The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-13

in the matter. I wish, however, to keep free to take part in the decision In this court. especially in the cases coming from Alabama.
 Yours sincerely,
 David D. 3heby.'
 Cannot Get Asssclate.
 Before this time. I had been in prior correspondence with Judge Shell by about the designation of judges to hold courts in the Northern District at Huntsville and Anniston and for a special term at Birmingham, I then. being engaged in holding court at Montgomery. It turned out that the only judges available. were Judges Toulmin. Swayne and Boarman. Judge Touimin had already given much time to the Northern district and could not be spared for further service in the Middle District Judge Shelby wrote that Judge Swayne was sick and un- able to serve. and Judge Boarman ar- ranged to hold the April term at Huntsville. Cases like the rate cases involved tremendous responsibility are willing to go outside of their own district and shoulder such burdens in addition to the irregular labors. When the bills were filed in the rate cases on the 18th of March. 1907. they went oyer until some time in May. Subse- quently I made efforts to get Judge Pardee, and later I sought through the Attorney General to get Justice White of the Supreme Court. to sit in these cases It was utterly impossible for Judge Pardee to come, and I did not press the suggestion as to Justice White. after found that the Gover- nor was bent on overriding the courts orders by force directed by State off, cers whom he had stated he would oh xxxtt AHot Ye yt.~ no longer one as to property rights. but had broadened into one of anar- chy and overthrow of the government. My duty was plain and imperative, and I neither desired nor needed as- distance in the conjuncture which then confronted me.
 All the attorneys for the Railroad Commission were personal friends of mine, some of them very close, and in chambers. I had freely talked about my preferences and efforts to have an- other judge sit with me. Not one of them, and our relations were such that they knew they might have suggested <, without offense being taken, ever jntiraated. if such thought ever oc- cured to them. there could be the least impropriety in my sitting alone in the cases. and several of them ex- pressed satisfaction that I would try the cases. These facts must have been known to Governor Conner.
 Own No Railway Stocks.
 T own no stocks or bonds of rail- way companies. and am not interest concerned in them. am in no wise indebted to them for appointment to the ofiice I now hold, and owe them nothing, unless fair remuneration for honest professional service. in the past. creates duty to betray trust. A judge has no clients, and there are conspicuous instances in my public history, widely known. that even when I had railroads for clients, never hes itated. when exercising a public trust. to legislate against what they insist ed was for their interest, if I differed with them. and acted for what I thought the just rights and interests of the people demanded, no matter what effect 1t might have on my bus iness or personal relations with them. This independence of conduct on my part has been 'ilustrated-from the day entered the City Council of Mont gomery. in the legislative halls of the State, in the Governors office. and in the Constitutional convention in 1901. Thousands who are now living know of the position taken by me on such questions in these various sta- tions. I need not recite the facts here. Governor Conner knows them well. What possible motive could be conjur- ed up. save from the workings of a depraved mind. why a judge, who holds office during good behavior, and whose only reward can come from the good name he may leave to his chill dren. would betray @ sacred trust, and decide a case contrary to the right, because in former years. he had busi- ness relations with one of the parties? In its last analysis, such judgment is the condemnation which the ob- Jector unconsciously pronounces upon his own honesty if he were in anoth- er's place.
 How are our courts to be consti- tuted. if every judge Is to be disqual- flied from sitting in litigation in which former clients are involved. and mere- ly because of that fact? Certainly no lawyer who has reached middle life, and Is fit for the bench, can be found who has not had number of clients. and in this day. when everything is incorporated, a number of corporation clients. If man who has represented them before the courts prior to going on the bench. cannot properly sit in such cases. neither can the man who has prosecuted cases against them be- fore he went on the bench. The flow ated from the bench. and branded as unworthy of judicial station. Under this infamous doctrine. John Tyler Morgan. and Edmund W. Pettus. two of the best loved men who ever lived In Alabama would have been objects of suspicion in the Senate. In the past. both of these eminent men had been conspicuous attorneys for rail- roads. in whose affairs. though these gentlemen had long since severed their relations with them, were a constant subject of legislation while they were in the Senate. It would have exclud- ed from the bench or made them oh-