The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-11-30
Re.ults Of the water Hearing.

N nP&utk6 u ttlr
The absolute folly of certiorari pro-
ceedsngs as they are conducted in this
State is we'll exemplihed in the water
circus which has just come to a close
1t is hardly going too far to say that
the taking of testimony in this case mas
been a costly farce. The ends of JUS
tice would nave been Just as well served
if the various counsel had been asked 10
file their briefs at once, each basing his
on his own preconceptions of the facts
and the Judges deducing from antece-
dent probability a conclusion as TO VINO
is in the right. AS the case STANDS now
after some thirty to forty hearings, the
only net result is a book of considerably
over two thousand pages, ordinary law
size. filed with copies of specFflcations'
advertisements and minutes of boards
examinations of public officials. water
company promoters and experts OF var
ious degrees of expertness. There are
numerous complicated tables. and there
are several hundred pages of exhibits
Taken as a whole. the volume woutc
furnish steady reading for an average
man for a week. reading ten hours a DAY
steadily.
This is the mass of rubbish n humbug
which the Supreme Court Judges are ex-
pected to wade through before render
ing a decision. They will have to study
besides, the briefs of perhaps a dozen
lawyers-perhap more. Some or THESE
LAWYERS have not followed the proceed
tngs. One or two have appeared only
at a single session. But no doubt they
will all be in at the death, and will fur
nish the Judges with more or less learned
presentations of the law and more or less
accurate analyses of the testimony.
When the task proposed to the Judges
is explained in this concrete style, a
large sized pity must take possession OF
the ordinary mans mind. The briefs
of the lawyers are bad enough, but the
mind can hardly grasp the horror OF
the two thousand pages of testimony and
the two or three hundred of exhibits. 1t
might be contempt Of court to suggest
that the Judges would never read the
stuff at all. but assuredly if they do they
take the palm for patience from Chinese
civil service aspirants.
However absurd the total may appear,
there is in this testimony a good deal
of valuable matter. If the Judges could
separate the wheat from the chaff. they
would find that perhaps as much as
one-tenth of the evidence really threw
light on the merits of tine water con-
to them also, in observing how the entire
case of the suitors of the certiorari re-
bounded to the advantage of the res
pendents. save n except a small part
of the evidence of the hired experts on
their sid !.
We opened these remarks with a pro-
test against the folly of certiorari pro-
ceedings as actually conducted. Obvious
". the only way of making the evidence
really count in such a case as this would
be to have it taken directly in presence
OF the Judges who are to decide the IS
sues. If this course could "a been
pursued in the water case, a week of
hard work would have sufficed for aking
testimony. and, when it was taken. the
public would know tina it had gone to the
places where 1t would do most good, the
ears and the brains of the Judges. and
not into an impossible volume of over q
600 pages. which it gives a man a night
mare even to think of.
Apart from his preposterous volume,
the most remarkable development of the
proceedings has been the survival OF
the Iawyers on the side of the prosecu-
ion. Today. the My ones who remain
in it are the counsel of the defeated COM
p~etitors. The brilliant bar who were to
represent the Board of Trade, the Goo
Coos and other "disinterested" citizens.
have disappeared. They are not to be
blamed. 1t is not clear where any money
is to come from for their fees. East
Jersey. however. fights on with the ser
enc confidence that having got a grip
on our throats through the temporary
contract. and unlimited capital, 1t can
in the long run tire out all competition,
and make a contract with the city at its
W price.
TT is well enough to see that the Re-
publican Board of Police Commissioners
keeps up the standard set by President