New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-09-04

In their IDEAS The ruling idea has always been
that li,gants OF all kinds must pay well for the
privilege u going 70 law. and in every branch
OF ;he courts this principle has been carried
out Ia fact 4 IS accepted as the settled order
Of things that any set Of legal papers as 1t traV-
els from one official one desk to the next In
its duo course must have the way smoothed Tor
Il with money at every stage. As lawyer IN
this city who has extensive professional rela-
lions IN cuba expressed IT, Every wheel in the
Who'll. ma, hine has TO be creased promptly ana
copiously or else the machine viii break down.
This lawyer went on to quote a triting case
that gees TO illustrate Cuban methods. He
sent TO Havana 10 secure some testimony
from one or two individuals there In certain
matter He directed that, "a the INDIVIDUALS
spoke English. the testimony should simply De
taken down verbatim and forwarded 10 New
York As matter Of fact. the Havana ofi-
Gals did hear the evidence in English, but had
a Spanish interpreter on hand, who translated
all ;hc testimony into Spanish and the clerk
recorded il in that language. Then, after the
official record was complete in Spanish. it was
reinterpreted into English. copy made and
forwarded to New-York. With this copy was a
bill FOR many hundred dollars. ito cover the
work Of the interpreters and OF the reinterpre;-
ers" The bill had to be paid
NO NEW SYSTEM NECESSARY
The opinion generally expressed by lawyers
here no have Cuban connections is that. should
the United States be compelled 10 take tenn
porary oversight Of the courts on the island 1t
would be best to reform simply the abuses in
the existing system. rather than TO attempt TO
introduce the American system OF common law
etc. In the pamphlet written by MIR. Olcott and
referred 10 already he says:
"A government which attempts TO suddenly
change the law Of a dependency Cthe assump-
ton being that cuba might be in the nature OF
Il dependency, FOR the time berg. at any rate
will soon find that it has undertaken difficult
and I'm part an impracticable task. The civil law
Of a country can hardly be supplanted by for
eign system Of Jurisprudence without throwing
into confusion all titles TO property and all
rights founded on contract There Is
moreover, great difficulty In introducing into
any country a foreign system Of judicial pro-
cedurc and compelling its establishment in the
practice OF the courts. The rules OF judicial
procedure commonly exist as usages, and not in
the form OF legislative regulations, and these
usagcs are mainly preserved among the body of
advocates. The adv may. therefore. be
considered as a sort OF voluntary auxiliary TO
the government for the purpose Of administer
ing Justice tina; any change which renders
his acquired know ledge useless must for a
time throw serious impedments In the way Of
the regular conduct OF the government"
The best opinion seems to coincide with that
just quoted and the idea among lawyers here
Is that the remedy most OF all needed in the
Cuban courts IS a clean sweep of corruption and
lazness When that has been made the exist
Ing tangles and sna.!s can be quickly cleared
away.