New-York tribune., 1906-11-01
THEIR DIRTIEsT DAYS WORK.

It is somewhat of a misfortune that judges
have 10 be elected at the same time with state
or with city officers that they must share the
political lot of the ticket" We wish, for the
public training in morals, that the issue might
be tried out distinctly between the judicial can
didates nominated in this district by the lawyers
and by the Republicans and the nominees
jaIlmed under the peoples noses by the Hearst
Murphy confederacy. Judicial decency is Il big
enough issue to stand by itself. There are ten
justices Of the Supreme Court TO be elected ;
there are twenty-five now upon the bench, and
thus the justices to be elected will make up
third of the reorganized court. and will largely
determine its character for years to come. We
should like to have had the voters of this dis
trict vote for these judges in an off year and
decide by itself, and on its own merits, the queS-
ton whether the stars and stripes combination
should sit upon the bench for half q generation
to come. The question of judicial purity is well
worthy OF being thraShed out by itself, as we
now thrash out municipal questions apart from
state and national ones, and it would have been
a good thing for the political soddenness Of New
York If the city could have been forced to listen
throughout a whole campaign to the reasons
why, If it is going to indulge itself In Tammany
administrations and Tammany bosses, 1t must
have q safety appliance in a clean and IRE
proachable bench. Judicial decency would then
have been the essential, not an incidental, issue.
We are not confident, however, that the cause
Of reform would have profited practically and
Immediately from such distinct campaign. One
or two ideas Of political morality might have
been q little more deeply inculcated, and that
might have been all the gain For practically
now the Hearst-Murphy judicial ticket bears the
weight Of all the odium of the Hearst-Murphy
political alliance, in which a "reformer" who
had called a boss criminal and the boss who
had suffered that objectionable offence formed
together revolutionary junta and office broker
age business. The precious pair put aside their
private grievances to barter public morality
for the selection of the judiciary is a moral ques-
ton. The burden Of being both the Hearst
and the Murphy tickets should be enough to
swamp the stars and stripes candidates.
Hearst himself, before he made his deal with
Murphy, telegraphed thus to the expensive indis-
pensability who edits one of his papers:
1t is true, as Jerome said, that the Judges go
hat in hand to Mr.. Murphy. but it is also true
that Mr.. Murphy goes hat IN hand to Mr.. Ryan,
and Mr.. Ryan, who irstructs Mr.. Murphy and
appoints the Judges and governs the people,
keeps his hat on all the time. The fight must
be made for honest judges and II is only
phase of the fight against boss rule and corpo-
ration rule, which is the great issue of to-day.
This man declares, not in public profession for
political effect, but in private utterance, that
Murphy's judges belong 10 Ryan; that ''the fight
must be made for honest judges" and he sells
TO Murphy, that is to Ryan, the constitution Of
the court for a decade to come. The contract
with Murphy, that is, Ryan, to use Hearst's own
words, is: Hearst takes the Governorship;
Ryan takes the Supreme Court. That is the
way the Friend of the Peepul fights against
boss rule" and corporation rule" Murphy,
the agent of the Plunderbund. pins his faith in
the future on his mastery of the Supreme Court,
and bids Hearst go play, if he can, at revolution
in Albany
For ourselves we do not feel the necessity of
accepting Hearsts hypothesis and tracing the
hat in hand" process back Of Murphy-that is
far enough. To all decent citizens who love New
York it is a loathly sight to see its highest
Judges ''go hat in hand" to On INSCRIPTIONS and
vulgar boss. 1t is, moreover, degrading TO the
public morals that the judges should be selected
in deal so corrupt that in effecting if even
the unfastdous Grady confessed: This is
the dirtiest days work in all my life" VIII
New York endure what seemed foul to Grady?