The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1914-12-10

10 the oHrnse or being II years osa
/ Bot Judge Waterman Is shown BY the
/ legislative directory 10 be rs years old,
ami the Governor did not drop Judge
Waterman So the dcadline az 10 rule
I should be rewritten 70 read deadline
al the displcasurc Of Allen NJ. fetch
err II is hard 10 believe that the Gov
ernor was not Intentionally trying TO
nlslead the people by making that
the ore reason in his statement
/ But perhaps Governor Fletcher com
ing from Indiana was trying to inn
prove the quality Of Vermont justice.
n the citizens Of Vermont do not
know hos high Vermont courts have
always ranked among the state courts
OF this country they should be in
I formed
We talk mucn about publicity, these
DAYS. The creates. publicity we Yer.
monlers get is from the fact that
Vermont law is read all over the
country as a standard for sound deei-
sions.
The publishers Of the various sets
OF reports which aim TO bring to-
gether a comparatively few Of the
most valuable cases from all the state
courts OF the country are neither NOV
cd by sentiment nor likely to be par
tial to decisions from small state.
II is cold matter of business with
them. The decisions they choose are
the cases which by reason Of the char
acter Of the reasoning and standing OF
the court will make their sets most
valuable all over the country.
In trying to obtain some general
idea OF the rank Of the Vermont
courts among all the courts OF the
country | have made a hurried exam
nation of the series of reports which
starts under the name Of American
Decisions" and after running q hun
bred volumes is continued under the
name of american State Reports"
which after running for one hundr
and forty volumes is continued in the
american Annotated Cases l chose
this series the more readily because 1t
Is published in San Francisco and so
would not be likely to pay undeserved
attention to the courts Of small east
ern state like Vermont.
In proportion to her population
Vermont has far and away greater
representation in these volumes than
any other state in the Union. In
actual number Of decisions chosen
Vermont leads New Hampshire and
Connecticut, is far in lead Of great
noisy states like Kansas and Nebras-
ka. runs almost even with New Jersey
and makes a very fair showing in
comparison with Governor Fletcher's
own Indiana.
That is the record Of all the Yer
mont decisions. And the hurried in
vestigation made did not show any
perceptble falling off in Vermont
cases of recent years.
Having established to my own salts
faction that there was nothing wrong
with Vermont courts as a whole,
pushed my inquiries farther to find
if the two members dropped from the
supreme court were particularly weak.
Examining in the same series
through the decisions of the past ten
years, derived some rather startling
results. Of the men on the supreme
court Immediately before it was
FIetcherized, l found that for this
period all we're we'll represented.
Judge Munson led the court with ~
cases. Judge Watson came next with
IS cases. Judge Haselton with nine
cases and Chief Justice Powers with
eight cases. 1t should be said that
these figures do not do justice to either
Judge Haselton or Chief Justice Pow
ers, by reason of the fact that though
Connected with the Vermont bench the
whole time, they we're for a consider
able period serving in the trial OF
cases. However, this comparison must
indicate that neither Of the justices
dropped so summarily from the su-
preme court were notably inferior to
the rest of the bench.
As for Judge Fish, his reputation as
one of the best tryers of cases is too
secure to need any emphasis.
Vermont has had good courts in the
past because they have been kept aloof
from personal politics. This attempt
of one man to set up court to his
own personal liking is not to be
laughed over or lightly passed off.
LEVI p. SMITH.