We pride ourselves in Southeast Missouri as having an uncommon store of common sense, a faculty willingly shared whenever broader matters of public input are needed. It is for this reason we welcome last week's elevation of two area men to chief judge in their respective districts of the Missouri Court of Appeals.

Stanley A. Grimm of Cape Girardeau and Kenneth W. Shrum of Marble Hill already bear reputations for being thorough and thoughtful legal minds, but these new positions will raise their profiles even further. And though the jobs entail mostly additional administrative and ceremonial work for the men, Judges Grimm and Shrum have an opportunity to make a mark on the state appellate court, not only in the way it does business, but also in the way it is viewed by the public.

Judge Grimm, who will preside in Missouri's eastern appellate district, says he intends to devote energy in his one-year term as chief judge to close the time gap between when an appeal is filed and when a decision is rendered. As a circuit judge in Cape Girardeau County, Judge Grimm and his colleagues earned a reputation for administering cases with dispatch, and his expertise in this will be valuable at the appellate level.

Judge Shrum, who has assumed a two-year-term as chief judge in the southern district, wants to use his time in that position to further the public's awareness of the court system. We applaud this effort; the courts represent the least understood branch of government, and his work to raise the level of knowledge about the judiciary would be useful.

Obviously, because of the way the court's boundaries are carved and the general rules of probability, it is rare that judges whose homes are in neighboring counties would serve in the chief positions of Missouri appellate districts at the same time. We think the Court of Appeals is well-served by this curiosity. Judges Grimm and Shrum will do justice to the positions of chief judge.