The bar of the state was practically unanimous in urging the passage last year of the measure known as the Judicial Candidates Bill, which proposed that the names of judicial candidates should no longer be printed in the party column on the general and official ballot, but on a separate ballot, or in a separate column of the voting machines, without party designation in either case, to the end that candidates for judicial office might be voted for as individuals and not as members or candidates of any political party. There was then an excellent opportunity for the professed social reformers and labor leaders who are so vehemently assailing our judicial system to aid in a movement to eliminate from politics the election of judges. But it was not availed of. The bill was defeated. It had little support from the press and very little, if any, support from social reformers or the representatives of labor. It will undoubtedly be introduced again this year; it has been once more approved by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and it will probably be again approved by the state association and by the bar of the state at large. Let the labor organizations now assist and cooperate in procuring the enactment of this law, and help to secure the election of judges on their own merits and personal character apart from considerations of political service or the favor or support of political leaders or bosses, or of any particular class. A few years ago in the city of New York an earnest attempt was made by the bar to secure the election of justices of the Supreme Court on a non-partisan and non-political basis. A committee of members of the bar nominated lawyers of the highest standing in their profession, of recognized ability and learning and of unimpeachable character. These nominees were defeated, and to that defeat the labor organizations greatly contributed. These organizations then gave no support whatever to the movement to secure a separation of the courts from politics, and they were quite indifferent to the nomination of men of the highest character and of the highest qualifications for judicial office. The plain truth on this point may serve and be useful as an object lesson. The least competent and the least experienced of the justices of the Supreme Court in the county of New York and elsewhere throughout the state are generally those who have been nominated because they were endorsed by labor organizations or were supposed to be acceptable to them. Everywhere throughout the country it is said that whenever labor organizations dictate or control the nomination of judges, they select lawyers of inferior education and talents and not of superior character and independence. It is high time that this truth was well pondered by labor.