The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-07-19
Jewett Attacks Our Criminal Code.

ASSOCIATION which drew together TN
Distinguished lawyers of almost ever,
county in Indiana, the feature OF tn
llrst day was the opening address b,
President Charles L. Jewert, for h,
awaited himself OF the opportunity {,
attack what he termed the detec,s O
our clumsy. hating, nalr-splittlng
unsclentiilc criminl code procedure.
he made plea not only tor justie,
Tor the prisoner at the bar, but fol
the taxpayer who foots the heav,
Dnls caused by the present system
and also for the genel al public, which
has long stood and grown tired Of
.egai technical jockeying IN the court:
and has lost faith to a certain degree
IN their efficacy. He called atteatior
to the fact that while radical changes
had been made in other directions the
criminal code of our courts remain
substantially the same as enacted
fifty years ago.
In summarizing his conclusions he
| said Il have dwelt at some length
on these different laws. with a view
LOT showing the tendency of the
growth of our recent criminal law.
These laws have easily placed Indiana
at the head of the list in the treat
ment of crime and the causes of
crime. But while our progress has
been commemorate, while our health
and charity work has been such as to
reflect everlasting credit on our State,
we are but entering the new field.
We may now punish the person
who undermines our health or the
health of our children; we may pun
ish the person who contributes to our
children's offenses, but we cannot
prevent these things unless we show
property loss. We may punish the
gambler who teaches our boy to
gamble; we may punish the saloon
keeper who causes him to become a
drunkard, but we can not prevent
either from running the boy.
I'VE could easily restrain man
from spreading disease among our
pigs, or from keeping a pack of loose
dogs to prey upon our sheep, but we
can not stop the man who proposes
to destroy us or our children.
The anarchist who has publicly tes-
tilted that assassination is the proper
remedy for officers of the people may
yet stalk abroad until the President
falls before his treacherous, revolver.
Our theory would bear the deduc-
ton that the courts will restrain a
man from knocking your hat off, thus
injuring it, but they have no juridic-
ton to prevent his knocking your
head of. When you desire to stop
man from running your boy in 4
saloon and gambling house, you must
first show that your house and lot
have been decreased in value by rea-
son of the nuisance, and then you
can get your writ. But you might
prove all the crimes committed in the
Decalogue, and unless you can estab-
lish some property injury, let he
boy go to ruin and think over the
cruelties of the law
Personal rights, ASSOCIATED from
money, have been relegated to the
rear They ought to stand first al
ways and forever. We practice law
as though we could only have two
objects in life--to get our board and
washing" Our children deserve the
legal respect of their personal rights,
for that is all most of them have.
If they are not secure in that, they
have little security at all
IF the King could issue his writ
to restrain his mighty barons from
interfering with and destroying his
subjects commonest personal rights,
why can not our courts, backed by
the strong arm of the State, compel
obedience to its writs commanding
the mighty barons of our times to
release their grips upon the rights Of
our people!