The San Francisco call., 1908-09-28

entitled "Loophoes of the Law, pub
1ished in the current issue of Golfers
Weekly The subject is handled by c. P. Con
molly, for several years prosecuting attorney OF
Silver Bow county, Montana, in which Butte is
located, and man whose reputation as GRIM
inal LAWYER is of the highest California is not the
only jurisdiction to which he pays his respects
but considerable portion of his article is devoted
to a discussion of the reversal OF the Schmitz-
Ruef case
Hdebound servility to techncalities, to the ut
ter exclusion of common sense in giving judg-
ments, has done more to encourage crime than
all the crime schools of the great cities says the
author. He sums up his arragnment OF the
courts in his Introductory paragraph, saying:
LAYERS of prominence throughout the country
have for years publicly and privately criticised
the present growing tendency toward too tech
nical construction OF the laws in the criminal
grown such magnitude that the decisions of
courts of appeal in in which public interest
has been aroused made the subject OF ribald
jest among the learned as we'll as the ignorant. 1t
has brought into dsrepute the temple that should
stand in public esteem highest Of all in the orderly
dIspensations OF modern civilization
After commenting upon the growing public
sentiment against the perversion of justice
through technical bubbles, Connolly continues
Even the ministers of the gospel in Cali
forna trained their pulpit batteries the evil moved
by the decision of the supreme court of California
in the Schnltz case: The decentralization of justice
caused by this decision has been great to
create widespread indignation and bring deserved
public rebuke.
Abe Ruef, asute lawyer, we'll as graduate
of the University of California far believed he
had committed great legal as well moral crime
as TO make public confession, mostened and
satonalized by his own tears. The supreme court
OF the state bade him dry his tears-they un-
called for. The antseptic techncalities of the law
had washed white his sins The appellate court of
California found flaws in the record which might
have justified reversal under ordinary rules but
the supreme court based its decision upon the
ground that crime had been committed by
Schnitz and Ruef
"One of the most omnous features of American
life today is the fact that losing faith in the
criminal law" declared Rev. Burt Estes Howard of
the First Unitarian church of Los Angeles from
his pulpit recently. Il don't mean that losing
faith in judges, but are losing faith in the
administration of justice by criminal ,i-
der the methods OF procedure now in vogue. With
judges tied hand and foot by miserable techncaties
it is not strange that feeling of disquietude should
fill the breast of the law abiding citizen"
The law, ever since the reign of Edward III of
England, has had increasing veneraton among the
Anglo-Saxons, and our civilization has grown of
It, said Rev. George White, pastor of the First
Methodist Episcopal church OF Oakland, from his
pulpit, but we have come upon times when that
veneration has passed into the welfare of
society. We are living IN age when the tech
ncaities of legal procedure exalted above justice
and considered OF more Importance than fact
and testimony the interest of the public"
The greatest question before today said Rev.
E. P. bennett of the Wesley Methodist Episcopal
the gambling question, but it the question of
court reform and legal REFORM till mems traditions
and customs will cease to nullify the laws Not that
Judges are always to blame They are victims of the
system much They must interpret the
laws technically they them, and by tradition
firmly believe that the most prolific of anarchy
and assassination is the fact that it is almost mpos-
sible to convict and punish wealthy criminal"
Lawyers may at the structures of the courts
by churchmen. That's what they are doing in Cali
fornia. In fact, the San Francisco bar association
called a meeting, the object of which. announced