Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-20


sion OF it and a request on the part of
the friends of the bill for its passage
notwithstanding the veto of the Govern
or is not wholly free from embarrass-
ment
/ l confess that l would gladly shrink
from the responsibility which l feel that
owe to the 63,00o people in Kennebec
county whom / represent. For Mr.
! President, | have assumed during tn
short period that / have been member
of this Legislature that | was here un-
der my oath as senator in this cham
! Der to carry out, near as / could, ac-
cording to my conscience, the will of the
people. and the will of the whole peo-
| Pile; that / was not here as the repre-
sentative of any political party, but that
] was the legal representative of every
! one of those 69000 people whom | repre-
sent regardless of any political ideas
which they may have or regardless OF
/ whether they may have voted for me or
have been opposed to me for their choice
in this Senate.
So feeling as I do that l stand here
as representative of the people, and
standing here as a lawyer of the county
of Kennebec. which has known a George
] Evans, Lot Morrell and James G.
Blaine, and which in the future will
send other men to these halls after
and my colleagues here have been for
gotten: and a county which will send
other men to the Representatives hall to
speak for the people of the county of
Kennebec. ! am one of those, Mr.. Pres
ident, who believe that most men. cer-
tainly most men who are elected to office
carry out their oath of office accord
ing to their convictions.
And with that responsibility which l
feel, l want to state this morning in a
few words to the honorable senators the
reasons which believed We're proper to
present to the judiciary committee for
consideration and favorable report, on
this measure.
! Let il be understood in the first place
Mr.. President. that this is not a measure
or a bill coming from the occupant OF
| this office In no sense of the word is
| the honorable justice who occupies the
Office of judge of the superior court of
Kennebec county coming to the Legisla-
! ture and asking for this change. Who
are they who ask for this change? This
| is not a salary matter, as has been stat
ed here, and 1 do not say this in criti-
cism of the Governor; but if he has
based his veto upon what he says here,
it is upon a mistake as TO the terms of
the bill which he has vetoed.
| 1 cannot conceive. Mr.. President, of a
man after carefully reading this BILL
who could say this; in speaking ana CIV
ing his reasons as he has of the large
number of laws presented to this Legis-
lature asking for an increase of salary,
| he places this bill upon the same basis,
and says this: These officers practical
! ~ made a trade with the State, when
they accepted these offices, to perform
their duties for the salaries then fixed,
and it seems to me that they are in hon
| or bound to carry out then, contracts
Mr.. President 1 do not take issue with
the Governor upon that proposition. /
90 not take issue with the Governor upon
that proposition at all. | agree with him.
as | did earlier in the session when there
was presented here a bill to this Leg
islature and tabled by me, asking for an
increase in the salary of the State super
| intendent of schools, from $2500 up to
| increase in salary. l felt then as / do
now that the occupant of that office in
accepting it had made a contract with
the State of Maine and that the salary
should not be increased. What was the
result? The result was while many of lis
here were opposed to this increase or sal
airy. it was generally understood that 1t
was an administration measure and
many of us gave way and let the matter
go through
Here is an entirely different PROPOSE
ton of the lawyers who have the inter
ests of their clients at heart, and the in
terest of Kennebec county at heart they
came before the judiciary committee and
ask for, what? They asked to have mace
here in this county real court. y real
court not a municipal court. but a real
court, knowing and believing 1 say that
they had in that office a man capable of
filling the office of judge of a real court
What did they do? They found that
the jurisdiction we have now there is
$500 in civil actions, and with the great
pressure of business upon the supreme
court judges, and with the desire to re-
lieve them so that they could attend to
the business in the other counties of the
State, the lawyers of Kennebec county,
knowing the judge of this court, came to
the Legislature and asked us To do
what? To increase the jurisdiction of
this court; asked us to take it from $780,
Just a little above the average jurisoIc-
ton of the municipal courts in this
State, and put it at $1,000, so that it
would be on a basis of a real court; so
that the general business of the county
of Kennebec could be carried on in that
court; so that the judges of the supreme
court might be relieved and have more
time given them to take care of the very
large equity practice that there is in this
county.
As the lawyers in this body we'll know
many of the lawyers of other counties
come here for their hearings Many of
them have assigned hearings here that
involve matters in other counties, and in
that way the work of the supreme court
is much relieved
Nor is that all They doubled this
bill; they proposed to double it fos
10 ynvafc a.