Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-02-25
n expression of my opinion on

this matter:
So far as 1 am aware this Is the
first. time that this Senate at this
session has been called upon TO con-
slider the matter of salaries. the in-
crease in salaries of State officials.
The gentlemen who have preceded me
have well said that there IS multi
tude Of bills in this Legislature ASK
ing for increases in salary. why
gentlemen of the Senate, sitting mere
from day to day and hearing these
requests read, it strikes1Rne that there
is not an Office holder in the State
of. Maine whose salary is paid by the
State who has forgotten to send IN
his request. Sometime during this
session, and the time may not be
far distant, it is going to be necessary
| for us to take some position with re-
spect to this wholesale request for
! raising salaries, and I hear various
| opinions expressed as to what that
attitude should be. Some say every
| body is underpaid and they ought TO
be granted an increase. Others say
nobody should be granted an In
crease at this time. Gentlemen
Of the Senate, 7 am taking q
| position between these two ex-
| tremes. am taking the posi-
! ton that every single man. Of
| flee holder in the State of Maine, who
draws his salary from the State
treasury, has a right to come to his
employer through the agency Of this
Legislature and talk over the ques-
| to rex
what would happen. gentlemen, in
any business corporation in this
State. If man, an employee feels
that his wage Is not commensurate
! with the service he is rendering, he
goes to the head, or to his employer,
! and sits down with him and they
! frankly talk the matter over. And
gentlemen, that is just what I say,
| that every one of these men have
right to do. They have right to
come to the State of Maine through
! the agency of this Legislature and
sit down with US and talk the matter
over 1t is unnecessary for me, af-
| ter having expressed my view in this
wise, to repeat what the gentlemen
have said about present status of the
matter so far as it has been passed
upon by these agencies of the Legis-
| lature, the budget committee and the
committee on salaries and fees. for
one place a great deal of faith and
credit upon a committee report. In
the hurry and stress of a legislative
session none of us have the time to
devote to a careful scrutiny of all the
things coming before the Legislature.
and must necessarily, and we have a
right to place a great deal OF falth
and credit upon our committee re-
ports. <@f
Now gentlemen, it seems to me
there is still another side to this mat
ter that I may briefly call your at
tention to, which has already been
touched upon by the gentlemen VINO
have preceded me. If were able i
would add to what they have already
said with regard to the reputation
which the Supreme Court of the State
of Maine has established in the world
of legal literature and law. A Court
( old, grounded in the fundamental
principles of the common law unlike
! many other States which work under
a code system; one of those States
which has given to the States to the
west of us the foundation of their ju-
dicial system. There is not lawyer
in the State of Maine, there is not a
scholar in the State of Maine, or any
other man who has given any con-
sideration to this matter of the
standing of our Court in comparison
with Courts of the United States and
of the world, who will not say that
we stand in an enviable. position.
! Gentlemen, I doubt not that those
! eminent gentlemen who have con-
stituted our Court these many years,
giving us freely of their time ard
their great ability, legal and physical,
have done so at a great pecuniary
sacrifice. Not because I belong 20 the
legal profession, but L believe, gem
tlemen of the Senate, that I am well
within the bounds of truth when l
say to you that there is not a profess
sion or n class of men in our Stalc
who are willing to give more freely
of their time. talents and strength
than the legal profession. ~
I want to remind. you of one other
phase of this situation. I think in
the heart of every lawyer worthy the
name there is the ambition from the
time he pursues his law studies 10
some time round out his career By a
judicial place. 1t is a worthy anvil
ton. truly. In the course OF events, 1t
does not ordinarily fall to the young
man. He is lacking perhaps in legal
knowledge; he is lacking in expert
ence, which he can only get with the
advancing years. So it works out that
usually the gentlemen who are called
to the bench in our State have
reached an advanced period in their
working life. And, gentlemen of the
Senate, believe that this thing Is
true about the legal profession, that
the latter part of their working life
is more valuable to them. Many is
the young man who is put to his wits
end to tide him across the first few
years Of his practice. In middle life
he usually is not SO fortunate as to en-
JOY lucrative practice His ability
and the respect that he commands
among his fellow men come only along
toward the latter part of his working
days. And, gentlemen. 1t seems to me
that when you call to the bench a man
at that period Of his life, you are most
certainly asking him TO give IN the