The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-08
Majority Verdicts.


Representative Bryan, of Nebraska, is
an advocate of jury reform. He wishes
the principle of majority rule to govern
in jury rooms, as well as in elections and
in legislative bodies. He has, therefore,
introduced a bill to amend section sOOofthe
Revised Statutes by adding these words
''In civil cases the verdict of three-fourths
of the jurors constituting the jury shall
stand as the verdict of the jury, and such
verdict shall have the same force and
effect as unanimous verdict Such an
amendment made law would destroy the
one-man power in jury rooms and save an
immense amount of time and expense that
are now wasted because a unanimous YER
dict is required. II is safe to say that
disagreements seven times out of ten are
brought about by one or two jurymen
holding out against the majority; and it
sometimes happens that corrupt Jurors
are hribed to prevent verdictS There is
no good reason why, in civil cases, Hti-
gants should be compelled to fight
until one or the other has secured a uuan-
imous verdict, thereby occasioning losses
to themselves and the government. and to
other litigants through the wasting of
time that might be given to other cases.
In high courts, where there are no juries,
the majority of the judges render the
decision; and the same system might
proftably be employed in the jury courts
in civil cases. There are good grounds
for obecting to a majority verdict in
criminal courts, where every safeguard
possible should be thrown around the ac-
cused until he has been proved guilty;
though, on the other hand, there are
eminent Judges on the bench who hold
that the ends Of justice would be the
better subserved if majority verdicts
were applied to criminal cases also.
For several weeks the Chicago Times
has been firing hot shot into the asses
sors of city real estate for taxation ia
thai city, and it has disclosed a state of
affairs that suggests wide spread corrup-
ton in official circles. Day after day the
paper has produced, by making striking
contrasts, pictures of small and modest
business buildings along with those of
splendid sky-scraping buildings, and
quoted from the official records to show
that while the small buildings are as
sessed at from 80 to - per cent of their
value, the big ones are assessed at onlv
s to 10 per cent. of their value. The in
ference to be drawn is that the assessors
make quite good thing on their own ac-
count through the scaling down of the
taxes to be assessed against big owners.
King Lobencula, the old king of the
Matabeles, who was killed by the British
not long ago, was man,of family The di-
rectory OF his household has not vet
reached civilization, but it is estimated
that he had wives and children enough to
people congressional district. These
wives are now widows and their children
orphans, and the multiplicity of widows
ana regiments Of orphans are beginning TO
demand OF the British to know if they are
going 10 receive pensions, or at least
damages, for the loss of their natural
protector The family man in Africa
takes upon himself lot of responsibilities
that continue even after his dealth.
1t is not likely that Speaker Crisp will
favor the change in the House rules pro.
posed by Representative Springer, as re
ported in our dispatches of yesterday 1t
is understood that the speaker is opposed
to any change for the purpose Of facili-
tatine The acquiring OF a counted quorum.
he is NOT yet ready To acquiesce. in any
thing that has the semblance of an
acknowledgement that Tom Reed was
right during the Fifty first congress.