Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1912-06-27
A Pertinent Statement.

graceful and candid statement,
which is reproduced in this issue
of the Herald, has withdrawn
from the race for the nomination
for Appellate Judge in this Dis,
trict.
This leaves the race, if RACE
it can now be termed, between
Judge Kirk and Mr.. Tnedore
Blakey.
The personnel of the Appellate
Court is a matter of supreme
Importance, and should be of
grave concern, to the people of the
mountains. Nine-tenths of the
cases carried to the Court Of Ap-
peals from this district originate
in the Mountain Counties. Nine
tenths Of the questions of sub
stantive law presented by this
District for settlement by that
Court deal with canditions pecu-
liar to the mountain section. We
are, so to speak, in a state of
transition passing from a period
Of apathy to one Of activity. At
this stage Of our development
we are daily graphing with the
difficulty of applying new mstho-
DIS to old conditions. Many of the
questions that our Courts deal
with are new, but they must be
settled with relation to pre-exist-
ing conditions. The people have
much at stake. If ever there
was a time when they need a man
on the bench of the Court Of APP
peals whounderstands conditions
in the mountains, that time is
now. Important to thesettlement
of every case is an intelligent
grasp of the settings, the sur
rounding circumstances. N o
amount of legal erud!tion, OF
technical knowledge in the abb
stract, will dispense with the
necessity of a through UNDER
standing of the case in all its
bearings. Judge Kirk fills all
the requirements Of an Appel
sIatc-Jaas Is - sc.lls.-s-.ss.-
of man and Judge the people
Of this District need on that
Bench at this time. He is a ripe
scholar, trained, not only in the
practice, but in the dispensation
of the law. He is clean, honest,
fearless and fair. He knows
mountain people as perhaps no
other man in the District knows
them. His remarkably successful
career on the Circuit Court Bench
has demonstrated his fitness for
judicial service. His eminent
qualifications for the place have
never been, and cannot be, ques-
toned. 1t is not every man, nor
every good Lawyer, that is con-
stitued to make a good Judge.
Adaptability to such service can
only be proven by trial. Judge
Kirk has been tried as Judge and
proven competent. We take no
chances on him. We have often
thought that it ought to be one
Of the qualifications required of
an Appellate Judge that he shall
have served as Judge of some in
ferior Court. And whether this
be proper or not, it is the rule,
subject to FEW exceptions. that
the Appellate Judges are selected
from men who have rendered
service on the Circuit Court
Bench.
On the other hand, while we
entertain the kindest feelings
ann highest regard for Mr.. Blak-
eyas a man, tits just to him and
the people of the District to OBJ
serve that he has had no training
for such a position. He is mex
perienced and untried in that
field of labor He might make
an excellent Judge, He nigh not,
His contention that he ought to
be nominated and elected because
Judge Kirk has a Job" and he
has none, is not, in our humble
judgment, a proper platform up
on which to make race for the