Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-10-20
SUNDAY. oCTOsER go. 1859.
The Laws Delay.

The Grand Jury which is now in
session began its career some time back
in May. If it had been useless body,
the great duration of its term Of Office
would have been inexcusable. 1t ought
long ago to have dissolved and mingled
amongst the fellow-citizens of it's con-
stituents. But its prolonged existence
has been public benefit, and is defens-
IDLE from every ground of good public
policy and sound expsdiency. About
June it began to get an inkling of the
extraordinary corruption which has been
developed in the County Clerks Office.
The first discovery of the forged jury
mems warrants was not such as to lead
to the opinion amongst the Grand jury
men that the fraud had been perpetrated
on large scale. The forged warrants
were supposed to have been confined to
half dozen. The persistence of the
HERALD saved the county from this mis-
carriage of justice. Inspired by the
energetic appeals of this journal, the
Grand Jury persevered, and perfect
nest Of corruption was unearthed.
The modus operandi of the thieves and
forgers was very simple. There are six
Superior Courts in Los Angeles county,
each with venire Of from fifty to sixty
jurymen. Twelve of these may be en-
ployed on given day, and the rest may
be peaceably busted about their home
affairs on the farm. The thieves and
forgers, trusting to the lack of scrutiny,
or to the connivance, of the officials who
should have checked this villainy,
started out to forge warrants ad ibitun,
in the names of the absent jurymen, and
to discount them at q pawnshop near the
Plaza. A quarrel which arose between
this pawnbroker and the father of the
principal thief and forger afterwards led
to the expose There is no question as
to the crime, the only issue being as to
the limit of it.
Hon. s. M. White, the attorney of the
principal criminal, raised the issue that
the Grand Jury waa not capable of find
ing an indictment because, when it
found the indictment against his client,
it was not body legally competent to
discharge that Office, basing his position
on the ground that of the fifteen Grand
Jurymen who found it ,three-the Messrs.
Beach, Chubb and Brown-weye at the
time citizens of Orange county.
This ingenious legal bubble occupied
the whole time OF Judge Wade's court
yesterday. The whole Grand Jury had
been summoned, and number of them
we're on hand. The proceedings got no
further, however, than the testimony of
the Secretary of the Grand Jury,
Mr.. George G. Knox. After his
evidence had been received Mr..
White got up and moved that,
as it was impossible to hear all the
Grand Jurymen, the case ought to be
postponed till the End of the ensuing
November, and postponed it accordingly
was. 1t would be miching malicho if it
should turn out that all the painstaking
work done by the Grand Jury thus far
should prove to be absolutely thrown
away, through the counsel for the
Edelmans having raised the question as
to whether or no that body itself is not
invalidated by the fact that some of its
members belong to Orange county, the
recent creation of the Legislature. The
way technicality oftentimes knocks out
substantial justice in California is a
thing for Gods and men to marvel at.
The spirit of the law 30 often yields to
its letter that the laws delays celebrated
in Hamlet's soliloquy, have become
merely a secondary hardship.