Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-09-12

There is no subject about which the
people are thinking more and more ear
nestly than the expense imposed upon
them by modern criminal trials. The
laws delays and the expense attending
such delays cause feeling of indifference
In the public mind, and the question is
balancing whether it is any longer worth
while to attempt to bring criminals to
Justice. The following from the Chicago
Evening Journal will be read with inter
est. The Journal says: Perhaps too
much ought not to be said, as yet, in re-
gard to the prospects of the Cronin
trial, in regard to its length and its re-
suits. At least nothing should be said
that would forestall justice by Great
ing prejudice against the Suspect" or
in their favor But there is phase Of the
case already apparent that will bear COM
ment 1t is already indicated that the
trial will be of extreme length, covering
months Of time, and that every device of
which legal art is master, will be used to
prolong it. This is not peculiar to the
Cronin trial, so far as it has proceeded. 1t
was so in the Guiteau trial. It was so
with the Anarchists and ''boodlers trials
in Chicago. THE laws delay in Shake
speare's time was the recklessness of haste
and precipitancy compared with its slow
ness, procrastination and delays IN this
age of legal advancement. The delays
and prolongation of trials of Importance,
especially criminal trials, is made up In
selecting jury, and in endless reiteration
In examining witnesses. A man called as
a Juror has to 90 through an examination
as minute as if his life had been that of a
crook and criminal. Men of the best re-
pute are subjected to an inquisition that Is
both merciless and needless. Quips and
quiddities, quirks and queer questionings
constitute the gauntlet that they are forced
to run, till patience is exhausted and life
is made a burden. For the witness it is
worse if worse is possible. Every shade
of meaning of every word spoken in his
testimony is examined, re-examined
and re-re-examined; and he Is
made to shade it still more closely
and delicately if possible. The argument
of the finest technicalities is elongated
and each thought or semblance of a
thought is stretched to It's last degree of
tenuity in an attempt to find or create
some small advantage. This is the work
of the lawyers, who are, as a rule paid by
the day, and make their job last as long as
possible. And all this is bread in the
basket of the stenographer and typewriter.
Their office is enlarged and aggrandized.
The record which they make costs the tax
payers and the parties an immense sum of
money. To procure certified copy in
case of an appeal costs hundreds or thous-
ands of dollars 1t amounts to as much as
the pay of the most high-priced lawyer.
The handy stenographer makes the lawyer
more inventive, imaginative and loquacious
chan If he had to make his own notes of
the testimony. as the greatest lawyers IN
the world did in the past. 1t is an easy
thing-a mere recreation-to add repeti-
jtion to repetition, to transpose, invert and
reiterate. to aSk and assert over and over
again the betty forms of procedure al
to make bulky record and increase the
total per diem of the attorney. This is al
evil. 1t makes justice oppressively expen
sive. 1t renders necessary the great num-
Der of our judges. 1t makes the taxes
onerous. 1t is great public burden. Il
is part of our system in which reform il
more needed than any other"