The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-24
A CRIMINAL COURT WANTED.
MIR. Watts Gives Strong Reasons
For 1t.
The Circuit Court Not Sufficient to Meet
tho Demands of the Situation-The
Criminal BUSINESS as Much as One Man
Can Do Since the Jurisdiction of the
Magistrates Has Been Curtailcd.

A representative of THE TIMES had q
very interesting conversation with Mr..
j. Allen Watts yesterday afternoon.
In response to the question, What
is the proper thing to do about roliev-
ing the court" Mr.. Watts said:
:" In my opinion tho best thing to re-
lieve the pressure of the Hastings
Court is to carry out tho original idea
advocated by Mr.. IIardaway, Captain
Wright, myself and number of others.
That is to have criminal court with
appellate jurisdiction from tho magis-
trates in both civil and criminal mat
tiers, and to have all of the criminal
business before it.
The first advantage of this is tho
cheapness. We can get very eXcel-
lent judge at a moderate figure. say
thousand or twelve hundred dollars n
ycar-certainly fifteen hundreds it
does not require ono with so great a
knowledge of law. as TO hold the Office
OF circuit or corporation Judge. This is
shown notably by the circuit courts all
over tho State who try cases reasonably
we'll, and who arc paid from five hun
dred to thousand dollars, somo of
few OF these men arc what are known
as learned in the law, although re-
quired so TO he by the statute.
The second advantage of it is that
1T would DO strictly Roanoke court.
and could attend to all Roanoke mat
ters and might be given iurisdict ton
beside that mentioned above.
Tho third advantage is that it would
lead to very littlo confusion, as all of
tho present business should remain in
the Hastings Court, the Judge of which
court could have six or eight terms for
the trial OF jury cases instead of four, as
at present. This would enable him to
clean off the docket without any trouble
or inconvenience.
III this court cannot DO had, it seems
to me the next best thing to do would
be to have the circuit court for Roanoke
city alone, and require the circuit iudpc
to hold at least six, and if necessary,
eight, terms year here, and let all the
criminal business be in the lIustinrs
Court
1.-THE criminal business, under tho
late decision OF the supreme court of
appeals, is going to be as much as any
one man can attend to or ought to be
expected to attend to, and tho circuit
court should attend to all the civil bust
ness.
The first difficulty that confronts us.
If we join bedford with us, is the salary
question. AS understand it the super
visors Of Bedford will not consent to
give any additional salary to the iudre,
and if Bedford, as large and rich a
county as it is can afford not to give
additional salary, the Council OF Roam
oke will certainly decline to do il, as it
cannot be expected to pay money out of
its own treasury TO enable bedford to
have Il good Judge, especially in view
of tho fact that the population of Bed
ford is in excess of Roanoke and their
taxes are very much smaller.
Tho result would be that tho circuit
Judge would only receive 81 600 q year.
which would preclude the idea of get
ting proper man for the position, with
tlEe result OF leaving in the hands of the
liustings Courta great bulk OF tho Grim
1nal business. The Judge of this court
will not only have the criminal bust
ness, which is enough for ono man, but
majority OF the appellate business
from tho magistrates, the chancerv bust
ness and common law business if we
had $1,000 man, in all probability.
The congestion of the docket would.
therefore, remain absolutely unrelioved.
"As to who would be tho circuit
Judge? 1t might be that we could elect
Judge Robertson circuit Judge and some
other man Hastings Judge, he resigning
from the Hastings CouI for that pur-
pose, II 1T was thought necessary; but it
is manifestly unfair to have any Judge
paid as much as the circuit court Judge
would get, holding only four terms hore
against the other judges eleven, and it
is also unfair for the litigants to have
their cases tied up indefinitely in court.
as at present, and it would SO re-
main if we had Judge who was incom-
petent or unpopular with the bar. Even
II he were competent be would still not
have anything like tho work that the
Hnstlngs Court judge would have TO
perform. There ought to be an effort,
at least, to divide the work equally be-
tween them so that neither court should
be overburdened.
Il am OF the opinion, therefore, tina.
we should adopt the criminal court out
right as at first suggested, which think
preferable, or that we should ask for !;
circuit judge for Roanoke city alone
and let him have all of the common law
and chancery business in his court, so
that there would be an entire relief Of
the Corporation Court OF these two
branches OF business, and having Il
Judge from Roanoke alone the Council
would not hesitate to give him an ade-
quate salary"
Mr.. O'Brien Not Ready to Report.
The investigating committee held u
meeting last night after tho adjourn
ment of Council. Mr.. OBrien, the ex-
pert accountant had heen Motif ed y,