The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-20
Lobby Against Judiciary Changes
70 the Editor of The Age-HeraId.

! TO the Edltof Of The ASe-tteral1. 1 In a recent issue of your most excellent I paper, the statement was made, as q news item, that there would be a powerful
 lobby at Montgomery by the circuit judges, the circuit solicitors, the chancel- lors, and their friends, in opposition to the "court bill."
 | Now, the said bill is vitally connected with every measure making for reform in the states judicial system, that has been, or that is likely to be, introduced 1 in the legislature. So, broadly speaking. the said lobby is established for the pur- pose of deefating any measure that pur- ports to make any material change in the present system. In the last apalyss. I know that to be the real purpose of the 1 lobby.
 Every real lawyer and every other in- telligent man in this state knows that l sweeping reforms are needed in our sys- tenn. They know that our system of chan cery practice is subversive of the great fundamentals of equity Jurisprudence. They know that the present system of chancery practice in Alabama heaps up
 such tremendous costs on all those who
 
 full seeker for justice in the chancery court. as to make the whole bungling sys- 1 tenn revolting to every lover of real | equity They further know that at law owing to the many obsolete rules respect | ing procedure in the lower courts and appeals to the higher courts, justice often l miscarries. Why, I know of important causes where some poor man was con- cerned, that, through first one technicality or another. have been kept in court for years, when the same should have been determined immediately.
 l l think it simply outrageous for a poor man, seeking redress of wrong, or dam ages for injuries to be married to death l before securing a trial
 1 The organic law of both the state and the nation intends that the citizen who | goes into court of justice shall have his rights speedily determined.
 1 We'll the system of procedure in Ala l bama neither in equity nor at law meas ures up to the constitutional idea, and every real lawyer, every solicitor, and every judge and chancellor knows 1t, too. 1 But why the lobby against the enact ment of laws intended to correct the evils of our present system and intended to l measure up more fully to the great ideal | just mentioned? Why do the circuit
 judges and chancellors oppose the passage l of said law? l shall answer those ques-
 tons frankly and fearlessly.
 1 The lobby is established and will be maintained for the sole and selfish pur- pose of preventing, by every means at hand that can be brought to bear, the ena actments of the said laws. The judges and chancelors oppose those reform meas ures simply and solely because they | feel that their jobs are by said laws im- periled Forgetting the great fact that all offices of trust, profit and honor in herently vest in the people, they seem to regard said offices a species of prop erty something the order of fixture in which they have a vested right in other words. they regard the action Of | the legislature, in attempting to overhaul the system which will automatically ab- rogate some judicial officers, as being conflscation of their private property.
 To me it is simply astounding that a public servant should look upon the of 1 flee with which he has been honored as anything other than 8 public trust vested , in the people, which the people have a right to alter. abolish. or recall at pleas ure. Public office is public trust vest ed in the people. No individual, under a government of. and for the people, will ever have a vested interest in any public office, so long as the ideas of the gov ernment of the people shall live; for in tho American republic the ideal is that all political power is vested in the people.
 No, the whole people of Alabama are the sole parties interested in judicial reform. | They have borne patiently, for many years, the burdens of our bungling sys- | tenn; and they now richly deserve the en- 1 actment of a measure that will make Jus- 1 tice more speedy, more sure and less | costly.
 | In speaking of the lobby mentioned aforesaid no intimation was made that the people would have any representation
 in the same. The judges, chancellors, so-
 licitors and their friends-not the peo- ple's friends-were to constitute the said
 lobby against Judicial reform.
 Personally, have no i'll will toward a single judicial officer in the state. l I have no grouch and no chip on my shoulder for anybody. I know that in l writing as I have in this and in pre- vious articles, I have incurred, perhaps. | the hostility of some judicial officer. If I have l hope I have done so in the in- l terest of the people It has always been my policy to stand for whatever I felt
 to be right regardless of any conse- quences personal to myself. God pity any man who has not the courage of his con- victions.
 | In the name of the poor and the op- l pressed, in the name of justice and hu- manity and in the name of the present and future welfare of the state. let the Legislature act in the interest of the whole