Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/309



For the first time in recent periods the University of Pennsylvania received a direct appropriation apart from that given to the hospital. I revived the custom of having its trustees meet once a year in the office of the governor and of having it report its finances annually to the legislature, and I had its report as a state institution incorporated in Smull's Handbook.

A bill was passed increasing the salaries of the judges of the state. A like bill had been vetoed by Governor Beaver upon the ground that attempting to add to their compensation during their existing terms, it was unconstitutional. My view was that it could not possibly be unconstitutional, for the reason that it could be sustained by holding it not to apply to the existing terms of the judges then in office. I, therefore, signed the bill, thus aiding my old associates of the judiciary, including Beaver himself, who was then a judge of the Superior Court. It never came to my knowledge, however, that any of them refused the salary during the then existing terms. While giving them larger compensation to encourage more steady application, there was no increase of the number of the judiciary while I was governor. Bills were passed to add to the courts in Philadelphia, Allegheny, Erie, Cambria, Delaware and other counties, and all of them failed. This course interfered with many movements and caused many disappointments, but my judgment was the judges were already too numerous and that, besides, litigation was not a thing to be encouraged.

The movement for the improvement of the roads of the commonwealth interested me exceedingly. A bill for the purpose was fostered in the senate by Sproul of Delaware Rh