The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-03-27
THE TOWN TRAMP.

House . good deal this week, as usual,
and I have been trying to CIPHER out
why 1t il that the process Of getting jus
tice done is 40 slow one. Everybody,
since the time of Hamlet, and may be
before, has been always complaining
of "the laws delays" Generally, mo-
body tries to give q reason for Ii, but
accepts it as an evil that ''iust grow
ed" like Topsy, and must be endured
simply because nobody is responsible
for it. Sometimes somebody does at
tempt to give reason for 1t, but they
generally give wrong one.
-.
At least it seems to me they do. I've
been figuring on this thing a long
while. off and on, and I have come to
the conclusion that it amt the lawyers
that are to blame, Though most peo-
pie say SOY tut it's the people them
selves. One of the first reasons why
it is 30 hard to mete out the laws Is be-
cauee the laws themselves are 80 hard
to understand. They are vague
and indefinite and contradictory.
They are wrapped up and twisted about
with snch lot of hoary old words
that most people have forgotten the
meaning of, that no two men can un-
derstand them the same way.
.**
Well, now, ii is the people that are
responsible for all this. These laws
are made by legislators. The legisla-
tors are elected by the people. The
people pick out some man that thinks
he can afford to go to Topeka for So a
day and pay his own expenses, and
they give him so days out of every two
years to make laws for them. They
expect him to spend most of that time
getting through some local bill for
them,-a bill allowing them to vote
more bonds, or to beat their creditors
out of the bonds they have already
voted, or to build bridge, or some
thing of that kind. AS a matter of
fact he does spend most of his time
with such bills, and when at last some
bill that effects property and liberty
and maybe lives all over the state
comes up, it is rushed through in a
day or two, or it is killed because the
legislators are too busy with their 10
cal bills to take it up. And yet the
people wonder why they never can get
the laws they want, or why the ones
they do get are bungling and crude.
x*x
In the first place they ought to pay
their Legislators better salary; and in
the second place they ought to give the
legislature longer time. It's mighty sell
dom that man who is really qualified
to be "a legislator has such a poor busi-
ness that he can afford to leave it for SSa
day. How often does it happen that
the representative from any county is
really the wisest, most prudent and
best informed man in the county ?
How often does it happen that he
knows what laws the people want or
what ones they already have? Why,
1 noticed in one of the papers a few
days ago, that in one day there were
three bills introduced into the Legis-
lature making provisions that were
precisely the same as were made in
laws already in the statute books. II
the people would get a little higher
priced grade of legislators, they might
find that the courts wouldn't cost them
as much as they do now.
Another thing that IL directly res.
ponsible for more delay in the admin
istration Of law than any other one
thing, is the present jury system. II
seems to me from the talk I heard in
the court room this week and last, that
nearly half Of the cases on the docket
are there because of hung jury al
some previous trial. And in great
many of the cases, the amount origin
ally involved is mere trifie compared
to the costs that have been piled up by
two or three trials. 1t would have
been better, even for the party tina,
got beat, to have had it decided in the
first place, whether right or wrong.
~
Pm not in favor of doing away with
Ijuries altogether, but am in favor o
doing away with unanimous verdic
in civil cases. The thing ought to b
fixed so that one or two stubborn
thick-headed or bribed jurors could no
make the judgment of 10 or II goot
, men worth nothing. There wouldn'
be one case out of thousand, in civil
suits, where substantial justice woult
not be done by following the verdic
of eight men out of twelve. Of course
I may be all wrong in this. But
, don't think I am. Jurors never did m
any harm-and they never did me an,
good. I have seen a good deal of thei
work though, and it seems to me tina
they pile ur the costs fully as much a
the lawyers do.
am glad to see they have put Ger
eral Grant on the retired list at las,