The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-27
BOSSES AND JURIES.
How the Former Aids i'm Selecting
the Latter.
The Machine" Not to Be Suppressed Even
in High Places-The Work the Superior
Judges Now Have in Hand,

The Superior Judges are now at work
preparing the trial-jury list-that is, the
work of preparing the trial-jury list is now
going on, and in view OF the corrupt man
ner in which the jury system has been
manipulated by the machine" during the
past year the public is taking great deal
OF interest in the work.
The selection Of trial jurors each year is
no small task in San Francisco owing to
tie great number required and the diific ulty
Of picking out men suitable to serve. 1t
usually takes, when the work is we'll and
thoroughly done, till the 1st Of March to
finish it, and no amount of precaution,
granting that every step taken is fair and
honest, can prevent an occasional bad
choice.
The law requires the Superior Judges to
make IN order at the beginning of each
year designating the estimated number Of
grand and trial jurors likely to be required
Tor the transaction Of the years business.
They then proceed at once to the selection
CT names. The number fixed upon is not
always the same from year to year, but lhls
year 1t was 5000, or 800 for each Judge.
A COMPLICATED SYSTEM.
The manner of selecting these names is
somewhat complicated, and If conscientious
ly done is an extremely arduOus task. The
law says:
Said selections and istiugs shall be made OF
persons suitable and competent 10 serve as
Jurors, Who assessed on the last preceding
assessment rolls and In making such SelectlOnS
they shall take the names Of such only as are not
exempt from serving. who are IN possession OF
their natural faculties, and not inllrm or decrepH;
OF Ialr character and approved integrity ana OIL
sound judgment.
In small town, where the selecting
official is likely to know everybody person
ally, it can be readily seen that a reasonable
compliance with the law IS simple enough.
But IN big city like San Francisco exact
compliance is physical impOssibillty The
Judges cannot possibly have personal
knowledge of any 5000 persons competent
to serve as jurors, or even 300 IN any given
twelfth part Of the city.
DIVIDING THE CITY.
To come az near as possible TO compliance
with the law the Judges first appOrtloned
the city into twelve districts, nearly equal
IN population, by dividing equally among
them the precinct registers OF the preceding
election. This Obyiates confusion from in
terfering with each other. They then go
over these registers and check OIL names
That appear IRON the record given 10 be
suitable for jury duty. The registers give
the age, residence and occupation OF all the
persons named. The names thus checked
of are then to be compared with the assess
ment roll, to see if they are taxpayers. The
ldN uOcS not say IN 50 many WUIIS LidL VIC
Judges must make these comparisons, but
the work cannot be said 10 have been con-
scleutiOusly done unless they attend 10 1t
themselves.
At this very point the pernicious interior
ence of The machine" begins. The judges,
honest in their motives and, perhaps, un-
conscious of the presence of corruption
around them, usually hand the 800 names
checked off by themselves TO one or more
Deputy County Clerks, with Instructions 10
take them down to the Assessors office and
make the required comparisons.
THE COMPARISON.
If the judges never again scrutinize these
lists they would be unable To certify
that the names finally turned over to the
custody of the County Clerk are the ones
originally selected.
The Judges usually maintain in defense
OF their course in turning lists over to Dep
uty County Clerks that they have quite
enough hard work to occupy their time
without pouring for days over the assess
ment-roll
As far as can be asCertained only one Of
the twelve Superior Judges has this year
personally attended to the com paTisOn Of
his list with tile asssssment-rON.