The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1915-01-14

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the opinion of any other attorney o
( the bar of equal prominence in tn
& state-and II would have been my dut,
/ TO have taken his change Of opinion
: TO the supreme court and ask them :,
pass upon it and certainly woult
have done it had he taken any sucl
, steps. He did not. Ii it had beer
, presented to them and they did moi
, agree with him what do you suppose
: the executive would have done
! Would he have accepted the ther
opinion Of the supreme court? He
would have to. They wer his legal
advisers
The Partridge Statement
Now, gentlemen, ! think it proper
and possibly your due and certainly
my right under the circumstances to
refer to public statement by Mr..
Partridge, chairman of the commission
Of which ! was 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 his 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, / have this to say, they
had for him that respect and admira-
tion that if he had seen fit to further
amend by the very simple form of
saying the time of office of these
gentlemen the supreme court and
others should continue until their sue
cessors were elected and qualified;
they had that respect for him that
they would not have undertaken to
override his conclusion. Speaking as
one member of that commission, if
the commission is responsible, | am
perfectly willing to take my part of
the responsibility and have no desire
to place it upon any one else. None
whatever. ! do, however, say this, the
commissions report final and under
the law went to the Senate. The in
itiative before any step could be taken
by the state was in the Senate Of 1910.
The House of 1910 could do nothing
with this matter and nothing could
come before them unless it was first
sent to them by the Senate of 1910.
1t was for them to suggest. There
were many eminent lawyers in that
Senate of 1910 and, gentlemen, that
Senate of 1910 had courage, had the
strength of their convictions and they
deliberately killed, to my mind, the
most important one of all those legis-
lation amendments and that was the
time lock provision.
The Senate of 1910 who took the
initiative in this matter so far as the
state was concerned deliberately said
TO the state of Vermont: "We have
not enough confidence in you to allow !
you to vote upon the question whether ,
he time lock provision shall be taken i
,r not" Now, gentlemen, ! have en- |
leavored to place the facts before you t
md facts alone. The responsibility of {
his situation is with you and not with s
he executive. 1t is for you to deter e
nine whether you desire and whether t
t is for the best interests of the state a
o have two courts or whether it is n
lot. In my actions ! had before me n
he advice of the court that there was a
vacancy that should be filled and a
hat could only be filled one Fl
1ay and you know how that has been o
reated by me. v
As to the personnel Of the court | a
ave this to say: 1t is absolutely true e.
hat the primary consideration in my n
lind was not necessarily to do that II
,hich absolutely met the wishes Of a
he bar association. The bar associa- q
on is made up of 200 or more men, Il
ut | did have in view primarily as
ne who has been in this legislature al
,r ten years and who was in touch ir
ith conditions both as such and as al
did have in view primar- bi
y in personnel of that court that nj
hich ! thought best not for the bar az
but for the 100000 people P'
this state for whom had taken the f.
lth Of Office to do the best could, for fla
lose were the people | had in view Sc
hen | took that action. ca
would suggest that you can hear ap
the hall all sorts and kinds Of ru- Nj
ors. Your supreme corut is in ses- HI
on and among its number are to be w
und two gentlemen who joined in Sa
is opinion to the executive. 1t is on
,ssible for you 10 find out, If you SO H.
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