The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-29
THE JURY SYSTEM,
From the Philadelphia Times.


Judge Dean is quite right in assuming
that un.esS our jury system shall become
more generally administered in accord
ance with the plain mandates Of the law
the system must be overthrown. He be-
lleVes, as do all who have faith in the
people, and in the government of the peo-
pie, that the jury insult represent the
conscience and intelligence of the whole
people, 1t must not represent the
learned, the rich or any other favored
class; 1t must not represent the poor who
might be tempted to the spoliation of
property, and it certainly must not req
resent the idle and vicious who prostitute
the administration of justice In its own
sanctuary. He strikes at the very root
or the evil when he refers to the fact that
when he administered justice as a Couu-
try judge business men of the largest in
telligence and experience in the affairs
OF life as a rule sought to be discharg ed
from jury duty. Our merchants and our
business men complain If they are sum-
moned to serve as Jurors, and yet they
stand appalled, today at the prostitution
of the jury box in the interests of the
agrarsan, defying Justice, disregardng
law, and aiming only to take property
from the thrifty for the benefit of the
idle and vicious.
ill:
So grave has this evil become in Phila-
delphia that the judges who are charged
with the selection of names to go into
the jury box would offend their closest
friends If they put them ir a position to
serve as Jurors. 1t is irksome, poorly
paid and attended with many discomforts;
but 1t must be remembered that in the
jury box Is the safety of the person and
property of every citizen. and while those
who have Sarge business pursuits demand
ing their entire attention naturally seek
to escape such eXacting duties, the thrift
less, the idle and the vicious seek such
opportunity in every possible way and
as has been known in many instances in
this city will personate their friends and
enter the jury box by fraud, to make it
mockery of justice.
Ill:
Judge Dean very clearly and impress
sively teaches the necessity of the jury
box representing the average conscience
and intelligence of the people AS long
as the jury system represents that con1i-
tion it must command universal conf
dence and respect. The people could not
but approve that which came from them
selves and which they have maintained
with reverence. They want not the great
nor the small; not the rich nor the poor;
they want the average man, or the ming
ling of the classe whereby the average
and the practical sense of justice that per-
ldlnS, among the masses Sndll be Ialfly
reflected in the administration of justice.
AS Judge Dean well says, jurors through
their practical knowledge of questions
connected with important cases at times
more justly judge the lines of justice than
even the courts. The miner who knows
nothing beyond welding his pick will
often in the witness box or in the jury
box more aid the administration of JUS
tice by reason of his practical knowledge
than can the accomplished engineer, and
there is no safer place in which to lodge
the protection of person and property
than in the average American citizen.
fill;
So far as our jury system has become
offensive or failed to fulfil its high duties
II has been wholly because of the perver-
sion of the system from the fundamental
principles on which It was founded The
efforts to control juries in the interest Of
suitors is no new thing I'm our cities,
but the corrupt control of a jury could not
be accomplished II the twelve men COM
posing 1t represented the average con-
science and intelligence of the community.
Some might be approached, but all could
not be debauched or influenced, and one
honest juror can always prevent a mis-
carriage of justice. In the reso.ute re-
turn to the broad principles on whicn the
jury system was founded centuries ago
depends the safety Of the jury system in
our free government, 1t cannot continue
as II Is, for as long as evils are tolerated
they must increase rather than diminish,
and this evil can be corrected whenever
the judges, the bar, the public press and
intelligent citizens unite to demand II.