San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-01-11
gha Daily eight.
FRIDAY. JANUARY. II. 1899.
AN EVIL UNDER THE SUN.

"The district court room was
crowded all of yesterday with gamb-
lers and the keepers of bawdy houses.
Sixty-four Of the former and eight of
the latter were arraigned for trial on
indictments from the grand jury. The
men were fined $25 each with costs
and Imprisonment for ten days. and
| the women were assessed 500 each
and costs. The gamblers are COM
PEELED to satisfy the law by serving
| ten days at the county poor farm, the
Jail being already crowded. The only
service, however, required of them is
to report each day to the superinten-
dent of the farm. Then they can
come back to the city and pursue the
even tenor of their way"
How far the above is exactly true
and how far colored in the dye-pot of
the reporters Imagination is not per-
tinent to the purposes of this article.
Neither is it necessary to enquire how
tar the prosecuting attorney is justi-
fled in quashing a portion of the in
dictments found against offenders
while others found on .:substan TALLY
the same grounds are prosecuted to
conviction. The extract is cited as
proof against the senselessness of the
grand jury system, and particularly
against the senselessness and useless
ness of attempting to employ
it as a measure of moral
reform. The secret inquisition
system is all farce, because
it is cumbersome, expensive, unsatis-
factory and in the great majority of
cases is an engine Of oppression and
nothing else. This, remember, not
because of any intentional injustice or
harshness on the part of the law Of
fcers but because of the essential and
ingram injustice of the system itself.
The complaint is made in all quarters
that the time of the grand jury is
largely occupied in considering mis-
demeanors and that but small por-
ton of its work is the investigation of
crime of a positive character. Take
the work OF the grand jury in this
county as a sample. Eliminate from
it's work the inquisition into cases of
illegal liquor selling, gambling houses
and houses of prostitution and what
is left? Here, according to this report
we have seventy-two indie tments
against gamblers and keepers of
houses of prostitution and to what
end? To none save this that $1,000
more or less might be secured to the
public treasury. These houses are not
closed by such indictments. The
peril to morals is not lessened
but rather increased, for these
offenders are driven out of legal
recognition and carry on their
work in secret unsupervised by police
surveillance. The degrading work of
secret inquisitiOn is carried on by the
grand jury and occasionally a batch
of indictments are found, and fines
imposed, but the houses closed in one
section of the city are opened in an
other, and the work of gambling and
sporting goes on all the same. The
enlightened sense of this age recOg-
nizes vice and human passion as exist
ing things. 1t may be the province of
the pulpit to preach their obstruction
and inveigh against license, but it is
the province of sound legislative
policy to recognize existing evils, and
provide for the regulation of that
which cannot be totally suppressed.
The adjustment of the grand jury
system as a relic of the dark ages; the
prosecution of criminals upon the
sworn statement of law officers or re-
sponsible citizens; the licensing of
sporting houses and their careful su-
pervision by police authority; the
| attempted reformation rather than
the punishment of criminals-these
things are demanded by wise con-
sideration of the conditions of society
as today existing. Wherever licenses
are issued and a good sum demanded
as such license, and the regulations
guarding and holding in check are
| strictly enforced, there, experience has
demonstrated that society suffers
| least and law, order and good govern
ment are most certainly and easily
maintained. Think of the rot and dirt
and the secret inquest into private
| habits, which stands back of these
seventy-two indictments. What good
end is su bserved by dragging these to
| the light of day. Nothing save a
parade of vice and the enriching of
the public treasury by small amount
| largely frittered away in the eXpen-
sive and un-American method of Sc
curing it. The crimes that men COM
NIT against themselves society cannot
punish, much as mOralists and
theorists may say. The crimes which
affect others, and are committed
without consent of others, are the
crimes society may punish. The
crimes, or misdemeanors mentioned
above as fined in the district court do
not come within this latter catalogue.
To attempt to suppress them is to at
tempt to suppress human nature and
cannot be successful until.human ma
ture itself changes. TO change hu-