St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-24

/ nations, all political institutions, tine
tide of power has swept alternately
from the despot to the masses, from
democracy to monarchy, forever
shifting between Capitalization and
decentralization. Theory prefers
the individual, practice selects the
many. An able and conscientious
despot is the ideal ruler. Religion
when most noble and exalted, Ma
ture herself, when read Alright, en-
body in the mighty universe this per
lection of government The steeple
and the minaret point upward to
thevast realms of space where reigns
Jehovah or Allah, the All-POwerful
and the Adjust.
The observation of centuries was
required to teach the world that in
creased efficiency and diminished
integrity. One man will make a
better public servant than a COM
mission Of three men, if only the
one can be trusted. In endeavorine
to fix the balance of power-as i'm
mighty nation-communitie are con-
Stantly drawn to one side or the
other, according as their present
discomfort has arisen against in
competency or injustice. The only
form Of popular government, at the
same time enduring and progressive
that evolved by medieval Eng
land-based itself upon the powerful
and far-seeing conviction that in
government the incompetent is al
ways to be preferred to the unjust.
Better a cabinet of Kansas Populists
than a monarch like Louis XIV;
rather a board of aldermen in Chi
cago than a military governor in
Moscow.
Every shallow American traveller,
nevertheless, is charmed by the
ease with which the late emperor
of the French was able to transform
obscure alleys into brilliant boule-
wards; to patroniZe the theater and
the opera, and to gather in splendid
galleries priceless paintings and an
tique statues that all the world
might revel in their beauty. But these
boulevards have long been dark
ened with the widows and the Or
phans of F'renchmen slaughtered by
imperial ambition; and the miracles
of artistic triumph were merry play
things for the communist and the
petroleuSe.
Without doubt, however, the eff
cacy Of centralized power appeals
to all lovers of good government,
to all well-meaning citizens. Well
meaning citizens are numerous, far
seeing patriots are few. One reason
that the Republican party holds we'll
together, so 70 speak, is that it rep
resents the un-Democratic principle
of Capitalization; which, producing,
as it does, such a marked improve
ment in the immediate efficiency of
government, becomes every year
more popular. This principle is an
active element in municipal reform.
Boards should be abolished, and
powers entrusted to Intelligent and
competent individuals
One of the latest applications of
the principle has been made in South
Dakota. The grand jury has there
been abolished, and it's duties con-
ferred upon the county attorney. But
is this change likely to prove bene-
ficial?> Is there. after all, such a
great difference between a county
attorney under President Cleveland
and crown officer under the En-
glish Edwards? Is the county at
torney beyond the reach of tempta-
ton and individual bias? Is he nee
essarily incorruptible? Is Mr.. John
Smith any less a man, any more, a
saint, than was Sir Godfrey de
sVauX? 1t is not that average in
dividuals, whether county attorneys
or grand jurymen, differ much from
one another in mental or in moral
qualities; but practice, the only
Oedipus who ever solved the riddles
of theoretic Sphinx, decides that con-
f1ict of interests and completely of
circumstances will, as a rule, make
three men together more Trustworthy
than one man alone.
The defensive attitude of the En-
glish law, so unique in Jurisprudence,
so eminently charitable and Chris
t1an, assuming that every man is in
nocent until proven guilty, and that
it is better that ten guilty men es-
cape than that one innocent man be
punished-an assumption so conserv-
ative of liberty and rogress-cannot
be too closely guarded. 1t must not
be forgotten that, in the public mind
all men are either guilty or unsus-
pected. To accuse a citizen is al
most to convict him. In sober fact
no man, however honorably ac-
quilted, however unjuStly charged
is ever again upon the lofty plane
of the unaccused. AS we have said
Capitalization means efficiency, land
efficiency means facility. To facili-
tate indictment is to endanger limo
cence, to undermine justice and tc
aSsail the privileges and the rights
of the citizen, to substitute in some
degree the lettre de cachet for the
Declaration of Independence. A few
criminals more readily and surely
punished, slight reduction in the
taxes is a pitiful exchange of birth
right for pottage.
A similar provision is already, tt
a greater or less extent, adopted il
other states than South Dakota
and the right of Indictment by grand
jury (for serious criminal offense)
guaranteed as it is by the fedora
constitution, has been set aside
That any dire or immediate calamity
will follow this little experiment il
our sister state is not to be appre
hended, but as the reflection of +;
dangerous tendency the change il
not to be viewed with favor
A clear and admirable insight int,
the advantages and defects of tn,
grand jury system can be gained
by perusing the following profes
sional opinions of ST. Paul citizen
1