The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-02-15
THE PRESIDENTS JUDICIARY PLAN

In view of the vast amount of comment on { sident's recent address to Congress on reorganil I of the Federal judiciary, it is interesting jew what the Chief Executive actually said. Tn re his words: @ss&eS s
 The simple fact is that today a new need for legislative action arises because the per sonnel of the Federal Judiciary is insufficient to meet the business before them A growing body of our citizens complain of the complexi- ties, the delays and the expense of litigation in United States courts *t* e.
 Delay in any court results in injustice.
 It makes lawsuits luxury available only to the few who can afford them or who have property interests to protect which are suf- ficiently large to repay the cost Poorer liti- gants are compelled to abandon valuable rights or to accept inadequate or unjust settle ments because of sheer inability 10 finance or to await the end of long litigation. Only by speeding up the processes of the law and thereby reducing their cost can we eradicate the growing impression that the courts are chiefly haven for the wel-to-do
 Delays in the determination of appeals have the same effect. Moreover, if trials of origin al actions are expedited and existing accumu- lations of cases are reduced, the volume of work imposed on the Circuit Courts of Appeals will further increase.
 The attainment of speedier justice in the courts below will enlarge the task of the Su- preme Court itself And still more work would be added by the recommendation which I make later in this message for the quicker de- termination of constitutional questions by the highest. court. ng, 3etr
 Even at the present time the Supreme Court is laboring under heavy burden Its difficulties. in this respect were superficially frightened some years ago by authorizing the court, in it's discretion, to refuse to hear ap- peals in many classes of cases. This discretion was so freely exercised that in the last fiscal year, although 867 petitions for review were presented to the Supreme Court, it declined to hear TIT cases.
 If petitions in behalf of the government, are excluded, it appears that the court per- mitted private litigants to prosecute appeals in only TOT cases out of 803 applications. Many of the refusals were doubtless warranted. But can it be said that full justice is achieved when a court is forced by the sheer necessity of keeping up with its business to decline, without even an explanation, to hear ST per cent of the cases presented to it by private litigants?
 It seems clear, therefore, that the necessity of relieving present congestion extends to the enlargement of the capacity of all the federal courts. -e
 A part of the problem of obtaining a suf- fcient number of judges to dispose of cases is the capacity of the judges themselves. This brings forward the question of aged or infirm judges-a subject of delfcacy and yet one which requires frank discussion.
 In the federal courts there are in all 237 life tenure permanent judgeships. Twenty five of them are now held by judges over TO years of age and eligible to leave the bench f,,u n,.ir,; llxr oac;N, tirement allowance was provided by the Con- gress.
 When after eighty years or our national history, the Congress made provision for pen- sions, it found a well-entrenched tradition among judges to cling to their posts. in many instances far beyond their years of physical or mental capacity Their salaries were small. As with other men, responsibilities and obi gations accumulated. No alternative had been open to them except to attempt to perform the duties of their offices to the very edge of the grave.
 In exceptional cases, of course, judges, like other men, retain to an advanced age full mental and physical vigor. Those not so for stlnate are often aanahie tasperceise eheir own infirmities. They seem to be tenacious of the appearance efsadequacy,s The voluntary retiremeit law of Bes 5ngyideb Shsreforesss only partial solution. That law, stiIl in force has not proved effective in inducing aged judges to retire on pension *4 *-@ sS The duty of judge involves more than presiding or listening to testimonys or argu- ments. It is well to remember that the mass of details involved in the average of Jaw eases today is vastly greater and more complicated than even twenty years ago. Records and briefs must be read statutes decisions and extensive material of a technical, scientific statistical and economic nature must be searched and studied; opinions must be for mulated and written The modern tasks of judges call for the of full energies.
 Modern complexities call also for a con-. stant infusion of new blood in courts, just as it is needed in executive functions of the gov ernment and in private business. lowered mental or physical ygor leads men to avoid an examination of complicated and changed con- ditions. Little by little, new facts become blurred through old glasses fitted, as it were, for the needs of another generation; older men, assuming that the scene is the same as it was in the past cease to explore inquire into the present or the future.
 We bave recognized this truth in the Civil