CHAPTER VIII
Judge
THROUGHOUT my professional career I had a
vague sense that some time or other, after I had
acquired sufficient legal information, I should
like to go upon the bench. I yielded to the inclination,
however, with great timidity. It impressed me as
being a very exalted station and that to him who held it
were due respect and reverence. Therefore, no man ought
to be willing to accept such advancement unless well assured
of his own learning, character and fitness. No other cause
has done so much to lower the tone of public service in
the United States as the bad habit of regarding those who
hold public office with suspicion and treating them with
abuse. We began with the magistrates and aldermen,
and after destroying their usefulness, the same destructive
methods were slowly extended until they reached the
presidency. Better sense and a truer philosophy would
teach that if the greatest efficiency is ever to be secured
it must be by the proper recognition of that which is done
well rather than by the condemnation of that which is
done ill. Every constable ought to be regarded with the
respect due to one who wields to some extent the authority
of the state. Display of disrespect is, after all, the
outcome of a weak vanity and the evidence of imperfect intelligence.
Down to this time the courts remained the one
institution in the land which had not been assailed and
were treated with a consideration helpful to them in the
performance of their duties.
One time, when a vacancy had occurred in one of the courts of common pleas, I met Mayer Sulzberger, who
