Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-12-20
JURY PACKING 70
Be INVESTIGATED
Many Cases Tried and Decided
in Courts May Have to Be
Given Rehearings
ELECTION JUDGES MANIPULATE
Certify Their Own Names for Jury
Duty in Many Instances - Freight
Rates on Waste Products Of Iowa
orohards-commission May Conduct
an Investigation.
,ecial to Times Republican.

an lnvesti1ation.
Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines, Dec. 20.-In the hope OF
getting rehearings in a large number
Of cases in which they suspect that
the juries were fixed" on them, some
Polk county lawyers are preparing to
bring q test case to determine whether
or not the methods of jury selecting in
this county have been legal.
It was discovered that judges OF cleo
ton had certified their own names for
jury service In such numbers as to ere
ate suspicion. Furthermore. after the
names have been certified to the coun-
the ballots with the names, these bal
lots according to law must be sealed
so as to guard against their being tam
pered with. When the box was brought
out few days ago to make the draw
ings for the jury panel, 1t was found
that the two ends of the wire had been
run thru the lead seal and the ends
twisted together. The lead had not
been mashed onto the wire SO as to
necessitate the cutting OF the wire in
order to get 1t off
1t was only necessary to untwist the
wires to get at the ballots, and the wire
could again be run thru the lead and
twisted together and no one could ever
tell whether the ballots had been
touched or not. These ballots have
been in the county clerks vault for
days in that condition. A person gain
ing access to the county clerks rooms
could have removed all the names cer-
titled by the judges of election and put
In their places ballots bearing entire
ly different names without anyone be-
ing the wiser unless comparison was
made with the original records Of
names certified by the election Judges.
1t is alleged that this same method
was followed year ago and every
year for a number Of years. If this
method Of selecting the juries was IL
legal, lawyers claim every trial held
before jury thus selected is Illegal,
and proof Of such selection Of the jury
is ground sufficient for new trial. On
this ground they will contest the meth
cd in the district court The contest
will probably be brought before the
January term Of court opens.
The first question as to methods of
selecting juries and the first suspic-
ions of jury tampering came about
three years ago, when Mrs. F. w. Dod-
son, county recorder and by law a
member Of the commission that selects
the juries, objected to the methods. At
about the same time committee of the
Polk county bar was appointed with
secret commission to make certain in
vestigations. The investigations led to
the indictment and trial Of Ed. H. Hun
ter and others Of this city, on the
charge of jury tampering. Then fol-
lowed an investigation of the methods
of jury selection in which according to
Mrs. Dodson's testimony, instead of
drawing the names from the jury list
one alta time, the names were merely
sorted over till the ones desired were
found, and these were then certified as
the jury panel, regularly drawn accord
Ing to the laws governing the jury sys-
tenn, the sacred institution of a free
people.
Hon. N. S. Ketchum, state railroad
commissioner, has taken an interest in
the statement of President Burnap of
the State Horticultural Society, that
some attention should be given to pro-
viding a source of revenue from the
waste produce of the orchards of the
TO NIa stot
annual address to the society when 1t
met here last week. It is the claim of
the apple men that the freight rates
on this waste product is too high to
allow doing anything with it, If lower
freight rates are necessary to move the
product Mr.. Ketchum is anxious to
know it.
j. w. Murphy of Glenwood, who was
one of the prize winners at the apple
exhibit last week claims that the ques-
ton Of providing for some use to which
the waste product of the orchards can
be put is quite product in this state.
at is a very important question in
Iowa." said Mr.. Murphy. "The trouble
is the farmers OF Iowa are raising
'culls' instead Of apples. If they would
raise apples and quit raising :culls' it
would not be much of a question.
"Down in our section Of the state we
are raising apples. Mghty-fve per
cent Of the product of our orchards
grade No. l apples. The question of
what to do with the other Is per cent
is not much of a question. Keeping
worms and scab off apples and raising
apples that will grade No. is just
as simple a proposition as keeping the
weeds out of corn, but the farmers
will not pay any attention to it. In
the greater part of the state they raise
rs per cent culls and only 25 per cent
good No. apples. So of course it is
quite proposition what to do with
those culls. Since there is no indica-
ton that they will go to raising apples
it is quite an important question and
a lower freight rate till the farmers
learn how to raise apples would do
good deal of good in putting to some
use in the way Of making cider vinegar
the rs per cent of the product that now
goes to waste"
NEW WATERLOO INDUSTRY.
Artificial Ice Plant is to be Estab-
lished Next Spring.