The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-01-09

bar of equal prominence in the state,
and it would have been my duty to
have taken his change of opinion to the
supreme court and ask them to pass
upon 1T and | certainly would have
done 1t had he taken any such steps. He Il
did not. Ii it had been presented to
them and they did not agree with him
what do you suppose the executive
would have done? Would he have ac
cepted the then opinion of the supreme
court? He would have mad to. They
We're his legal advisers.
The Partridge Statement.
Now, gentlemen, L think it proper
and possibly your due and certainly
my right under the circumstances to
refer to q public statement by Mr..
Partridge, chairman of the commission |
OF which l was a member, which pre- |
pared these legislation amendments. |
Now, without any desire to reflect for
a moment upon the motive which lead
! that distinguished gentleman to take
the public into his confidence at the
particular time that he did, | wish to
say to you that / agree with him en-
! tirely in some of the statements that
| he makes. He says, in fact, that it was
| the intent of that commission to do
certain things, but they did not change
or attempt to change the time of office
for certain reasons. However that may
be, L have this to say, they had for him
that respect and admiration that if he
had seen fit to further amend by the
very simple form of saying the time
of office of these gentlemen the SUI
lpreme court and others should continue
until their successors were elected and
tqualifed; they had that respect for
him that they would not have under
tn ken to override his conclusion. Spea k
ing as one member of that commission,
ii the commission is responsible, ! am
, perfectly willing to take my part of
the responsibility and have no desire
to place 1t upon any one else. None
= whatever. / do, however, say this, the
, commission 5 report final and under the
? law went to the Senate. The initiative
r before any step could be taken by the
D state was in the Senate Of 1910. The
@ House of 1910 could do nothing with
: this matter and nothing could come be
t fore them unless it was first sent tO
n them by the Senate of 1910. 1t was for
: them TO suggest. There were many EN-
\ ,inent lawyers in that Senate Of 1916
e and, gentlemen, that Senate of 1915
e had courage, had the strength Of THEN
tOliN lttltiiS ana llItN ttllDtEdjbIN XIII
@ ed, to my mind. the most important
n one of all those legislation amendment,
Y and that was the time lock provision.
/ The Senate of 1910, who took tn,
is initiative in this matter so far as thu
n state was concerned. deliberately sal,
to the state of Vermont: eve hav
m not enough confidence in you to ALLOW
I YOU to vote upon the question whethe
e. the time lock provision shall be takel
d or not. - Now, gentlemen, have en-
n deavored to place the facts before yo
= and facts alone. The responsibility o
ID this situation is with you and not Wit
" the executive. 1t is for YOU to deter
,e mine whether You desire and whethe
lr it is for the best interests of the stat
At to have two courts or whether it is not
,e In my actions I had before me the ad
r. vice of the court that there was Va
eancy that should be filed and tina
could only be filed one way and yo
know how that has been treated by ms
a As to the personnel of the court
Il have this to say: 1t is absolutely tru
to that the primary consideration in III
a mind was not necessarily to do tha
he which absolutely met the wishes G
to the bar association. The bar associ;
or ton is made up of 200 or more mcl
III hIuN ! 'tiAl I'D \ = III VIC" k)tllldlli Z
As one who had been in this legislatu
81 for ten years and who was in touc
ut with conditions both as such and :
is executive. [ did have in view primaril
of in personnel of that court that which
v thought best not for the bar associ;
ryl tion, but for the $4,000 people in tn
NO Estate for whom I had taken the oat
SO Of office to do the best | could, fl
Those were the people | had in vie
at when | took that action.
lis i would suggest. that you can he:
he in the hall all sorts and kinds of r.
of mors. Your supreme court is in Sc
le- sion and among its number are to |
re- found two gentlemen who joined in tn
as opinion to the executive. 1t is poSsib
do for YOU to find out, if you so desir
re- whether there was any such opinion
ng not. -
i'm Speaking now for a moment, rcIati,
to the supreme court There was OF
! change made by the executive the
rd and it was made by reason Of the IA
zee that certain conditions had arise
which, in the mind Of the eXecutiv
of made it absolutely impossible for hi
on to do any other than that which
nut did. 1t is easy if You desire to get
by the facts relative to that. 1t SO ha
he pens that one of the members of til
he House, the gentleman from Rocldn