He was a member of the legislature, equipped with a splendid legal education, has the proper judicial temperament, is a typical American citizen, and, best of all, is a magnificent Christian gentleman whose integrity has never once been called in question, and is in every way splendidly qualified for the high office of Justice of the Supreme Court to which he aspires.
The state of Idaho is divided, geographically, with respect to its industries, primarily, into the northern and southern portions.
North Idaho comprises about one-third of the state where the activities of a majority of its citizens are directed along lines of mining and lumbering and that class of agriculture which is carried on without the aid of irrigation.
In South Idaho, the people are engaged, largely, in stock raising and agricultural pursuits which require the aid of irrigation. The southern part of the state may be again divided into the southeastern and southwestern sections. In the north, much litigation arises out of the mining and lumbering industries, present in questions to which the south Idaho lawyer is almost a stranger, while from the south comes a vast amount of litigation concerning water rights and conflicting range claims, which questions are peculiar to that end of the state.
For many years it has been conceded that the supreme court should be composed of one member from the northern, one from the southeastern and the other from the southwestern sections. 