St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-01-30

presentation of evidence In itself Sutfi-
cient, or a palpable, inherent weakness
in the case that ought to have been to
the states attorney a warning against
the indictment in the outset. Or, if by
some accident the verdict should be
guilty, the case goes to the supreme
court on exceptions that have found
Judgment in some defect of the indict-
ment or in some stupid blunder in put
ting in the evidence. The verdict is
then set aside, and ii new trial granted,
in which the same perils are again en-
cOuntered.
One of the most obvious defects in
the system is the great number of the
officers on whom are devOlved the du-
ties of a prosecuting attorney, and the
consequent smallness of the salaries
paid, there being fourteen of these at
tOrneys, receiving salaries ranging from
800 to $500 per annum, and averaging
S3o2.l4 only. Who could expect to
persuade any attorney of experience or
capacity, or with any business to accept
such an office with such salary? AS
has been observed by a recent writer,
the natural effect of the smallness OF
the salary is to attract to the Office
JOuuS uHou VI llJllO VI HO cApcIlcuCt
only, or men whose experience has done
them no good. Another defect, scarce
ly less obvious, is the shOI tness of the
time for which the states attorneys are
elected. 1t has been the custom in some
parts of the state, we believe, and per-
haps in all, to re-elect attorneys for
second term but even two years are
scarcely more than enough to make the
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routine duties of his office and yet at
the end of the two years he is retired,
and another novice is put in his place.
Another defect, perhaps less obvious,
but not less mischievous, is the way in
which the attorney is chosen, i. e., by
popular vote at the regular annual cleo
ton. The elective system rests in part
on the theory that the people of any
given community will in the main act
wisely and virtuously-at least in mat
tiers pertaining to the common veal.
But here, as in many other cases, the
facts of practice show the INSULT
cheney of the theory. The truth
is that in many such cases, the
case in hand among others, the people,
or at least the wise and virtuous of
them, do not act at all, or act at least in
very feeble and ineffective manner.
Many public servants, the states at
torney among them, are in fact most
often chosen by the men who attend the
primaries, who run what is well called
'the machine" and chosen, not with a
view to their fitness for office, but with
reference to their capacity for the small
work of machine politics or to the anti
cipated necessities of Office seekers of
higher pretensions. But even if the
people really took controlling share in
the work of election, there would still
be reason to distrust results. The states
attorney, it should be remembered, is
elected to prosecute, as the statute
says, for all offences committed within
his county. Thus every actual or po-
tential offender who is entitled to vote
Is permitted to express himself directly
on the very question of who shall pros
ecute him. That influence makes di-
rectly in favor of the election of weak
and inefficient prosecutors. 1t is no
answer to this to say that crimes are
largely accidental and unforeseen, even
by those who commit them. Men know
the processes that are going on within
their own breasts. They know eftener
than we are accustomed to think wheth-
er they have that within that makes
them dangerous to society. Let it not
be said that this is fanciful What sort
of a prosecutor, think you, could be
elected in North street, or at Five
POints9 The evil of this is real, and
would be plainly felt, if nominations
and elections were not so governed by
the managers of the machine, i. e., if
that evil were not so obscured by
greater.
The remedy for this state of things is
as obvious as the evil of it. The offices
should be so reduced in number and
furnished with such salaries that men
of ability and honor would take them
and make them places of dignity and
usefulness. The attorneys should be APP
pointed and not elected. Appointments
are not always above criticism but in
this case, at least, we think it plain
that they would better subserve the
public interests.