The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-19

which doesn't bear harder in it's opera ton on one class of men than on another We have no law that declares who among us shall be rich and who poor, but the law that we have makes 1t absolutely inevitable for many to be poor and few rich. Take our laws as they stand, give every individual equal intelligence, equal virtue, equal strength, equal thrift and we simply could not conceive of how some could be rich without others being poor; we simply could not conceive of how the palace could be here without the hut wonder. Under these laws, some have got to be rich and others poor; they can have I say, no other conceivable result This being so, poverty is one of the things ordained by society-not a thing for which those individuals who are poor are re- sponsible. q am not denying indiVlduai responsibility in particular cases; l am referring to the fact of poverty in gen. crab But, having ordained the poverty of the poor, society goes a step further, and decrees again and again that, be- cause they are poor, they are not enti- tied to the same consideration as others who have escaped poverty. It decrees, in other words, that what the author or the Book of Proverbs saw to be true in his day shall be true in ours-that the poverty of the poor shall be their de- struction. We see that old saying exem- nIifed right here in our midst every day. might Illustrate what l mean in varl- ous ways, from a dozen different points or view, but l shall ask you to consider with me this morning simply our crimi- nal laws and our criminal procedure as they affect the poorer members or soelety relatively to the well-to-do.
 you open the state criminal code, and vol, read there that the penalty for d certain offense shall be fine for so mueh' or Imprisonment for so long, or polh a' the discretion of the court Ihat iooNs and sounds fair enough looks ana sounds like justice. But how does IL iooN in practical application? The well 10 do man commits the specified offence; II ar rested he doesn't go to jail, he makes hond perhaps he Is indicted perhaps Ina. is not, if he is indicted and goes 10 +,sal ba is certain to be defended by so,,e of inc ablest and astutest lawyers at the bar-working for good iees, the chances are that he will be acquitteo' If he Is found guilty, 1t Is most hiehis improbable that his sentence VIII he both fine and Imprisonment. Almost certainly, it will be fine simply Both il1ries and judges are very emphatlcally opposed to sending well to do men 10 the penItentiary, when they can be made 10 nav dollars for their misdeeds So, even on the assumption that he is convicted, .ha well to do offender in all likelihood poes his way, never having spent one hour In a prison cell, never having been made to suffer one moments conscious ness of degradation as criminal So- cietv absolves him, because he has a pocket book and something in 1t!
 Poor Man.
 The poor man commits the specified or fense. He is arrested and promptly thrust into an ill-smellng, yefmin-infested cell bail for him is out of the question: Tor weeks. perhaps months, he is locked up with foulness and filth away from sun and sky he comes to trial, and who IS his lawyer? Probably a court-appointee, possibly, somebody hired for few dol lars that be would be as well off with ont He comes to trial, and, if he is very poor his trial may be q mere formality' something to be got through With by the court in a hurry, because the docket is heavy. and must be cleared by cer- tain day Perhaps he waits his turn to