The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-29
THE DELAY IN THE cRoNIS CASE

| Those who are disposed to look upon the
tardy gated manner in which a jury is
being obtained, or rather not obtained, in
the CRoNIN murder case at Chicago, as an
ugly reflection upon our judicial system,
are respectfully invited to suggest some
thing that would be preferable to the pre-
vailing jury plan. After carefully consid-
ering the subject in ali its lights and bear
ings, THE HERALD feels justified III advan
cling the belief that they viii be unable to
find anything better. Suppose juries were
abolished entirely and the task of arriving
at conclusions as to facts was invested in
the courts, would that be au improvement!
Hardly. A judge has ali the power which
free people can afford to let him exercise
as it is, and to let him not only decide as to
the law, but to go further and
give him the only right which
the citizens have retained for themselves,
would be to make him veritable autocrat,
something utterly obnoxious to representa-
tive and republican governments, if to
none others. Besides, what reason have
we for surprising that one man would be
more Just than twelve men! None at all ;
but we have reason for knowing that even.
tually he would become much worse than
the average jury, for the reason that as
time advanced and his business became a
mere matter of routine, he would become
first Indifferent, then arrogant, then op-
pressive, then tyrannical AS this is not
an age in which JEFFREY or a MARL-
BOROUGH would find favor, we want no
such machine procedure; and what is true
of one Judge would be true of two or three
or a dozen, if they were permitted to
enter upon and hold the one sacred
right which the people will never willingly
give up-the right of trial by jury of our
peers. who shall be drawn freshly from the
ranks.
For judges toperform the work of iuries
would unquestionably expedite matters
and thus work great saving to
public and private treasures; more than
this, there is no doubt that in many, per-
haps the great majority of cases, they would
render equal and exact justice. But can
not the same argument be advanced in
favor of the vigilance committee, the Ku
Klux Khan or the White Caps! Certainly,
with the exception that in one case there
would be the forms and ceremonies of law
and in the other none at all, the moral
effect: the results and the means by which
results were reached would be precisely the
same.
Perhaps if those of our people who are
becoming impatient at the laws delay
would only put themselves in the defend
ants place for a short time, they would be
relieved Of some portion Of their anxiety.
Besides, they signally fail in most instances
to place the blame where it, or the
greater part of it, belongs. Since we have
juries which wise and just provision of
common and statute law DEGREES must be
drawn from the body of the people, we must
observe the means by which such iuries
are drawn, and maintain inviolate the rules
relating to qualifications. If the men Sc
lected were VIGOROUSLY biased, or biased at
all. the trial would most likely be mere
matter of form, and thus fail of one the
chief principles which the designer of the
system intended to be carried out-a free
and impartial judgment upon full and fair
presentation Of all the facts in the case.
Now, can men be unbiased and IN
trammeled, free to receive proper
evidence and base Il souni con-
clusion exclusively upon it when,
as soon as an offense of great magnitude is
committed in a community, the newspapers
begin the training of prospective juries
by preiudicial statements, gross exaggera-
lions. gross sensationalism and downright
lying. Partisanship and passion seem to
control the press of the east at such times,
an it is but little wonder that an intelli-
gent community is soon, almost to a man,
for jury duty. Hemust believe
some portion of what he reads, and the
chances are he will soon be decidedly on
one side of the case or the other.
Almost from the first the Chicago papers,
or the great majority of them, have at
tributed the murder of CRONIN to the Clan
na-Gael or its influence. All the accused
are members of that society, and while the
evidence so far is merely presumptive, it
has caused the papers to find the indicted
men guilty without hearing and
their readers, nearly all of them,
have followed suit. This is the
reason why it is so difficult to find in Cook
codnty, Illinois, twelve men who have no
opinions Of the merits of the case, and no
bias or prejudice one way or the other. 1t
is not right to condemn communities or
societies for the acts of their individual
even when the proof against the
latter is conclusive, which it certainly is
not in relation to any of the men now under |
indictment for participation in that dark !
and bloody deed.
1t is rather ambiguous compliment to
the press of a city that it can and does so !
unhinge the public mind that fair jury |
cannot be got out of it, but that is the way |
it is in Chicago
ANNE Observation-Disclosures has started on