The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-10-19
BUREAUCRATIC CRIMINAL Law.
The Independent.

The Independent
II there is one thing rather than another which
a democratic people should scrupulously main
tain it is equality before the law Yet if
there is one thing rather than another in which
democracy has thus far been failure. It is pre-
cisely this obligation. Neither American citi-
zens, nor those Of any other land, are now, or
ever have been, equal before the law.
And the inequality is of the most unfortunate
description that could possibly exist it is the
inequality of the rich and the poor. 1t is worth
while to call to mind some of its details at the
present moment, because there is obviously
growing disposition in this country to think dis
paragingly Of the judicial branch of our State
and Federal governments. We cannot long
ignore the persistent attacks of the so called
populistic element upon what is regarded as
judicial notification of the will of the people as
expressed in statute law. The nation that has
lost its respect for the judiciary is standing in
slippery places. But the Judiciary that would
be respected must both deal justly and love
mercy.
No one can read the history of crime and
punishment in Great Britain from the days of
Henry II until now without getting hot with in
dignation over the ruthless fashion in which the
machinery of justice has been used by the land
owning and other property-holding classes to
make 1.-THE lower orders know and keep their
place. No other one thing is SO characteristic
of English criminal law as its immense respect
for property and its low estimate of human life.
At this present moment the more reputable
London newspapers are conducting vigorous
crusade against the police magistrates. who are
daily guilty of such monstrosities as letting off
brute with a fine of los. Cd. for knocking his
at,o
him money for drink. and sending boy to jail
for sixty days for damaging growing potatoes
and stealing two footballs.
The ruthlessness Of the Tory judges in Ameri
ca was much larger factor in precipitatinG the
revolutionary uprising of the colonists than his
torians have generally recognized. Indeed, the
first acts of open opposition to British authority
were the breaking up of courts in various places
by effectively organized mobs After the Revo
luton, the remorselessness with which the
courts enforced imprisonment for debt against
veterans of the Continental Army who had lost
all their possessions through prolonged absence
from their farms. and payment for their loyal
service in worthless Continental money. was the
chief cause of such uprisings as Shay's Re-
bellion.
Undoubtedly we have made progress toward
the fair treatment of rich and poor alike when
accused of criminal misconduct. But in two or
three highly important matters we are still
placing the poor at great disadvantage. and CIV
ing the rich an unrighteous immunity.
For one thing, we have permitted the growth
of most complicated and costly legal proce-
dure, with endless appeals, against which Mr..
Justice Brewer and other sober-minded jurists
have been raising the voice of warning. The
net product of this wretched system is, not to
put too fine apoint on it, that miserable "dago'
charged with murder may go to the electric
chair at comparatively low rates of transporta-
ton, while degenerate millionaire can make
the county and his relatives spend two or three
fortunes before he gets final decision upon
his fate.
Quite as Ubiquitous and as mischievous, in our
judgment, is our custom of attaching to crimi-
nal acts the alternative penalties of fine or i'm
prisonment. The practical effect of granting
this discretion to the court is to let on the well
to do-particularly the officer of a corporate m
with money penalty, which he does not greatly
feel, and which does not tar him with disg race,
while the poor man stands an exceedingly good
chance of going to Jail. The plan is defendtd on
the ground that the poor man cannot pay the
fine, and therefore must of necessity be other
wise punished. This defense has never been
uybuluB Uub IlulCutOubs tuO ODNlOucAy " pVh
scheme being to give the court adequate di<cre-
ton as to the amount of the fine where fie is
the penalty. To the day laborer fine OF one
dollar may be much more serious matter than
penalty of twenty-five dollars is to the mod
erately we'll do automobilist who can't re-
frain from exceeding the speed limits. The
terrible to- do that was raised by corporation in
terests over the fine imposed upon the Standard
Oil Company was the hot and imprudent ia of
men who have become so accustomed to practi-
cal immunity that they don't know when they
are let off easy. If the officers of the penalized
corporation are guilty Of onetenth of the crimes
charged against them they should go to the
penitentiary.
The fine for all, poor or rich, or imprisonment
for all, rich or poor that is the only righteous,
the only democratic alternative and we sin
cerely hope that some political party in both
State and nation, in its effort to check the unre
publican development of our laws and proce-
| dure, will make a vigorous and persistent de-
rnand for this Fundamental reform