Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-09
OUR MAIL pouCa.

Tho Real Point at Issue rs 20 the License
Court-JudIclaI Discretion Quite a Diff
ferent Thing From Arbitrary Discretion
Wherein the Methods Of the Court
We're Open 10 Criticism.
To the Editor ofThe Dispatch;
What is the issue involved in our License
! Court discussion?
Is 1t, as seems to be assumed by many on both
sides-were too many or too few saloons licensed
in Allegheny county? If this is all there Is OF
1t, little attention need be given to 1t. The ex-
citement will in few days die out: the disap-
pointed parties viii get over their soreness,
and matters viii go on in the old way.
But is this all?
If Judges are wise they will not look to the
winning parties for discriminating approval,
and for the same reasons. as long as complaints
are confined to parties smarting under defeat,
the judges can afford to ignore or disregard
them. But when they become numerous
among any class of intelligent people outside
of the directly interested, it is well to look into
the matter and show either that their are no
good grounds of complaint. or take steps to re-
move them If they exist. It appears to
US useless to deny that there are
many complaints and criticisms coming
from such sources and we, therefore,
propose to consider the matter foom the stand
point of disinterested party, or rather from
that Of party not interested in the cases con-
sidered by the Court, but only in the general
principles involved. We do not desire to retry
the license cases. We speak only after it has
been announced that final judgment has been
entered in all the cases, and our purpose is to
learn wisdom for guidance in the future, not to
influence any decision already made or affect
any case already considered. We desire to re-
view the acts of the Court without passion and
without prejudice, and without influence from
bias in favor of or against any class OF people or
any kind of business.
In order to do this and consider the matter
as alone legal proceeding should be con-
sidered, we must in the present case reject as
worthless the opinions (frst) of those who
want the Court called to.account as means OF
compelling more licenses and (second) of those
who Justify a court in knocking out whisky
sellersn without regard to method; and who, in
their eagerness to lessen the decentralization OF
liquor drinking, wholly forget that there are
other kinds of Generalization, and that we
cannot afford to cure the evil of incorporate
drinking at the expense of impaired confidence
in the administration of Justice. We wish to
proceed upon principles which Will commend
themselves to every fair-minded man, regard
less of whether he believes that many more
licenses should have been granted or that few
er none should have been granted.
Z The question is: Did the parties who appeared
before the License Court get what they were
legally entitled to. If they did they must sub
NIT.
What then are they legally entitled to? Ger
tainly they are not all entitled to license. Just
as certainly no single one of them can claim
that he is entitled to license. and 1t must be
conceded by every fair-minded person that it is
legally and logically possible, that every man
should have been accorded his legal rights, and
yet no man be given license.
They were entitled to three things; Q.) An
investigation judicial in its methods. ~ The
exercise of legal or judicial discretion. (3)
The entry of an honest judgment
If they got these they have gotten justice as
nearly as human organizations can attain to it
and must ask no more.
No one has presented anything which justi-
mes charge of corruption or Intentional un-
to honest judgment as conceded in favor of the
Court.
Were the methods of Investigation judicial
in their nature?
1t is not easy to see how this Is to be affected
by the difficulties surrounding the matter. If
court acts at all, it should act as a court, and
II duties are imposed which 1t cannot get
through with acting in this way, then the Court
is not responsible for their non-performance.
But concede something to the necessities of the
case, must not the enthusiasm of anyone who
wishes to regard our courts as presenting
model methods of investigation be dampened by
q view Of the procedure in Allegheny County
License Courts up to the present writing?
Sufficient time was not given, Applicants
were practically denied counsel The Court
appeared as their accusers and frightened the
nervous and left none but the brazen in fit con-
dition to answer questions knowingly. Had
the same methods been applied in any other
judicial investigation the whole community
including the Judges, would have seen the i'm
So far as we are concerned we are willing TO
let the dead past bury its dead, but, as to the
future call halt. Let us have no investiga-
ton or one which will give some assurance that |
the truth has been arrived at. If this ignot |
done in the interest of the parties, let it be |
done in the interest of the Court and OF those
tration Of justice
Did the Court oonfine itself to the exercise of |
Judicial discretion? Judicial discretion Is |
contrasting it with arbitrary discretion. It has
been well defined by the courts as "a discretion
to be exercised in discerning the course pre- |
seribed by law; never the arbitrary will Of the |
Judge" 1t has long been the glory and pride |
Of our system of law that it leaves so little to
the will of the individual who sits as Judge. |
That system, centuries since, clearly recog- |
nized the weakness Of human nature, and has |
always striven to answer the petition deliver |
US from temptation No man in this age can |
conceive OF case which the law leaves abso- |
iutetE h to t the discretion OF the Judge It may
butt does not follow from this that there are |
no rules to guide him. No suitor is or should |
be compelled to go into court submitting to the |
Judge and saying am here to receive what it |
may please you to bestow upon me. He goes |
there asking as right that he be given what |
the law says belongs to him, and there should |
personal influence. (This, of course, does not |
mean that he can demand anything but fair |
hearing, unless that hearing demonstrates his |
right to something more.l
Such is human nature that If Judges assume |
or are given more than q judicial discretion, |
corruption and oppression will follow as surely |
as effect follows cause. Not necessarily in |
every individual instance, but still the rule |
holds.
No one will of course assert that all guiding |
rules were ignored by our License Court; but |
was there not enough Of assumption by the |
Judges Of the right to do things for the same |
reason that the Almighty chose the elecr-"out |
of his mere good pleasure"-to suggest a |
pause.
Perhaps this attracts more attention, because |
those who have been interested in and observed !
the matter have of late years thought they OBJ |
served a tendency on the part of many Judges |
to substitute personal will for law, and lay |
down what they think the law should be, in
stead of 'discerningathe course prescribed by
the lawn Many perhaps could look phiIoso-
phically upon some arbitrariness in the License
Court were they certain it would go no further |
But the trouble Is that what court has the /
right to do when sitting for one purpose it has
the right to do when sitting for any other pur-
pose.
The License Court arbitrarily cut loose from
all precedent in the manner of conducting its
investigations, and here we have perhaps the
most palpable instance Of arbitrary discretion.
No man can understand the line of distinction
which enabled the Court to determine between
a fit and an unfit party. The Court itself by
refusing rehearings, although it is conceded
that mistakes must have been made admits
that the line is SO shadowy and indistinct that
it will not attempt to hunt it up again. The
defenders of the Courts actien claim for 1t the
right to refuse few, many or all, !. e., claim
boldly the right to exercise an arbitrary dis
cretion. The Courts action cannot be justified
on the ground of necessity. There never was
and there never will be necessity for a court
acting other than as court. 1t is idle to tell
us that others have done the same, or worse.
So much the more reason for checking the
practice.