The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-26
peculiar quantity and quality of serv

4 peSulldi dddAteANS ~ NN~AANS VI S~-
 sy u tne p4D4le.
 ..rneie a5. CT tain abuses in connection
 .4t4 t,4.f n4lo4e system o1 law toaay ,l.ch the Iaynen cannot remedy, Du.
 .4l4cn 1 earnestiy nope that tne men oI
 lie .aW NH lnemseives remedy. NOW .ae1e 1 haye got to speak merely to nly ,eIlow laymen, and snail have to invite sorrection 1 am speaking before Cana uel and snail expect correction from Gam lnel II 1 go wrong. But our law comes aown rom the tune when the state, the government, was all-powerful as com pared to the individual; when the gov lrnment acted os plaintin, and 1t was necessary that every possible safeguard should be thrown around the defendant. that he should be given every chance, and the fear of injustice was a synonym eo the private citizen against whom the state proceeded. It came from time, If my memory of history is right. when about 3 per cent q am speaking now of the common law) of any given number of children born in England were punished by hanging, when people were hung for the most trivial offenses, and when all the machinery of the law was in the hands of the government and directed against the individual, so that the one thing that had to be done was to protect the individual.
 Individual Rights Preserved.
 circumstances in the past three or four centuries have wholly changed, but the pursuit of the law has not changed nearly as rapidly. At present there is not the slightest question as to the indi- viduals rights being preserved. They are amply guarded. Of course there is the possibility of error in every human affair, but, speaking generally, the man accused of criminal wrong. especially the man ac- cused of criminal wrong against the pub lie, has every possible chance secured him; but the public has not got every chance secured to 1t.
 No greater service Is being rendered the American public today than by those members of the legal profession whose great good fortune it has been to stand forth as prominently identified with the prosecution of crimes against the state. When l say crimes against the state I not only refer to crimes like those of bribery and corruption, committed by any public official but I mean such crimes as murder, as any similar hideous mis- deed, where the offense Is not merely against the individual, but against the entire community It is right to remem- Der the interests of the individual, but it Is right also to remember the interests of that great mass of individuals en- bodied in the public. in the government. It Is unfortunate that we have permitted practices that were necessary 300 years ago for the protection of innocent people to be elaborated. to be perverted, so that they become a means for allowing crimi- nals to escape the punishment of their criminality.
 For Expediting Punishment. We urgently need in this country meth
 ods for expediting punishment, methods for doing away with delay, methods which | will secure to the public an even chance with the criminal-I don't ask any more 1 If we can get an average of just 50 pei cent of the criminals we will be pretty
 nearly all right, and we will give the pub 1 lie an even chance with the crmina whose offense is against the public. Al
 present the rght of appeal is in certain | cases abused as to make 1t a matter of the utmost difficulty to ultimately pun | ish man sufficiently rich, or sufficiently l influential, to command really good lega | talent. Now I am speaking of what know. for I am speaking with very keenly l in my mind experiences during the past l three years in trying to get at certain | public offenders who have been indicted
 and some of whom il has been almost i'm
 possible to ge. into the Jurisdiction oi | the courts In Washington, in order to try | them. There are others whose cases ar, l still on appeal. l feel that the man wh, offends against the state, occupies a DO sition rather worse than that of any othei criminal, from the very fact that he Il
 a man who attacks everybody Instead l of just one person: 30 that 1t Is not thu i, special business of any one to get a Ahim. In consequence, If he can keep tn, 1 forces of justice at bay long enough. i l be can secure one or two mistrials, grad
 ually the popular interest evaporates anc l the criminal gets off
 Will Punish Republicans. Now. as the judge has so well said tha Ilainl1fa that a hecnnaes Presi-