Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1898 — Judge Thompson and the Benton County Bar. [ARTICLE]

Judge Thompson and the Benton County Bar.

Fowler Review: The Review regrets the faettbrit trouble has arisen between Judge Thompson and the Benton county bar and that this trouble is so serious as to threaten the bn iness of the court and impede the execution of justice. In matters of this kind there should be harmony between the judge and lawyers—a quality that does not seem to exist in this instance. Last Saturday members of the bar took counsel together and addressed a letter expressing their views to Judge Thompson to which lie has already returned a reply. Out of this correspondence it is to be hoped that a better understanding, a more harmonious feeling between the Judge and* the lawyers will be brought about. The members of the Benton county bar believe the Honorable Simon P. Thompson to bo wholly uninfluenced by mercenary motives and to be above bribery, friendship or enmity; in other words, while they believe him to he honest they charge that while acting in the position of judge it seems impossible for him at times to remember that he is not as an attorney trying one side or the other of the case and by methods which they condemn, it is the sense of the bar. that he has in many instances deprived the people of the benefit of a trial by jury. The Benton county bar is made up of able, honest and reputable gentlemen and they are practically unanimous in their objections to the methods of Judge Thompson. Still, we trust that for the good of all concerned matters may be so arranged that peace and hurraony may again prevail.