The Republican journal., 1905-03-09
The BELFAST POLICE COURT.

THE BELFAST POLICE COURT.
The Bill to Extend its Jurisdiction Would
Entail Great Expense Upon the County.
Many Reasons why it "Ought not to Pass" !"
To THE EDITOR OF The JOURNAL: The
Journal of last week referring to bill now
before the legislature, to establish and ex-
tend the jurisdiction Of the Belfast Police
Court, with a salary for the Judge OF
thousand dollars, to be paid by the county,
had this to say in regard to the bill:
"We did not know then lat time of former
reference to the bilD and do not know now
who is responsible for this measure; but we
nave secured copy of the bill and print it
IN full in another column that the public
generally may be informed on a matter OF
! whlch 1t was apparently intended they
should remain in ignorance"
The Journal met with better success than
some others in obtaining a copy of the bill !;
and in publishing it in full it has done
very good service to the people of the coun-
ty, if upon the knowledge thus given them
they take seas0nable action to protect them
selves from the great inconvenience this
| Gill would bring upon them and the great
expense it would cause the county. 1t is not
difficult to discern who are responsible for
the measure; for aside from the judge, who
Is to receive yearly salary from the county
of one thousand dollars, to commence three
months before he enters upon the duties of
| office, there is but one class of people that
can be benefciaries under the act, the liquor
| sellers of the county.
| The liquor interests at every session of the
| legislature shake the red rag of resubmis-
| sion before the eyes of the temperance peo-
pie to attract and hold their attention upon
that matter while they quietly work through
the legislature bills to obstruct the enforce
ment of the law. In this way they worked
| through the legislature the acts which took
| from the Governor the power to remove un-
faithful sheriffs and unfaithful county at
ernOr the power to appoint State cOnstables
in counties suffering from sherff-made law,
and corralled all the town constables in the
! State; the repeal of the act which made it
| the duty of the Supreme Court Judges to
| impose Jail sentences-not suspended Jail
sentences-many acts creating municipal
| and police courts with exclusive jurisdic-
tion, to be presided over by friendly judges;
| or, failing in that, to bring such courts more
| directly under the eye of the liquor sellers
and their spies and informers; and the bill
| for the Belfast court is like kind of work,
and no doubt it was the intention of its pro-
moters to work it through the legislature
with as little publicity as possible, and with
| little understanding of the object of the bill
by the legislature. Such an act would be
! another trig, and not small one either, in
| the way of the enforcement of the law.
| Liquor sellers in all towns in the county
that are considerable distance from Bel
! fast would then be masters of the situation
and they would have little fear of the peo-
| pie of the towns among whom they intrude;
| for the people would shrink from the trouble
of prosecutions and the expense they would
bring upon themselves and the county.
suppose parent in Burnham should
want to prosecute liquor seller to protect
his drinking boy. The court is thirty miles
distant. He enters complaint for COM
mon seller and has dozen witnesses sum-
moned to Belfast, and even more might be
necessary before the truth could be obtain
ed. The fee of each witness for travel would
be $500, and the travelling fees of the
! twelve would be $500, while the travelling
: fees of the same witnesses to the Burnham
trial Justice court would be $1.44. If a con-
/ tinuance is had in the Belfast court for de-
fendant to get his witnesses from Burnham,
the county must pay another $500 for the
travelling fees of the witnesses, or $S6. 40 ;
and the complainant must go to Belfast,
and travel sixty miles each time without
pay. The same witnesses travel to the
Burnham court twice would cost the county
$2SS. But still greater hardships may be
caused by this bill
The respondent might not be guilty, and
be poor man; yet, to make defence in the
Belfast court he must pay his witnesses for
their travel $500 each, and if he has five
witnesses he must pay them $500 for their
travel to Belfast, besides their fees for at
tending court. The travelling fees of his
five witnesses to the Burnham court would
cost him sixty cents. 1t is not necessary to
consider the other increased expenses of
the Belfast court.
Some may think it not necessary to sum-
mons many witnesses in liquor cases; but
experience has shown that it is always very
difficult to get the truth from many of the
witnesses who are called to testify in such
cases. Forty years ago the judges of the
Supreme Court of Maine, in rendering an
opinion in a liquor case, used this strong
language:
"Who that has had any considerable ex-
perience in the trial Of these cases has not
been panied and mortified at the melancholy
exhibition of human nature, when the buyer
and seller. the victim and the victimizer,
have been brought face to face in court, the
one as the witness, the other as the accused? +?
To what pitiful evasions, self qualification
and downright perjury will not such wit
nesses frequently resort, when thus under
the eye Of the persons who have pandered
to their morbid and depraved appetites
1t is the most fruitful source of perjury in
our courts" ''Yet this class of witnesses
must necessarily be principally relied upon,
as the shops of the liquor sellers are not
frequented except by their customers"
Human nature debased by rum is the
same now as forty years ago, when that
opinion was given by the Maine judges.