Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-07-23
\ LANCASTER, PA, July %, 1890.
The Alderman's Court.

dred years ago the common law OF Eng
land, which is the law Of Pennsylvania
to-day, was bloodier in its penalties than
the code of Draco. More than two hun
dred offenses were punishable by death.
Every year Sir Samuel Romily, that
great and good lawyer, arose in his
place in Parliament to present and advo-
cate his bill for the amelioration of the
criminal code and the abolition Of these
barbarous penalties Year after year
the stupid f,.s hunting squires voted 1t
down, and it was only after the efforts
of life time that he succeeded
at last i'm accomplishing the great re-
form. More than seventy years ago
Jeremy Bentham drafted his famous
Reform bill for the purpose of correct
ing the manifold evils and abuses of par
liamentary government. Chief among
the reforms which he most strongly
urged, with all the powers of his great
mind, was secret ballot. Yet In spite
of the time which has elapsed in spite
of the brilliant and unanswerable advo-
cacy of John stuart Mill Bentham's
distinguished disciple, critic and expos
itor; in spite Of the electoral frauds
which our people have endured and
which a secret ballot would have rem
dercd impossible, we are only awakening
at this late day and for the first time to
the serious necessity OF its adoption.
Why is legal reform so difficult and SO
tardy Is ii because that 1t must be Sc
cured, not by the efforts, but in spite of
the bitter opposition of the legal profes-
sion Is it because lawyers as a class
possess an excessive veneration for
the pasta Chinese worship of anc0s-
tors that dulls the judgment and
shackles the mind--that embraces an evil
because il is old and rejects good be-
cause 1t is new? He who opposes right
eous innovation pitches his camp in the
last ditch of moral cowardice. Are law
yers in this worst sense conservative +?
So, too, is the mule that has grown blind
from weary years of toll in n dungeon
treadmill.
II this is truly n government of, by,
and for the people, our laws and the
constitution of our courts should be
framed, above all things else, for their
benefit. They should exist, in Ben
tham's phrase, for the greatest good
Of the greatest number" No invidious
distinction should be made between the
Z ffch and the poor, but justice should be
impartially administered TO all alike.
Itshould be cheap, it should be certain,
1t should he swift. When the poor ask
1t, they should not be crowded into a
narrow and dingy room before some
successful ward politician, base, densely
ignorant and mercenary, while the
wealthy find it in the almost regal sur
roundings of supreme court, presided
over by trained justices, deeply learned
In the law, and whose cultivated minds
are rich with the spoils Of time" Yet
this is precisely the distinction we
make, although never weary of boast
ing of our equal laws, equal rights and
equal conditions.
To the poor, the friendless and the un-
fortunate, who possess neither time nor
means to prosecute appeals, the primary
court Is the court of last resort. The
Russian serf is not more helpless than
they under the decisions of the too fre-
quent besotted ignoramus they call the
esquire F" and the writs issued TO and
executed by the ward constable. Let us
enter one of these temples of justice. y
We find narrow, meauly furnished
Office and a judge who conducts the busi-
ness for revenue only. He has but few
books and these serve only to confuse
him ;he possesses that very little learn.
ing which in his case is truly "dan.
gerous thing - while only too often he
lacks that sine q,td non of the Judgment
seat--a spotless character. He has Sc
cured his nomination and election chiefly
as reward for questionable party SER
vices, and he means to make the office
pay all the traffic will bear. Instead OF
discouraging litigation, he does all in
his power to promote it, He returns
every case TO court because he gets less
for dismissed cases. Lawyers know
by experience that it would be Just as
profitable to try TO milk he-goats in
sleeves as seriously to defend an accused
person before squire" for no case is
too microscopically small for the average
alderman.
After | had spent mint of good
money TO get elected in this ward, - ex-
claimed one of these worthless, indig,
nantly, to the writer, land after i had
Worksd up a good business they turn
around and elect this youngster in my
place, to reap all the benefit. What has
he ever done for the party ?" And one
of the methods by which he had worked
4 up good business was to offer To keep
tally for the boys who in the suburbs
played base ball on Sunday, thus get.
ting the names of these unsuspecting
violators OF the law, whom he had
brought before him the next day, com.
pelling their parents and guardians,
mostly poor people, to pay the fines and
costs, which he imposed. And he saw
nothing save praseworthy smartness in
this contemptibly base act. And his sen.
sibility? The very stones of Lancaster
c)uld be made 10 blush crimson with
hot shame before this man be made could
s to change color. Nor was he of coarsel
fibre than the average of his kind.
1.-THE wrongs which the poor of the
great cities suffer" says an able and
eloquent advocate, from the evils
OF the primary system of courts are
beyond description. What great apostle
Of referm, what lover of justice aud his
fellow men, will lead the way to better
Z administration of the law for the friend
less and the poor? Even the justices of
the supreme court of the United States
hear cases in the first instance in the
circuit court, aud surely some means
can be devised 10 secure just superyi-
sion and summary control OF proceed
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