Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-11
THE JUDICIARY.
Some additional Safeguard lfust be Throarn
Around the Treasury.

Some Additional Safeguard Must be Throavn
around the Treasury.
Your attention has just been directed
to the vast increase in the expenditures
of this branch of the government from
fees to officials and the cost of conveying
attached witnesses, and while these Of
ficers by their fearless and jealous labOrs
are doing great work for the preserva-
ton and protection of life, liberty and
property in our state, for which they are
justly entitled to fair and reasonable
cOmpensation-and we are not blind to
the fact that many objections can be
stated to the injustice and hardship at
tending the enforced presence of wit
nesses which are entitled to more or less
weight, and it is cOnfessedly difficult to
enact law on the subject to which there
cannot be rightfully some ground of
practical objectiOn-yet l respectfully
suggest that unless the evil
dence supplied by the comptrol-
ler's department respecting many
of these claims be discredited it viii be-
come obvious beyond doubt that the pres
ent law has given birth to serious abuses
by which the state was made to suffer
great loss without corresponding benefit
to the general public, and it is hoped that
you will take such action as in your
Judgment viii contribute TO the best
interests of the state and devise speedy
remedy for evils which are acknowledged
to exist Whether there is a complete
legislative remedy for it or not, certainly
some additional safeguard can be thrown
around the treasury to secure it more
effectually from imposition from this
of the attendant evil
however, when traced to the fountain
head will be found inherent in the judicial
system. In my message to the Twentieth
legislature at its regular session, under
the head of Constitutional Amend
ments'' this subject was discussed at
considerable length, adverting to the
phase of the subject bringing upon the
state much of this immense expenditure,
as follows:
''It is apparent to every observing
man that under the existing system the
cost of unlimited continuanees and CON-
sequent repetition of officers fees and
contingent Jail expenses, the manifest
abuse or the law designed to allow rea-
sOnable pay to sheriffs and attached wit
nesses, when forced 10 leave the county
of their residence, coupled with a lack of
proper and certain punishment of those
convicted of misdemeanOrs, by forcing
them to pay or go to work, is heaping
burden upon the state and counties for
the administration of the criminal laws
simply enormous, yet all to be paid by
the people, and suggestive of the fact
that real retrenchment and reform must
necessarily begin at the bottom as well as
at the top of our present system.
In this connection it may not be deemed
inappropriate to call the attention of the
people to the fact that they cannot be
held entirely blameless, hut in reality are
primarily chargeable with the inception
and existence of very much of this I'M
necessary expense in the enforcement of
the criminal laws. To substaLtiate this
we have only to refer TO the exhaustive
report of the attorney general, showing
the percentage of indictments and ac-
quittaIs, and the great number of mol
pros. cases, from which we conclude that
grand juries are too prone to indict for
every conceivable offense, upon testimony
that will not
BEAR PUBLIC SCRUTINY
in the courts, and suggests the inquiry
whether they are not too frequently
hunting for victims, or influenced by
prosecuting attorneys who are to be bene-
fitted by accruing costs, rather than
properly trying to rid society of offenders
all human shortcomings from prescribed
standards were regarded as criminal and
punishment was melted out without re-
gard to age or circumstance, but intelli-
gent investigation showed resultant evils
too serious for silence or longer neglect,
and proper reform began. The cost 10
the taxpayer from this source is by no
means the only feature of the case
worthy of attention. A man may be ac-
cused by the malice of his fellows, or by
circumstances, and though presumably
innocent, under the hasty and necessarily
imperfect investigation instituted by the
grand jury hearing but one side of the
case, he is taken from his family and
friends, all his relationship to society dis
turbed or destroyed and if unable to make
sufficient bond is thrown into jail where
the hardened criminal awaiting trial
or transportation to the penitentiary, the
accused and the suspected, with now and
then raving lunatic are crowded pro-
miseuously, with an imposed idlenesE in
a moral atmosphere made shocking be-
yond description, which is promOtiTe
rather than repressiye of crime and from
which the most abandoned frequently
emerge in a worse condition than when
they entered. If under our laws the state
or corporation cannot take a man s prop
erty for public necessity save by legal
process most carefully guarded for which
ultimate and ample compensation must