tering justice on the frontier, no subject would be so interesting to me as that; but I have thought best to defer this to some future time, and have chosen the subject of "Judicial Graft," which is robbing the taxpayers of this state of nearly $100,000 annually, and which demands our immediate attention, as the legislature, which has the only power to remedy this evil, is now in session.

During the session of the legislature of 1891 I was asked by several members my opinion of the necessity of increasing the number of judges and judicial districts which had been asked for and given at previous sessions and I gave one of them at that time, the following communication, which was published in the Nebraska State Journal:

"For session after session I have seen the number of judicial districts and judges increased, at an unnecessary expense to the taxpayers. I did not suppose a repetition of this would be attempted in the present legislature, elected on the issue of economy. We have twelve judicial districts and twenty-one district judges, nearly as many as England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, with a population of over forty-two millions. The reason of this useless increase is, there is no branch of our government so little understood by the people and legislators, who are not lawyers, as the judicial. I know of instances during a campaign when certain lawyers have espoused the cause of candidates to the legislature, under promise of using their influence, if elected, to increase the number of judicial districts and judges, when both parties knew there was no necessity of it, hoping thereby to secure a judgeship, and this, under the false cry of increase of law business and necessity, and honest members have been induced to vote for this increase.

"During a former session of the legislature, a majority of the district judges informed a committee thereof it was not necessary to increase the number of judicial districts and judges: but the bill passed, increasing the same, through the influence of tricksters and politicians. When my district was last divided, a majority of the lawyers in the newly created district therefrom, and Judge Cochran, the appointee of the new district, frankly and honestly said there was no necessity for it. But the program of the rapacious politicians prevailed.

"From 1876 to 1883 my district comprised over twenty counties, all the state west of Nuckolls, Clay, Howard, and Valley counties, and included' the unorganized county of Sioux, extending north to Dakota; and during that time I kept my dockets clear by holding court less than one-third of the time, and had to travel by carriage to reach many of the courts; and had more criminal business than there was in any two other districts in the state. The first three years I was judge I tried twenty-six murder cases, and the first six years, forty-three.

"When the subject of increasing the number of judicial districts began to be agitated, I commenced to keep an account of the number of days I held court in each county. In 1880 I held court in all, in my district, 113 days, the largest number I have ever held in one year, occasioned by an unusually large number of murder cases, among which was the infamous Olive's trial, which consumed more time than I ever devoted to one case. In 1881, I held court 94 days; in 1882, 93 days; in 1883, after the territory north of the Platte was cut off from my district, by the politicians, against my protest, as I could do all the business by holding court onethird of the time, I held court but 46 days; in 1884, 34 days; in 1885, 64 days; in 1886, 59 days; in 1887, 72 days. And notwithstanding I could do the business of the entire district in 72 days, the legislature this year cut off from my district all west of Phelps and Harlan counties, which I protested against, as I could do the business of the whole territory of the district as it was, in less than one-third of the time, and save the taxpayers the unnecessary expense of the salary of the judge and reporter, amounting to $4,000 a year. In 1888 I held court in my district 89 days; in 1889, 107 days, the business largely increasing in Adams county this year, on account of the litigation growing out of the collapse of the boom in Hastings; in 1890 I held court 90 days. There will be much less business this year than last. My dockets are as clear as I can get them, and are gone through with every term, and all cases thereon tried, unless continued by mutual consent; or on an iron-clad affidavit, if either party desires trial; and yet I see a bill has been introduced to increase the number of judicial districts and judges, and even to create another judge for my district, when there is not half business enough to occupy my time. By examination of the dockets and business transacted in the courts as near as I can com

pute it in volume of law business, my district stands at the present time fourth in the state. With the exception of the second and third, I can take any two districts in the state and keep the dockets clear, and not run court over eight months in a year; and so can any man who will strictly attend to and rush the business, by running the courts a reasonable number of hours each day. As I have an abundance of time, I do not dispatch the business nearly as rapidly as I might and should were I pressed for time. Instead of increasing the number of judges and judicial districts, better enact laws requiring the courts to open in the morning and run the entire day, and do an honest day's work, and clear up the dockets and dispose of the business thereon. If men in other vocations would run their business in the way many lawyers and courts do theirs, they would bankrupt themselves in a short time. The burlesques and criticisms on the legal profession and the courts are not without just cause,

"If you have any legislation for relief, give it to the supreme court, which is so overworked and overburdened with business, it is impossible for any three men to transact it. The increase of judges and judicial districts is for the purpose of giving drones more time to sleep and do nothing and to furnish more teats for the public political pigs. As President Lincoln once said to a lot of worthless office-seekers for whom he had no place, 'Better kill the pigs than increase the number of teats.'

