Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-03-16
MIXED SUPREME COURT.
Personnel and Powers OF the High
est Judicial Body i'm the Phil
ippine Islands.

make up the supreme COuII VI TIC ID
lands The chief justice, G. Arellano,
is 81 years old, native OF the province
of Bataan. He was educated at the Roy
al college of San Juan de Letran and
at the University of st. Thomas, OF Ma
Mia, where he began his professional
life. Under the Spanish regime he held
judgeship in the district of Tarlac; for
two years he was justice of the terri
terial supreme court at Manila and
then became professor of civil law at
st. Tomas, position he held for l6
years. Gen. Otis made him chief JUS
tiSe of the first supreme court organ
lied in 1899, and when the commission
set up the present system, Junue 6, 1901,
he was reappointed, says the New York
Post
Associate Justice Florentino Torres
Is go, st. Tomas graduate, and spe-
cialist in criminal law. Two Of his
sons are now in the United States,
studying at Washington. Justice Vic
torinO Mapa, native of the province
Of Capiz, who was born in 1854, is, like
his two native associates, graduate of
st. Tomas, and a Manila lawyer. In
1896 he became mayor of Iloilo, and in
the last Spanish administration he was
4 member of council of reforms. He
has been a successful lawyer, and has
held his associate justiceship since the
creation of the court by the commits
sion in 1901
Justice McDonough, one of the Amer
lean members of the court, who sue
ceeded James F. Smith, was secretary
Of state of New York when President
Roosevelt was governor. He is a Co.
lumbia university graduate, and he got
his appointment year ago. He is 60
years old. Joseph F. Cooper from Mis-
sissippi, a graduate of the University
of Toronto; Charles A. Willard, from
st. Johnsbury, VT, and a graduate of
Dartmouth in 1877, and E. Finley
| Johnson, who succeeded Judge Fletcher
Laid last May, are the other members
Of the court Until 1906 the official Ian
guage of court procedure must be Span
| lsh
"The appellate jurisdiction of the SUI
preme court of the Philippines" says
the clerk, who contributed a resume of
the work to a Manila newspaper, Gin
criminal cases is dissimilar to that Of
| any appellate court in the United
States. Under the prevailing practice,
an appeal vests the court with power
to make it's own findings of fact from
the oral testimony at the trial taker
and reduced to writing and to apply
! the law to the facts as found bv itself.
The case is in effect tried anew and a
judgment of acquittal or conviction
rendered without regard to the conclu-
siOns reached by the trial Judge as to
the facts. In case of the reversal of the
trial court new trial IS not usually
granted, but the supreme court finally
disposes Of the case by an acquittal
or conviction. The result is that the
penalty imposed upon the appellant, by
the trial court is frequently increased,
and in one instance a defendant who
appealed from a judgment imposing
upon him a penalty of II years i'm
prisonment was sentenced to death as
a result of his ill-advised appeal" The
work of supreme court justice, there
fore, becomes arduous and responsible;
and there have been few complaints Q.
the manner in which the court has
done it's work.
Space is not available to go into the
history of every man who holds a re-
sponsible place under Gov. Wright.
w. FERGUSON, the new executive sec
rotary, is a Californian, lawyer, poll
tician and editor. Attorney Genera
Whitley is pig Missourian, goo(
friend of ex-Gov. Taft, was once pres
ident of a small college in Missouri,
Yale law school graduate, and a mai
sure of his own strength. Treasure
Frank w Branagan got into the treas
ury department at Washington in 1885
and in 1901 was given his present pos
in the Philippines. He is from Ohio
Dean Worcester, secretary of the in
.erior, is Vermont man, a Universit
Michigan graduate, is SO years ole
nd his speciality before taking hi
, resent post in 1901 was zoology On
, his books deals with "The Philip
) pine Islands and Their People," and h
has published various papers on tn
birds and mammals of the Philippine!
, In making up the cabinet to keep til
government moving in the islands, e1
perience has counted much. 1t is
4 working body, made up of men VIII
o have dealt largely with men, and in tn
, Philippines they have succeeded i
a making themselves known and fel
, Gov Wright has capable assistants.
|