The Brunswick daily news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1903-1906, 1904-05-06
AND THE JUDICIARY.

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Of the people Of the state Of Georgia:
eThe press and public sentiment OF
the state as expressed through letters
to The press are very much In earnest
in demanding a change Of method in
judicial officers.
It wanted only the last primary
election to convince the good people
Of Georgia that their misgiyings Of
the two years previous we're wei found
ed as to the propriety Of leaving the
selection Of judges to the popular cleo
torate.
The result has been scandaiois to
the bench and humiliating to all Geor-
gians who respect the dignity and in
tegrlty Of the ermine.
We have seen gentlemen who on
posed each other for judicial honors
throw dignity and dignifed politics q
the winds, not scrupling to descend
to the methods Of the most question
able type of practical politics" Fol
lowing the last two primaries we have
heard charges and counterch rges
made by jldiciai candidates, which
il true on half the counts, proclaimed
them unworthy to fill the high post tc
which they aspired
These accusations, which have ruf
the whole gamut Of election eorrup
ton, with the possible exception Of
the Indiana blocks of i've system,
may have been, and doubtless, were
exaggerated to fit the magnitude Of
the candidates choler but with all due
allowance for such mental hyperbole
to use no harsher term,
have been shown TO have figured more
or less in judicial elections in Georgia.
An unseemly rough and tumble
scramble for the ermine inspires right
citizens with disgust; a con
test of the kind in which downright
and fraud are resorted to
at the polls thrills the whole body poll
tic with a sense Of execration and
alarm.
The moral stigma Of such an cleo
ton cannot be magniled. Once let
the bench wallow in the nAre Of poll.
tics and it has lost all that makes i
in the public estimation.
We have hoard much of recent years
the growing public disre4
gard for la wand order and disrespect
for the courts This lamentabe ten.
1ency however much or little Il ex
lists, must inevitably be increased by
judicial aspirants laying themselves
liable to the charge of political chi
sanery and Doodle practices in an eff.
FOR TO debauch the electorate for the
accomplishment Of their Judicial safe.
guard of civil liberty would be broken
down and justice made a hollow mock.
Try.
The people Of Georgia respect their
judiciary; they want to continue to re-
spect it, IN the opinion of many
thoughtful citizens this cannot be done
by leaving the choice of judges to a
primary election. The reasons are oh.
yious about reforming the primary IN
this connection but the reform in
wolves too much of the reformation Of
human nature.
What then, shall we do? There
are other methods open for the selec.
ton OF judicial officers which are com
paratiyely free from the worst objec-
tons to the primary system. Shall
we hesitate to adopt them because. per
chance, they seem less democratic?
We need not here enter itto an enum
GRAFTON Of what the other methods are.
We have the other states of the union
TO study as models in this particular,
and, having decided to try another
plan, our care should be to select one
that promises the least objections.
One thing is certain, our judges
must be placed in a position removed
from the mud and noisomenoss OF
practical politics.
The people Of Georgia are fully
awake to the emergency. They mean
to preserve the good name and honor
or the states judiciary,
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The Gooer- Norris contest in the Blue
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