The Nome nugget. (Nome, Alaska) 1901-1904, 1904-05-04
Judges Reappointment
Strongly Opposed
IN FIRST and THIRD
Judicial Divisions--SpeciaI Agents
Are Sent to the First
District.

Washington. Feb. 6 Special agents
OF the department Of justice will be
sent to Southeastern Alaska to exam
inc into the affairs of the federal court
for the First district, the examination
having special reference to many re-.
ports that have come to the president
and the attorney general rejecting
upon the conduct of Judge Melville c.
Brown.
The four-year term of Judge Brown
will expire next June, at the same time
as the term OF James Wickersham, fed
eral Judge OF the third (centraD dis
trict. A bitter fight will be made
against the reappointment of both
judges. After the special agents have
looked into the affairs of the court in
Southeastern Alaska they may pass on
to the Valdez district, but this is some.
what unlikely, for no such charges
have been filed against Judge Wicker
sham as against Judge Brown.
Strong Endorsements from every i'm
pOrtant interest and from hundreds of
individuals in the Copper river coun-
try. the Yukon and the Koyukuk, urg-
ing the reappointment of Judge Wick
ersham, have been received here. The
fight on the Judge will be made by per-
sons in the Nome district-implacable
enemies, whose hostility dates from
the time when he temporarily held
court in place of Judge Noyes, and
when there was a notably vigorous ad-
ministratiOn of justice in the far North.
Revenge and nothing else, the judges
friends say, Is at the bottom of the
movement against him.
Charges Against Brown.
A really serious prima facie case has
been made out against Judge Brown.
His friends defend him stoutly. and
they may be able to disprove that
there was any wrong motive in any of
the questionable acts charged to the
Judge.
One Of the charges against Judge
Brown relates to his connection with
one of the two rival water companies
At Ketchikan. Written and verbal re-
ports, with lots of ginger in them, have
come to the president and attorney
general that the Judge owned large
interest in one of the companies, and
that he held it during the earlier
stages Of the bitter fight in Ketchikan,
by which the town was actually de-
prived of public water supply for
some time. The charge is that Judge
Brown disposed of his interest just DO.
fore the water company litigation was
brought into his court; that the man
to whom the interest was transferred
was his friend, Watson j. Hills, clerk
Of the court, and that the application
Of the Hills interests for an injunction
against tho rival company was heard
and granted by Judge Brown.
1t is also told against the Judge that
he has appointed the clerk of the court
to important receiverships over prop.
critics involved at one time or another
in litigation before the court. If this
action was not illegal, the men who
are trying to down the Judge insist,
nevertheless that it was extremely
improper.
The transportation interests gem
orally are supposed to be opposed to
the reappointment of Judge Brown,
and their representatives are expected
to use their influence against him.
A Political Incident.
One late incident has made bad i'm
preston here. That is the action of
Judge Brown in permitting (if not pro-
curing) his own election as a delegate
to the Republican national convention.
1t would be held less against the Judge
il he had been chosen as regular"
but he is Il delegate elected by the So
called rump convention. 1t is looked
upon as unusual for federal Judge to
be delegate to national political
convention, but still more unusual for
federal judge to be engaged in q pO-
litical fight that resulted in contest
ing delegation.
Judge Browns side Of the stories
brought here against him has not been
heard. The special agents of the de-
partment OF justice will call on him,
and the Judge may find it necessary to
come to Washington before his present
term expires next June.
A Pier At Nome.
The application Of William Knox, Of
Seattle, for permission to build q pier
1t Nome, has been referred by the war
department to Major John Mills, the