The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-09-16
THE DEFECTIVE COMPLAINTS.

One would judge from the article on the
defective Municipal court complaints in the
Argus yesterday, prepared doubtless under
the supervision of the Marshal that Rachel
mourning for her children was not half so
disconsolate as the Marshal and the Argus
over the fact that a considerable number
of rumsellers are likely to escape for the
time being the penalty of their crimes. Yet
this same Marshal for a whole year saw the
liquor law violated day after day, and for
several successive months his seizures aver
aged only about two month. In other
words, he made no attempt worthy of the
name to suppress a traffic which was con-
trary to law, which he knew was contrary
to law, and which it was part of his duty to
suppress. "The people were watching
then with jealous eyes anything that looked
like collision with the liquor dealers" Just
as much as they are now But the Argus
had not then donned the garb of a prohibit
zionist, and day after day the Marshal's
peculiar methods of putting down the liquor
traffic were practiced without exciting any
comment OF criticism on the part of that
paper. Today it is deeply grieved because
an error in blank bids fair to let off 80 or 40
AuhioCuClo, DuI u year Vi IIlOI6 ago, when The
MarshaPs blindness let off some 29S, the
Argus had not a word to say 1t suggests
today that an officer of the law who
makes an error is exceedingly culpa-
BILE; but two years ago it had no word of
rebuke or reproof for an officer who per-
mitted 300 rumshops to exist under his nose
which he was paid to suppress.
The Arguss course however is easily ex-
planned The officer of the law whom it so
vigorously rebukes for an error is Republic
can; the officer of the law whom it habitually
neglected to rebuke though his failure to en-
force the law was notorious was a Democrat
The Argus knows well enough that errors
as serious as that discovered in the Municipal
court warrants are not of rare occurrence
and that the commission of such an error
argues neither ignorance nor inefficiency on
the part of the person making it. Hardly
term of the Supreme or Superior courts
passes without a decision or ruling which
the full bench sets aside as contrary to law
Only few days ago the full court set aside
verdict of murder in the first degree be-
cause the presiding judge who is paid to
know the law excluded some testimony
which should have been admitted. The
Maine Reports are full of cases where the pre-
siding justice has erred in his decisions and
rulings. Still we believe the judges who
have committed these errors have not been
regarded as ignorant of the law or inefficient
The most eminent attorneys frequently make
blunders which are fatal to their cases for
the time being. These very complaints
which have now been sadjudged defective
were scanned day after day by some of the
most acute lawyers of the Cumberland bar,
searching for defects which would let out
their clients, without detecting this one. If
the Judge of the Municipal court is chargea-
BILE with obtuseness for not discovering it
then a considerable part of Portland's
lawyers are equally obtuse, for they exam
ined the warrants as critically as he did.
But it is really waste of time to treat any
thing the Marshal or his organ may say on
this subject seriously. All the interest they
feel in the matter springs from an idea that
there is a little political capital in it, All
their tears are of the crocodile variety and
their sadness at the escape of the rumsellers
is all put on, Down in their hearts both of
them are tickled over the error and had it
liberated 300 instead of 80 rumsellers their
pleasure would have been ten times as great.