"The salaries of the present district judges and their reporters alone cost the tax-payers of Nebraska $84,000 a year; and each new judge and his reporter will cost the public $4,000 a year. Think of this when you create an office that is not necessary. I deem it my solemn duty to give you my opinion on this subject, based on actual knowledge from over fifteen years' experience as district judge. I owe this to a tax-ridden and unfortunate people as well as to my own conscience. Whatever the outcome of this matter, I have done my duty to the people of the state. You have asked me for my opinion and I have honestly given it to you."

At this session of the legislature of 1891 was made the worst judicial graft that was ever made in the state, by increasing the number of judicial districts to fifteen and the number of district judges to twenty-eight.

When I came to the state in 1868 it was divided by the Constitution and law into three judicial districts, to which but three judges, elected by the voters, were assigned by the legislature, by which times and places of holding courts were provided, and the three district judges, by the Constitution and Statute, were made supreme judges. They were Oliver P. Mason, chief justice, Lorenzo Crounse, and George B. Lake, the first judges of the state elected under the Constitution of 1866, and in the aggregate, in my opinion, we have never had a better, if as good, a supreme court. They were the pioneers and founders of our judicial system, as promulgated in our early reports, which are a credit to them and an honor to our state. Under the judicial system then in force they promptly disposed of the business of the courts, kept their dockets clear and gave general satisfaction. Section 8, article 4, of the Constitution of 1866 provided that, "The legislature may, after 1875, increase the number of justices of the supreme court and the judicial districts of the state." Under this system the number of judicial districts and judges might be increased after 1875, but to a comparatively limited number, as the supreme judges were ex officio district judges. Under article 2, section 8, Constitution of 1866, after ten years the legislature could increase the number of senators not to exceed twenty-five, and the number of representatives not to exceed seventy-five. So to get rid of these and other wholesome restrictions, the rapacious politicians, office-seekers, adventurers, and grafters, who had swarmed to the new state for pelf and political preferment, being in a majority, proceeded to the calling of a constitutional convention, adopted the Constitution of 1875, which created our present system of district judges and judicial districts, opening the way for so many superfluous offices and places; imposing on the taxpayers a large expenditure of unnecessary money. I was nominated a member to that convention by acclamation, but declined. The New England and other states for long years had, and some now have, the same judicial system as Nebraska had under the Constitution of 1866, which I lived

and practiced under prior to coming to Nebraska; and I am not sure it is not the better system. This system, where the district and supreme judges occupy the same position, tends to get a better class of lawyers and men for district judges than under our present system, as the people realize that all their judges must or should be qualified for the position of supreme judges as well as for district judges. It really requires a better lawyer for district judge, who has to pass on a multitude of questions as they arise in the contest of the trial, with no chance for reference, than for supreme judge, who has ample time for examination, study, and reflection before writing his decision.

Here let me depart and say that in my native state, Maine, in choice of judges and school officers, by common consent, politics are ignored; the judges are often retained until extreme old age, and as long as their physical and mental faculties remain intact, by experience growing better each and every term of office. The selection of judges, by all means, should be removed from the dirty pool of politics, as no business is so dishonest, disreputable, and injurious to the public as professional politics.

Under the Constitution of 1875 the state was divided into six judicial districts, providing for one judge for each district, to be elected by the voters of the district for four years. At that time I was residing in Franklin county, which in the apportionment was in the fifth district. When the time came to choose a candidate for district judge for the district, many asked me to become the candidate, which I at first declined, but at last consented to be, and was triumphantly elected, with three candidates in the field. At the expiration of my first term, I did not even attend the judicial convention to nominate my successor, but was nominated by the republicans and indorsed by the democrats, no one running against me. At the close of my second term I was nominated and again supported by all parties. At the expiration of my third term I was again nominated and elected practically without opposition, making sixteen consecutive years I served the