The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-01-21
BPWC DINNER 7 DRAWS LARGE
 ATTENDANCE
Judge Alexander Speaks on The Importance of An
 Honest Judiciary ; v
Continued flom Page one)

Judge Alexander in his talk on s"The Importance of an Honest Ju- dietary" said
 ITO you people who are familiar with your Bibles it will be no surprise when I say that the fundamentals of the duties of courts and of an honest, efficient judiciary are found in that great Book. For instance, in the Book of Deuteronomy we find this early admonition, supposedly 1. from Moses the great Jewish law. |, giver: 4..4.s I ".'And charged you judges at that time, saying: Hear the causes be- tween your brethren and judge righ- teously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is Gods; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it; thou shat not rest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons; neither take a gift; for gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous
 "Chancellor Kent said: Nothing contributes so much to the glory and happiness of a nation as the pure administration of justice
 And Chief Justice Marshall, in speaking of the direful results that may follow from the lack of such a Judiciary, says: I have always thought. from my earliest youth un- til now, that the greatest scourge an angry Heaven ever inflicted upon an ungrateful and a shining people was an ignorant, a corrupt, or depend ent judiciary
 Bitter Complaint
 a Also, one of the bitterest com-
 plaints found in the Declaration of
 Independence is that: He (the king) has obstructed the administration of b Justice, refusing his assent to laws !, for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their of
 flee and the amount and payment of their salaries and deprived us in many cases of the benefits of a trial by jury
 s :. And that brings me to my sub : ject of an Honest, Efficient Judioi- ary' with particular reference as to how it may best be obtained and per- petuated. SA
 Two of the prime requisites of the ideal judiciary are:
 First: That they be honest.
 And this doesn't mean merely ? that they be honest in matters of money, in that they will not accept bribes or be influenced by money 5 considerations, but that they be ? mentally honest; that they act hon. s estly and impartially in all matters Secondly: That they be efficient. f "The third cardinal requisite of a judiciary which we have a right to look for and to expect is that they be impartial: that they neither know or favor the high or the low, !. the rich or the poor, the great or the humble; in other words, that justice be administered openly and ] without price, completely without de- lay in order that the objects of the Constitution oe fully carried out That no man be deprived of life, liberty or property without que pro- [ cess of law. ..'
 To Achieve Justice 1T think we can all agree that what we fundamentally seek is 8. proper and efficient administration {. of justice; and to effectuate this that the most important link in the chain is the judges who preside over our courts; and in order to secure the best material for that purpose I think our judges, of all degrees, should be appointed for life or during good behaviour. This is the English system and the only system that know of that has ever been devised . that will insure an absolutely inde- pendent judiciary i. i. spent most of my life in states where they have an elective judiciary, and say to you candidly and honestly that the popular election of judges does not produce the best judiciary .. T think, too, that in the appoint , rnent of our judges politics should not be considered q think further that the appoint ] ing power should be lodged in the re-, sponsible headiof the government.
 1T believe also that in making such