Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-10-30
Candidate for State Associate
Justice Would Bar Poll
tics from Bench
ADDRESSES JEFFERSON CLUB
Indicates Importance of Non-Par-
tisan Courts in Rene
dial Legislation

Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe of the San
Bernardino county bench addressed
the members of the Jefferson club at
luncheon at the Hoffman cafe yester-
day. Judge d. K Trask, president of
the organization, introduced the
speaker as a man who for ten years
has been in public life; has made an
enviable record, and who now desires
to extend his endeavors to higher
plane of judicial work, being nomi-
nee for the Office of associate justice
of the state supreme court
81 desire to preface what | have TO
saw this afternoon" said Judge Bed
soc. with the suggestion that nothing
herein contained relates in any manner
to political conditions as they exist
at the present time and has no refer
erence whatever to the pending cam
paign. my candidacy in which has
lust been referred to by Judge Trask.
The matters spoken of here have ref
erence solely to abstract conditions
and deal with the subject entirely
from an impersonal point Of view.
81 have taken as the title of my re-
marks this afternoon "A Non-Parusan
Judiciary: What 1t Means This l
have done because in the short time
allotted to me it was most natural
that I should have selected as a sub
iect something of and concerning and
closely related to my own profession
in life; and, further, because of the
fact that the question of a non-part-
san judiciary is uppermost in the
minds of the voters of California today,
and its adoption as a part of our
scheme of government will, we hope,
soon be an accomplished fact.
DUTY OF JUDICIARY
g ~NY.,,rna y,fof
there are theoretically three separate,
distinct. coordinate branches thereof,
the legislative. the executive and the
judicial However since the history
making period of John Marshall, who
sat upon the supreme bench of the
United States, it has been decreed and
determined to be that the Judicial
branch and department of the govern
ment is the paramount one. And that
is so because of the fact that if the
legislative or executive branches tres
pass outside of the respective domains
allotted to them it then becomes the
duty in proper cases, of the judiciary
to lay the restraining hand of govern
ment upon them, and by its DEGREES
and opinions compel them to conform
TO the EXPRESSED mandates of the con-
stitutfon. Thus it has become and is
that our courts are the supreme
branch of the government and their
functions and jurisdiction oVershadoW
the other two.
$50 it is that the courts are absO-
lutely the last resort either of an IN
dividual or of a community seeking
to protect rights and to prevent I'M
lawful invasiOns of property. After
frutiess appeals may have been made
to the legislative branch of the gov
eminent, after the petitions to the eX-
ecutive have been turned down, then
il is that if further resort is to be had
it must be made to the courts, and 1T
is from the courts alone that redress
in such cases is attainable.
DECIDES ON REFORMS
I'm these days of mOoted and prom
ised reforms, both Of substance and
of procedure, reforms affecting our
civic, our social, our political life too
little thought is given to the PROPOSE
ton. which is self evident to the law
yer, that it is not what the legislature
may enact in a given eXigency, but it
is what the court decides with respect
thereto that works either for the veal
or the woe of the great body of the
people. Reforms brought about
through the enactment of remedial
legislation by the Legislative body,
approved by the executive, demanded
by the people, and working for its
better interest may through adverse
decisions on the part Of the courts be
rendered null and void and the appar-
ent veal of the great body of the peo-
pie thereby set aside.
ut is said by some historians of en-
inence that the moving and prOXimate
cause of our great Civil War was none
other than the decision of the United
States supreme court in the famous
bred Scot case. That decision repre-
scented the final appeal through peace
full means of a people endeaVOrlng to
throw off the intrusOns of slavery into
the free states, That decision was ad-
verse to the desires and wishes and the
sentiments of the great body of the
people, but coming as it did from the
highest court in the land, from the
court of last resort, from the place of
last petition, there was no other resort,
after it's decision had been handed
down. than that Of the bayonct. And
as it is, and ever must be, that when
appeals to the courts have proved
frutless and they have failed to re-
spond to the legitimate demands of the
people in the desire of the people to
obtain that which is their due, the
only other resort possible is the man on
horseback.
CONFIDENCE DEMANDED
ut follows from these reflections that
the best interests Of the community
demand that the greatest amount of
confidence on the part of the COM
munity should be repOsed in the courts,
in the Individual members thereof ana
in the judiciary as a whole. want Of
confidence in the judicial integrity of a
court means a want of confidence in
the most important and controlling
branch of the government. Confidence
in the courts presages confidence in the
ability and the stability of the govern
ment. a want of confidence imports
q want of confidence in government it.
self. A court is the mere mOuthpiece
through which justice, that which rem
ders to every man his just due-noth-
ing more and nothing less-Voices its
DEGREES. Justice says Webster, prob
ably our most eminent advocate at it's
bar, lis the greatest hope of man on
earth. 1t is the ligamcpt which binds
civilized nations and civilized beings
together And he said, wherever the
temple of justice stands and so long as
it IS duly honOred, there is a founda-
ton for social security for general
happiness and the progress and the
Improvement OF the race And, as a
necessary corollary of what Webster
there said, wherever justice is wanting
or whenever her temple is not honored
and her deCrces, admOnitiUns and tudg-
ments are not given due respect. then
there is wanting that social security.
that general happiness, that progress
and improvement of the race which
should be the desideratum of every free