The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-03-02
OUR JUDGES.

Judicial names should p''' appear oii
the roll of militant politics-certainly
not on the commissary stan. This Is
so plain that it is difficult to credit
the suggestion lately made through
the press to the effect that some mem
bers of the judiciary are at the pres
ent time active factors in polltlcai
combinations for the distribution OF
rations. II such an evil prevails IL
is attributable, believe. to the mis-
taken view honestly entertained that
a Judge pending his term of office
may lawfully liquidate his political
debts. This view is too erroneous to
be long adhered to and must soon be
overruled and abandoned. The true
theory is that every judge is politically
insolvent. He has suspended political
business and has no assets. His cred
itors must indulge him until his jul
dicial career has terminated. Then,
if he will, he may accumulate fresh
capital and settle with his friends to
the utmost farthing. He needs not
forget any of his obligations while
temporarily disabled from meeting and
discharging them. His retentiVe
memory and their own robust hope
should content his friends SO long as
his disability continues. They have
no cause to complain of a delay which
they themselves rendered necessary
by retiring him from the political ar
ena and consigning him to the judi
cial cloister. To expect a judge to
settle political scores while he Is still
a Judge is hardly less incongruous
than dunning a priest when he is Of
ficiating at the altar.
/ have said that a judge has no as
sets; perhaps il would be more ac-
curate to say that he takes a political
homestead on all his assets for and
during his term of office. In either
case the same consequence results, for
in either case he is, and ought to be,
completely independent of his polit-
ical creditors 1t is needless to add
that, being restrained from paying
his debts, he has no right to make do
nations. In short, he should consid-
er himself in temporary seclusion
from active politics, with no political
functions save to vote as he pleases
like any other citizen.-L. E. Bleckley.
ex-chief justice of Georgia.
And above all things else judge
ought not to ne an ass nor an up
start.
He ought to be in thorough har-
mony with our institutions. He ought
to be thoroughly cOnversant with our
traditions.
man who is selected to admin
lister our laws ought to know our
laws He ought to know that this is
a government of democracy. He ought
to know that a public official is a
public servant.
liz OOe-iN w NiAeHS iiN 10 NiAN
servant and the people the sovereign,
and that therefore, he is accountable
to the people for his conduct in office.
That being thus accountable he is
subject to criticism the same as all
other officials.
The soil of this country should not
give root, nor flower, nor blossom, to
despotism in any form.
The president in the White House.
the governor in his executive mansion.
the legislator in congress or state leg
islature or the general at the head of
our armies. are subject to criticism by
the people because they are the ser
wants of the people.
Our judicial officers are likewise
servants of the people and are subject
to the same criticism.
If the rule obtains that one officer
is subject to criticism and not anoth-
Ter, then. like Caesar, the one will feel
himself greater than the state, and
when this idea firmly obtains our in
stitutions will have been subverted