Bisbee daily review., 1907-07-30
M PEACHM ENT OF JUDGES.


 OF JUDGES.
 If the state officers of North Caro- lima should make good their intention and file charges against Judge Priteh- ard with the house of representatives next winter. the republican majority that body would be pushed against an uncomfortable dilema, in the opin- ion of the St. Louis Republic.
 They would be accordingly reluctant to vote the impeachment, but Judge Pritchard's course in nuliifying a state law upon a mere ex-parte state ment has been so subversiye of the American system of government that it would not be safe for them to dis miss the charges before giving them serious attention.
 Democrats and republicans have differed in the past to the relative ex- tent of state and federal powers; but the republican manhood O fthis coun- try is at one with it's democratic man. hood in insisting that the known rights of the states shall not be ruth lessly invaded by the federal power.
 Judge Pritchard's contempt for the rights of North Carolina was, and is, so fragrant that his setting. aside of North Carolina law for no ascertained cause will be condemned as strongly among the masses of republicans as among democrats.
 While there are evident differences of opinion among railroad magnates themselves upon the expediency of adopting a uniform rate of cents a mile for passenger Service, Judge Pritchard assumed off hard that a raSs of 2A cepts a mile would be unjust or confscatory to the Caro- lima roads.
 If reasonable cause had been shown it would have been the duty of the judge to protect the roads from spol- iation. No such cause having been shown, he has simply interfered in state matter-one which could have been settled directly by the courts of North Carolina, or through them, eventually by the supreme court of the United States.
 If charges should be preferred against Judge Pritchard it is not i'm possible that he might be impeached, though the influence of the admins tration would be powerfully exerted to keep the issue from going to that length, But it is remotely improba- ble that he could be convicted by the necessary two-thirds vote of the sen ate. Republicans who share Judge Pritchsrd's contempt for the rights of the states are too strongly intrenched in the senate for that
 Running all through our history there seems to have been the senti- ment that the judiciary, if it errs st all, errs from mistaken judgment There have been only four impeach- ments of federal judges since the gov ernment was founded, and only one bona fide conviction-that of John Pickering. of New Hampshire, who in 1903 was found so notoriously unfit that there was no other course than to remove him from the bench when the facts in his case were lad before thS SCEdtt.
 The only other conviction was more a farce than tragedy. It was that of Judge West Humphrey. of the Ten nessee district. who was in 1862 unan- imously voted guilty by the senate because he had entered the service of the confederate states without having gone through the formality of resign ing the judicial position which he held under the United States.
 In 1905 the senate. by 1s to 15, voted Justice Samuel Chase, of the supreme court. guilty of one of the charges in thes impeachment present ed by the house, but as this fell short of two-thirds. and the vote on all the