The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1929-07-27
responsibility they might have when
they criticize those who are not Of
ficers."

they crltlcl1e those VINO are not Oh
ficers."
"Wlen these editorials were read
your honor made the observation that,
if what was said in these editorials
was true. then your honor. as I quote
your own phrase, was not fit to sit
upon the bench.
las a matter of fact, the question
Of a judges fitness to sit upon the
bench cannot be decided by him. It is
decided by popular election: that is.
in come classes of our judiciary, and
in some classes of our judiciary. and
and If a mar be a Judge, and If some
other mar thinks he is an improper
person to be a judge, the judge does
not become proper by restraining the
person who thinks him improper from
expressing that opinion"
II call the courts attention. in pass
ing. to an observation which is itself
apparent. A publication in a news
paper that has to do or that might
have to do with the influencing of
the minds of jurors or prospective
jurors is one thing. and publication
about a case in which there never
was or could be a jury Is an entirely
different thing.
Judges are not to be influenced in
the performance of their duty by
straws that blow in at the window.
The idea that a judge can be so in
%iMAtdatNl Af N4,1Vca - q ~As1tNo Airti ~%o
in terms. The reason We have Judges
is that they are not influenced by
such things"
What is the Judge?
"A part Of his equipment is that he
realizes tibet frailty of others-human
beings-and realizes how little people
outside of the judicial office can re-
alize the exactiol1s of it. That is the
judge as literature pictures him to us
1t isn't Jeffries. Let US take the other
end of the line.
What did Jeffries do? Primm
made some kind of contemptuous re-
mark about Judge Jeffries. I said this
morning that everybody in England
was afraid to speak Ill of him. Primm
spoke Ill of him. Jeffries dragged him
into the court house and directed the
sheriff. or whatever they called the
executive officer of the courts in those
days, to pare off his cars. and the
poor devil went off with his ears al
slit and bleeding. and in his agony
he uttered some sort of protest
against what the Judge did. and the
judge ordered him back and directed
the marshal of the court to take an
other toll from his poor wounded ears
Three times that happened.
And does anybody suppose thai
Jeffries preserved the dignity of 9
court or made anybody respect hin
by being cruel about a personal thing
"a personal feeling that he had
Everybody e~xecrates the memory o.
Jeffries. Whenever lawyers bow theil
heads in shame over the : ignobleS
man their profession has produced the,
mention with deteStation a man VIII,
venged his personal spleen upon
defenseleSs person and thought tina
arbitrary power could make up 70
the defects of the injustice exhibited
upon the bench"
Mr.. Cline tthe attorney for tn
prosecution) is going to rise and tel
your honor that he feels it his dut
under your appointment to tell yo'
to be very stern and very sever witt
these defendants. He is going to tel
you that the dignity Of the court Q
common pleas Is involved, and tina
you must do something to vindicat
the dignity of the court, forgetting
unless you forget, / warn you-tha
the dignities Of courts r not pre-
served by severit.' upon their critic:
but are preserved by the r~ighteousne;
Of their decisions"