The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-01-16
THURSDAY. JANUARY 10. 1896
THE GRAND JURY'S REPORT

THE GRAND JURY'S REPORT
The first installment of the county
grand jury's report is placed before
the readers of The HERALD today. 1t
will not strike the public as psrticu-
larly terrifying document. If the part
to follow is as prolific in omission and
as mild in condemnation, it will be
plain that the body of citizen investi-
gators is literally stocked with white
wash and that it is not at all niggardly
about using the material.
The jury has called attention to a
number of abuses of more or less i'm
portance, and has made some good
recommendations, but until the coro-
ner's Office is reached in the report it
will be observed that official extrava-
gance, inefficiency, dishonesty and
negligence is passed over with censure
that is made very thin with a super
abundance of consideration. Possibly
the jurors do not wish to hurt the
feelings OF too many members of the
court house league, or maybe the
vicissitudes which their indictments
experienced have inspired them with
timldity and caution.
The report says that in spite of the
insinuations that money appropriated
for the betterment of roads has been
squandered, sthe jury could get no evil
dence of criminality presented. Ac-
cording to this statement. one is forced
to the conclusion that the squan der
ing of public money is not deserving
of serious consideration at the hands
of grand jury unless it is proved to
be technically criminal. There are
plenty of people who will not agree
with this view. While the squandering
of public money may not be, in the
eyes of the law, like the stesling of it,
the effects of the one are as disastrous
to the public treasury as of the other.
Wssteful and unnecessary expen-
ditures should meet with as emphatic
condemnation and as thorough ex-
posture as defalcations. To the people
who have had occasion to travel the
roads of Los Angeles county during
Che last few years, especially the last
Swo, it is perfectly apparent that either
Through incompetency or criminality
Che funds appropriated for the county
highways have failed to produce the
results that might be reasonably ex-
pected. There has been unquestion-
ably general expectation that the
grand jury would ventilate the reasons
for the poverty of results after so
much lavish expenditure. The failure
of the jury to do this cannot be con-
sidered in any other light than that of
an inexcusable neglect of the most
important duty.
The gingerly structures on the dis
trict attorneys Office may be appre-
cisted by that department of the coun-
ty government, but they certainly will
not be by the people. Whether the
jury is inspired by awe at the mastery
manner in which that Office drew up
indictments that could not be made to
stick, or is moved by the sympathy
that utter and pitiful incapacity some.
times begets, we do not know. But we
do know that because of incompetency,
Indifference or something else the
present district attorney OF Los An
geles county has failed signally in his
duty to the people, to prosecute with
out fear or favor offenders against the
laws, to prevent the illegal abstraction
Of money from the county treasury,
and to undertake the recovery of funds
that have been fraudulently obtained.
If the grand jury is really as sincere as
it protested to be in the beginning it
can render a report regarding the
sins of omission and commission
of the district attorneys department
that would make "mighty interestin' !"
reading all around.
The jury's excoriation of the coro-
ner's office is entirely justified by the
facts which have been from time to
time published in The HERALD. The
robbery Of the county by the coroner
and his stenographer could have been
prevented by the district attorneys Of
fee If the latter had honestly and in
diligently discharged its duty to the
people. But the failure of the district
attorney to perform the duties of guar
dianship assigned to him by law does
not justify allowing the coroner and
his stenographer to escape the punish
ment they deserve. As the jury sug-
gests, steps should be Immediately
taken to recover the money these enter
prising individuals have illegally pos
sessed themselves Of. Concurrent with
these steps others should be adopted
for the purpose of removing from the
public employment men who have so
shamelessly abused public trust. This
latter the grand jury should demand
before it finishes its work.