Speech #510152978

It is wellknown that the business of the district court in San Francisco is such that the district judge. who is one of the oldest district judges in the United States. is unable to do more than to hold the district courts. But Conaress in its wisdom in admitting other new States into the Union has added to the circuit the States of Washington..Idaho. and Montana. and we now have a circuit which embraces an area of 665. 248 square miles. more than onefourth of the area of all the States of the Union. which has a population of from two and a hal f to three millions. a population nearly as great as the thirteen original States when the Constitution was adopted. which hasa coast line upon the Pacific Ocean of 1. 650 miles. 150 miles more than oir coast line upon the Atlantic from the northern boundary of Maine to the northern boundary of Florida. and which embraces the great Puget Sound. one of the most magnificent inland seas upon the face of the eartha circuit in which the courts have to hear and decide a large number of admiralty and maritime cases incident to our large foreign and coastwise commerce. which takes in Alaska. the usual number of cases that involve Federal questions and in which jurisdiction is derived from the citizenship of the parties. and in addition a large number of cases of classes never brought in the Federal courts in the East. I refer to the important cases arising under the mineral laws and other land laws of the United States and to cases arising under the laws for the restriction of Chinese immigration. There are now provided for by law twentyone terms of the circuit court yearly in that circuit. held at places thousands of miles apart. and it is simply impossible for the circuit judge to attend the whole of them or any considerable numberof them in one year. and even should there be an additional circuit judge appointed. the two. if they could devote their whole time to the business and were not required to act -as members of the circuit court of appeals. could not transact onehalf of the business of the circuit courts. I have no objection to providing as many additional circuits as are necessary for the proper transaction of the business of the circuit courts.