The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-14
JONES-HUNDLEY . CASE NOT ENDED Understood Jones Will Be
 Heard From Soon WROTE LETTER TO JENKINS In This Letter to the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Judge Jones
 Presented His Side of
 Contention.
WROTE LETTER TO JENKINS


 i Hundley of the federal court is not yet ended. Indeed men on the inside ] say the clash has just begun. No pub lie action has been taken in the matter since the able opinion was delivered l by Judge Hundley sustaining his ac- tion in removing Alex c. Birch from the position of referee in bankruptcy to which he had been reappointed by 1 Judge Jones.
 It was learned yesterday that Judge Jones will in all probability be heard from gain on the subject in the near 1 future. In this connection a letter written several months ago to John J. Jenkins chairman of the judiciary com mfttee of the House of Representa- tives, by Judge Jones, has been made public:
 Montgomery, Ala. January 9. 1908. Hon, John J. Jenkins, House of Repre-
 sentatives, Washington, D. c.
 My Dear Sir-I see from the record that you introduced in the House, on December 2, 1907, bill H. R. 419, 70 amend the act of February 25. 1907, providing for United States judge for the Northern district of Alabama.
 So far as I am concerned. this legis- lation is a matter of no personal mo- ment. From what I regard as very re- ! liable sources of information, regard i ing the preparation of the bill here be- 1 fore tie matter was called to your at 1 tention, have reason to believe thst some representations have been made i to you, concerning the nature of the differences between my colleague and myself as to the appointment of of fieers in the Northern district, which, uncontradicted, are calculated to do me 1 an injustice. I, therefore, have the 1 honor to write you this statement of ! facts, with a large part of which you, ] perhaps, are not familiar.
 | For some years before the act cre- ating judge for the Northern district, 1 it was apparent to every one who knew kanything at all about the business in | the two districts, that one judge could not possibly attend to it, no matter what his diligence and energy in hold | ing court and the dispatch of business. i There are five places in the two dis 1 tricts in which courts are required to be held twice a year, and at whatever place the judge happens to be holding l court there necessarily comes to him much chambers business from other 1 parts of the two districts. The num- 1 Der of personal injury suits and the volume of bankruptcy business, owing to the fact that hundreds of employees l who have given notes waiving their | right to claim exemptions under the state law can obtain no relief from l debt except by resort to the Bankruptcy court as well as the development of l enterprises and industries in the two districts, make it physically impossi- ble if judge held court every day in the year except Sunday to properly try and dispose of this litigation.
 Sought Remedy.
 In consultation with the bars of the two districts, we sought for years to ob tain a remedy by securing additional | judicial force; but it was found inn possible to get any agreement between our members of Congress as to any territorial division which would fairly apportion the business between the l judge of the North ern and Middle dis tricts, who by law, is judge of both districts, and any other judge who might be appointed. Finally as the most practical and just solution tha Alabama State Bar association recon mended the appointment of another judge who would be judge of both districts. Some of the members of the bar in the Northern district, however preferred another judge whose laSors should be confined wholly to that dis trict, though a majority of the bars in that district passed resolution 5 favoring the plan adopted by the State Bar association. l recommended that plan to the State Bar association in difference to the opinions of the great majority of the lawyers and litigants in the two districts.
 It would have been quite unseemly in me, in seeking additional judicial force to propose a division in the business, the effect of which would be to put an undue burden upon the new judge by confining him solely to the Northern district and freeing mSself or any oDilSdllon to go tneTe. The eX- perience of all the judges who have had to do with the business in the Northern district has been that one judge could not possibly promptly dis patch it, and that has been the rebuilt since the qualifcatioYtof the new jutga as well as before There is enough business in the Southern division of the Northern district at BirmfN g/am alone, counting two days as the aver age for the trial of a personal injury suit, to say nothing of criminal, equity and bankrupt business there to keep a judge holding court at Birmi'sg<am all the time. While a goodly propor- tion of personal injury suits are set- tied before trial, yet there will be an average of about 250 litigated cases of that kind there year. Sometimes as in the case of a defautng bank cash = fer, and the trial of the Sims case. growing out of that case, the court has been detained from 10 days to two weeks in the trial of individual cases This, not infrequently happens as in the trial of indictments for the use Of the mails in pursuance of schemes to