The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-17

DOT and all the great railroad orgahiza- tions have set their faces like flint against the propaganda of soclahstic principles. They are in favor of the rights of property and our present in- stitutions modified by such remedial leg islation as to put workingmen on equal ity with their opponents in trade con- troversies and trade contracts and to stamp out the monopoly and the corpor- ate abuses which are an outgrowth of our present system, unaccompanied by proper limitations; and I think all of us who are in favor of the mainten- ance of our present institutions should willingly give credit to these men as the champions of a cause which should com mand our sympathy, respect and sup port.
 Complaint of Courts.
 Our friends of the great unions at times complain of our courts, more, per haps, because of the decisions in inJune- ton cases than for anything else. l have already referred to this particular phase of litigation In which they have an inter est, but when the subject of courts Is mentioned It suggests to me a larger field for complaint and reform in which all citizens are interested and have a right to be heard.
 There is no subject on which I feel so deeply as on the necessity for reform in the administration of both civil and crim- inal law.
 ''To sum 1t all up in one phrase. the difficulty in both is undue delay. It Is not too much to say that the administra- tion of criminal law in this country is a disgrace to our civilization, and that the prevalence of crime and fraud, which here is greatly in excess of that in the European countries, is due largely to the failure of the law and It's administration to bring criminals to justice l am sure that this failure is not due to corruption of officials; 1t Is not due to their negligence or laziness, though of course there may be both in some cases; but it is chiefly due to the system against which 1t is impossible for an earnest prosecutor and an efficient judge to struggle. We in- herited our system of criminal prosecu- tions and the constitutional provisions for the protection of te accused in his trial from England and her laws. We in herited from her the jury trial. All these limitations and the jury system still arc maintained in England, but they have not interfered with an effective prosecution of criminals and their punishment. There has not been undue delay in English courts.
 Relations Altered.
 "In this country we have generally altered the relation of the judge to the jury. In England the judge controls the trial, controls. the lawyers keeps them to relevant and proper argument, aids the jury in the consideration of facts. not by direction. but by suggestion, and tho lawyers in the conduct of the case are made to feel that they have an obliga- ton. not only to the client, but to the court and to the public at large not to abuse their office so as to unduly length en the trial. In this country there seems to have been on the part of all state leg isiatures a fear of the judge and not of the jury, and the power which Is exer- cised in an English court has by legis lation been reduced from time to time, until now-and this is especially true Ill western states, where he has hardly more power than the moderator in religious assembly. The tendency of the legisls tion is to throw the reins on the back of the jury and to let them follow their own sweet will, influenced by all the arts Of counsel for the defendant in leading them away from the real point at issue and in awakening their emotions of pity for the defendant in forgetfulness of the wrongs of the prosecuting witness, or 1t may be of the deceased and of the rights of so- ciety to be protected against crime; and all these defects are emphasized In the delays which occur in the trials-delays made necessary because the trials take so great a tin& A murder case in Eng land will be disposed 4 In a day or two that here will take three weeks or a month, and no one can say, after an ex animation of the record in England, that the rights of the defendant have not been preserved, and that justice has not been done.
 Great Injustces.
 Counsel are not permitted there to mouse through the records to find errors that in the trial seemed of little account, but that are developed into great injus- tices In the court of appeals. This is an- other defect of our procedure. No criminal is content with a decision of the court below, and well may he be discomfort, for the record of reversals is such as to make him distrust the decisions. and eases that reach the supreme court some times run for months.
 T do not know how reforms are to be brought about in this country. Un- til our people shall become fully aware and in some concrete way be made to suffer from the escape of criminals from just judgment in this country, tn system may continue. One of the methods by which 1t could be remedied in some degree is to give judges more power in the trial of criminal cases and enable them to aid the jury in it's consideration of facts and to exercise more control over the arguments that counsel sec fit to advance. Judges, and especially judges who are elected, ought not to be mistrusted by the peo- pie. A judgship Is a great office and the man who holds it should exercise great power, and he ought to be al lowed to exercise that in a trial br jury. Then, it is undoubtedly true that in England lawyers in the conduct of their cases feel much more, and re- spect much more their obligations to assist the court in administering Justice and restrain themselves from adopting the desperate and extreme methods for which American lawyers are even ~p- plaudsd.
 Advantage to Criminal.
 The trial here is a game in which the advantage is with the criminal, and if he wins, he seems to have the sympathy of sporting public.
 But reform in our criminal pro- cedure Is not the only reform that we ought to have in our courts. On the civil side of the courts there is undue delay and this always works for the benefit of the bank with the longest purse. The employment of lawyers and the payment of costs all because more expensive as the litigation is extended. It used to be thought that system by which cases involving small amounts could be carried to the supreme court through two or three courts of inter mediate appeal, was 8 perfect system because 1t gave the poor man the same right to go to the supreme court as a rich man. Nothing is further from tn e truth. What the poor man needs Is a prompt decision of his cases and by