Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/389

 The Green Bag PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT 84.00 PER ANNUM. SINGLE NUMBERS 50 CENTS. Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, S. R. WRIGHTINGTON, 31 State Street, Boston, Mass. The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of in terest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetiae, anecdotes, etc.

THE fame of departed lawyers, who are law yers first and politicians or statesmen after, must be celebrated, if at all, by the lawyers themselves, and it has seemed that our pages are the appropriate vehicle for sketches of distinguished jurists whose lives may serve as worthy examples. Hardened as we are in this country to fatal railroad accidents, all were shocked by the story of the death of the ven erable judge and senator, Jonathan Ross. To the necessarily brief and inadequate press notices which appeared at the time, we are glad to add the bio graphical sketch which opens this number. Although Judge Ross did not fill a large place in the annals of the nation, he seems a singularly effective example of the re serve power for accep table public service that is awaiting de mand in many a se cluded portion of our RUSSHLL WALES TAFT country. It is not inappropriate that the author of this sketch should be himself a descen dant from another of the famous judges of Vermont. Mr. Taft was born in 1878, at Burlington, the son of the late Russell S. Taft, Chief Judge of the Vermont Supreme Court. He was edu cated in the schools of Burlington and at the Univeristy of Vermont, was admitted to the Vermont Bar in 1899, and has since January i, 1900, engaged in general practice of the law at Burlington.

THOUGH the close relation of the practice of the law to politics has been long appreciated and in its application to judicial service so often criticised, we are glad to find a lawyer as distinguished as Judge Parker and one who with singular success has combined the highest distinctions in both fields, express in his re cent address before the Illinois State Bar As sociation, which we print in this issue, his mature conviction that political appointments are not a menace to the judiciary. Few will dispute the claims he makes of the impartiality of the elected or appointed judge; for the poli tician appointed to judicial office, with the prospect of indefi nite service in a use ful and interesting career, is withdrawn from the temptations HUN. ALTON B. PAKKBR which may have previously successfully assailed his reputation, if not his character. That we can reasonably expect that this impartiality will be indefi nitely maintained, where the judge must look forward to a campaign for reelection,' how ever convincing the evidence of past pro priety, will hardly be as readily accepted. A much more serious danger to the judiciary, and one which has excited more recent dis cussion, is the selection for political prefer ment of men who have been supposed to be definitely devoted to a judicial career.' That Judge Parker is himself conspicuous for the success with which he faced this difficult situation is evidenced by the enthusiastic tribute to his judicial temperament at a ban quet by his fellow lawyers, when the heat of the last Presidential campaifjn, had passed away. The danger that is deplored, however, is