Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-09-15
FEDERAL JUDGES SALARIES.

Addressing the members of the American Bar
association in annual meeting at Boston, President
Taft touched a variety OF subjects OF direct
interest to the lawyers Of the country-and among
them the matter Of salaries of judges Of the fed
eral courts, question that has long been under
discussion by the associations. lie said emphatic
ally that he is in favor of increasing these sal
aries wherever opportunity is aforded-and FOR
these reasons:
There is real practical consideration in
having salaries high enough to attract the
best men of the bar, no matter what they
are earning ! think now that the circuit
judges are not paid much as they ought
to be in comparison with what district
Judges receive. For myself ! think it
would be better if we could fix the salaries
Of the American Bar association; but as we
cannot do that, | am inclined to think that
return to the old system might be full OF
danger.
OF course the salaries Of the supreme
court members ought to be increased. We
have got them now up to $l2500 some
thing like that They ought to go up to
$4,000 A court which exercises such great
responsibilities and calls for such ability
and learning ought to have it's members
amply paid that they need not be de-
pendent ecturng in law schools and
doing other things for the purpose of eking
out a salary that only enables them to live
The government pays the crcuit-court Judges
salaries of only $1,000 each--a not unusual fee for
an attorney in single in provincial city
There are twenty nine Of these Judges sitting in
nine different circuits. whose jurisdiction covers
the entire country There are nnety-two Judges
of federal district courts. each of whom gets a
salary of $4,000 yearthis, quite regardless OF
the geographical extent Of the district, the vol
ume Of the business involved or the relative cost
of living in one district as compared with an.
other The state of Rhode Island for instance
and the same is true of the other five New Eng
land states-conStiuteS in itself a federal court
district and the district Judge draws only $4,000
year; while the one Massachusetts Judge must
have four or five times as much work to do and
pay out much omre than the Rhode Island judge
for the bare cost of living. New York meantime
has seven district Judges each with much more
work to perform than almost any other one dis
'trict judge in the United States and with the
cost of living here probably at least 33 per cent
higher than in the average district The OLD
system referred to by the president gagged the
salaries of the Judges according to the necess
ties of each--but it was, of course, crude ar
rangement and open to fragrant abuse These
salaries ought to be unform-that is, one man
fitted to be judge OF United States district
court ought to be paid just much for his serv
ices as any other one in the group. and that pay
would not be within million miles Of eXorbi
tant if it We're to be made $4,000 year. And
hy the same token, the circuit-court Judges ougi
to get salaries of $4,000 year each--whieh is
$2500 more than United States supreme court jus
tees are now paid.
AS to the latter. their meager pay is IA stand
ing disgrace to great nation. At the time Gov
ernor Hughes was named for the supreme ber
it was confidently expected that congress woult
be i'll a mood to raise these salaries at the ap
proacing session to $17500 with $4,000 for II
chief justice But that tuplift" has never ma
terialized-not in the Sixty-frst congress or il
the recent special session of the Sixty-second
Indeed, the outlook for it is not so good as
it was year ago--for every law-maker is play