The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-03
RECIRCUITING BILL IS GIVEN DEATH BLOW
 BY HENDERSON VETO
(Continued from Page One)

law, I think it would be of interest to the people of the state that should make a statement as to the condition of the
 judicial system as it now exists.
 .'rhe legislature promised to the people of the state much judicial reform and a revision of the courts in such man. ner as to save to the state the salaries of judges and solicitors and court offi- cials where they were not necessary to the administration of justice and this ad- ministration Is pledged to retrenchment insofar as it can without impairing the efficiency of the service
 "The condition of the finances of the state are such that have found it necessary as governor to veto appropria- lions made by the legislature to various worthy institutions, including the insti- tutions of higher learning. amounting ap- proxfrnateiy to $300,0O0, and I have tried as best I could to sean appropriations and wherever possible to eliminate any expense which could be avoided
 After, studying carefully the system
 for the Judiciary as presented to me by the legislature in the various bills enacted by 1t into law. I found that while they have abolished the city and law and equity courts and the chancery courts. if the entire system adopted by them should become law, the saving to the SlaIe WOULD not dnlOunt lo dIy lniiie dt all However, I have taken the bills
 coming to my desk and have gone over them carefully and submitted them to some of the leading jurists in the state and by eliminating from the system what is known as the recircuiting bill, I find that it will save to the state of Ala bama, in salaries of judges, solicitors and court stenographers alone approx | imately s45000 year. In view of the
 policy of retrenchment urged by me and carried out as far I have been per
 mitted to do so by the recent leglsla- ture, am convinced that this saving ought to be made to the state and that | 1t can be made without affecting the ef- l ficiency of the judiciary or the admins l tration of law.
 If the recircuiting bill should become | a law, we would have in the state & nisi prius judges with full complement 1 of solicitors and a court stenographei ] for each judge in the state. l have l made some investigation with reference I to the number of nisi prius judges pro vided in other states of the union witl l a population similar to our own, and l find that in South Carolina, with pop ulation of 1,5l5 400, they only have B his prius judges; in Georgia, with popu
 lation of 2,609,121 they have only 1 cir l cult judges, and in North Carolina, witt a population of 2.206.2s7, they have onl, | 2O clrcult JuuSeS. u uOeS S6tHi to iiic thd l in Alabama, with a population of onl! 2,13S, ,O0O, that 39 circuit judges, as pro vided for by the recircuiting bill, woul'
 give us more judges than are necessary l to the transaction of this business.
 | q have also made some fnvestiga-
 tion as to the population now being
 served by these judges and outside ol centers of population such as Birming- ham, Montgomery, Mobile and some other points in the state l find that 1 under the present law the population ] served by each circuit judge ranges 1 from 92,602 in the First circuit to 169,-
 900 in the Fourth circuit. This does not have reference to the Twelfth circuit
 where there was approximately 16s.000 which situation has been cured by g
 separate bill in the legislature creat' l ing the Twentieth judicial circuit.
 T know, of course. that in the ar ranging of the circuits population i'
 not the only consideration as there arc
 eenters Of industry and centers o
 population where greater proportion | of litigation is had than in circuits composed almost entirely of a rura population, and the legislature has rec :, ognized this fact in the laws whicf l 1t has passed and Which will be al luded to hereafter Eliminating, there | fore what is known as the recircuit ing bill, it leaves the state with 5. circuit judges and a supernumerar,
 judge,s and saves to the state the sal