San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-12-04


For the LIGHT.
The art of the intelligent legislator is
one that is but little studied, and, rs a
consequence, but imperfectly under
stood, by the average law-giVer OF the
present day. Men are elected TO the leg
islature to frame laws, whom no sane
man would employ to attend to his pri-
vate business, and who never displayed
q spark of common sense, or flash OF
sound Judgment, or semblance OF
craftsmanship, in the entire course Of
their past lives, and then people com.
plain that the laws are contradictory
and uncertain.
By the phrase-Of the art of the Intel
ligent legislator-my design was to
point out the true sphere of all intelli-
gent legislation. First and foremost Ia
the resolute solicitude to avoid rash ex-
periments and reckless innovations in
the making of laws, to carry out some
pet theory. based upon hasty generaliZa-
ton, or upon downright fanaticism.
Secondly, comes the effort to simplify
the laws, to prune away all redundant
words, to avoid all ambiguous phrases,
and to render the meaning plain and
clear. The next, is to adapt the law to
the evil sought to be remedied, which
implies that the law-maker has taken
the trouble to consider the defects in the
existing laws as well as the remedy
needed. Brief laws are more readily un-
derstood, better remembered and more
easily enforced than prolix and verbose
laws. filled with provisos, exceptions
and qualifications, hence, the legislator
should study brevity and perspicuity of
style.
When an existing law is amended, the
amendment must be so worded as to ae
complish the precise purpose for which
it ls made, and to go no further.
Now, a person may be highly edu-
Gated and cultivated, yet not come up
to the standard of an 'intelligent legis-
latOr." Education and cultivation can
not Undue men with common sense and
sound judgment. Not unfrequently, the
most iDcorrigible cranks and VISION
aries to be met with are highly educated
by extensive reading, but whose mental
makeup Is fatally defective.
Now, the judicial machinery of Texas
needs to be simplified. The time of the
district courts is consumed in selecting
petit juries IN criminal cases-the bust.
ness stands still until a jury shall be
chosen. The law seems to have been
designed to produce useless delay, and
to waste the time Of the court. The
machinery Ia tedious and dilatory, and
should be amended in such a way as to
cause 1t to work smoothly and without
clogging the dispatch of the business of
the courts, since the present system
operates as a denial of justice to persons
under indictment, by postponing their
trial. There should be twenty-f, ur jur-
ors drawn for each week, divided into
two juries. and numbered jury No. and
jury No. 2, respectively. These juries
should be in attendance In court, except
when they have retired to consider a
case.
The present law requiring the district
clerk to write out the names of the
jurors upon two lists and to furnish one
to the district attorney, and one to the
defendant, should be repealed, and the
challenges should be made, orally, after
the court shall have pronounced each
juror competent. This would save time,
without working injustice to the deren
ants in criminal cases.
The law should be repealed, which re-
quires defendants to apply for new
trial, before they can prosecute an ap-
peal, and leave them free to apply for a
new trial, or not. As The law now
stands, much Of the valuable time OF the
district courts Is taken up In the hear
ing OF motions for new trials, nine-tenths
of which are overruled. The design OF
the law requiring an application for a
new trial to be condition precedent to
the prosecution OF an appeal was to af-
ford judges the opportunity OF review
ing the entire case and Of correcting any
erroneous ruling, which might have
been made in the progress Of the trial,
but the sort of moral courage and man.
hood, that SO far subdue pride and the
desire to seem consistent, is to lead a
man to acknowledge that he has CON-
mitted a mistake, Is extremely rare. Ii
ought not to be so. 1t is mere audacity
of presumption In any man to claim by
his acts, to be infallible. Judges on the
bench are not at all infallible, and as
they have to decide many points of law
on the spur OF the moment, without any
time for consideration, they unavoid-
ably make mistakes. But few men will
Wedge they have made mistake
even In the most trivial matter, and this
pride OF opinion enters largely into the
composition OF the average Judge.
The prime object with the Legislature
should De the simplifying and shorten
ing OF all Judicial proceedings, where II
can be done with entire safety to the ad.
mioistrallon OF justice; and, In this con.
nection, 1t is superhuous to say nothing
Is more conducive to this end than The
cutting away Of everything that pro.
duces useless delay In the dispatch OF
the business OF the courts.