
presented, to the law and executive de-
partments at Washington.
There is clearly indicated further this:
That the president was tired of the
failure of the delega ton to get together;
that the president has great confidence
in Senator Longs position and what he
says carries weight at the White House
This paper said editorially last Fri
day: Things have certainly arrived at
a stage when Judge Pollock must pre-
sent something convincing to his
friends and the appointing powers that
any serious charges are untrue: and
that Senator Long is wrong in his en-
dorsement unless he has proof that
Judge Pollock is innocent of these
charges
Yesterday afternoons dispatch to the
State Journal says:
Senator Long gave out the follow
ing statement after the meeting: I am
authorized by the president to say
that the charges against Judge Pollock
have been Investigated by the attorney
general and that Judge Pollock has
been completely exonerated from the
charges, his enemies having wholly
failed to sustain them.
What could be more satisfactory
than this to the man who has been
honored. Nothing but the APP
pointment. He gets both. Let him
fill his office in a manner worthy of
it's high position.
There will be disappointment on
many sides. There will be those who
will say, not without reason, that
Judge w. A Johnston. with a fine rec
ord as a man and for eighteen years as
judge on our supreme bench. should
have been promoted-but politics. abil-
ity as lawyer. and the belief on the
part of the appointing powers that
Judge Pollock was unjustIy accused,
have brought about the event.