The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-06-05

and written in criticism of certain sta
tistics printed in your paper concern
ing the percentage Of indictments in
the several counties OF the Seventh Ju-
dicial District. According to the ar
ticle in the TINES the number of indict-
ments returned at che last term of
court was as follows;
MdUlSOu. ......... 10
| faZoo ................ ...... 1850. 40
Copiah ........... ................. so
HlDds. ....... lou
Accompanying this statement are the
offieirl affidavits of thu Circuit Clerks
of the several counties named that the
figures given are correct. From th.s
figures is drawn the very natural con-
clusion that prohibition has brought
no decrease of law breaking 10 the four
dry" counties, and the open saloons
have not produced an epidemic of
crime in Madison which is the only
one in which the oper, saloons are toll
Grated.
"Prohi" denies tine truth both of the
premises and the conclusions of the ar
ticle in your paper As the figures
quoted form the premises from which
the conclusions were reached, and
those figures are supported by the Of
fetal afidavits of the several Circuit
Clerks, denial Of the correctness Of
the premises is about equivalent to the
aseer ton that each Of those clerks had
sworn to falsehood. Is this the char.
actsr Of the men whom the people Of
the Seventh District slsct to officer Is
1t not more likely that -sProhi" has let
his zeal outrun his discretion, and that
he slandered those officials, and by inn
pIication the people who elected them,
without giving his words due consider
alton?
But .'Prohi" was not content to
slander the people Of Madison county
indirectly; he went further, much fur
ther. Hear him:
"The mere fact that there were but
few indictments found in the county Of
Madison does not necessarily show
that there were few crimes committed.
and the focts are, that many offenses
against the law which under ordinary
os , = hax l.
blenders before the court by indict-
ments was passed over at the last, and
at some previous sessions of the grand
jury of Madison county. These facts
we're well known by the citizens of
Madison county, but why grand juries
passed them over. was left for this
sclf-styled Temperance Society
to develope to the minds
of these saloon-ridden people. Why
there might be a thousand crimes,
from murder down to petty larceny,
and if the grand jury failed to find in.
dictments, would that show good
mo raj condition of that community?
Certainly not, it would only show that
the people had become SO deD,oralized
and their moral perception 30 blunted
that not even the grand juries had es-
eaped the influence that caused the
commital of the crimes. And there is
just where this committee drew the
wrong conclusion. 1t is the people Of
Hinds county who are proven to be in
higher moral condition than those of
Madison by the facts stated by them"
This is pretty direct attack upon
the grand juriss of Madison for the |
past several years. 1t accuses them
of failing or refusing to perform she
duties they were sworn to discharge |
without fear or favor. When the
method of selecting jurymen and the
mode of choosing the grand jurors is
it will be seen that this
utterapce of "Prohi" affects the fair
character of every man whose name
has been placed on the list of possible
jurors for the past several years; for it
is only on the hypothesis that all Of
them have been corrupt that one can
account for the alleged bad character
of those who actually served. 1t is
nonsense to suppose that from jury
lists comprising the names of the best |
men in the county depraved juries
would be drawn for several successive
terms of coart, Mere coincidence !