New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-01
TALKS TO NEW JUSTICES.
Mayor Tells Them of Their
Powers and What to Do.
BAIL BONDS IN PETTY CASES
Says $4,000 Persons Were Held
Overnight Last Year-His
Hit at Russell's Politics.

| In swearing in Professor Isaac Franklin
! Russell chief justice of the Court of
! Special Sessions and the other new mem
| bers of the court and of the magistrates
courts yesterday Mayor Gaynor expressed
| the hope that they would do away gradual
ly with trivial arrests and the requirement
! of bail in trivial cases. He told them TO
put the professional bondsman out of bust
ness
! In the afternoon Justice Russell met JUS
tees Hoyt, Omsted Wyatt and Dueu in
the chamber In the Criminal Courts Build
ing. They arranged to have a meeting of
all the justices in the rooms of the New
York County Lawyers Association, at No.
/ los Broadway. at o'clock tomorrow TO
talk over the arrangement of the work.
/ In case the money can be obtained from
the Board Of Estimate second part Of
| the court will be opened in Manhattan at
| once
| Under the new law the offices of William
NJ. Fuller. chief clerk of the court In Man
haitian and of Chief Clerk Kerrigan, in
| Brooklyn, vacant. Their places will
be filed temporarily AT the same time
chief prop alton officer VIII be appointed.
| When Justice Russell started to go into
the court chambers Yesterday afternoon he
was stopped by officer. Il am Mr.. Rus
sell, SAID the new Cnle1 justice.
I don't care if you are Mr.. Russell
said the attendant. You can't go in
there"
When Justice Russell explained who he
was the officer wilted.
Justice Russell said he would arrange to
have Justice Salmon. the new man from
Brooklyn, transferred temporarily to take
Justice Zeller's place in Manhattan. The
latters term of service Is about TO begin.
but he is travelling in Europe
In talking to the justices and mass-
trates yesterday Mayor Gaynor said:
Il regard the office of chief magistrate
the most important of all. The statute gives
YOU large powers. You have the assignment
of the other magistrates. fix their hours
OF work and supervise their work and their
records. / am confident that with this
power you viii bring about a uniformity
Of decision and method, especially in excise
cases. And of all things. ! trust you will
gradually do away with trivial arrests and
also with the requirement of bail in trivial
cases. There is no law compelling magis-
trates to require bail in every hey
have the widest discretion in that matter.
Bail is only 10 prevent people from run
ming away.
Why, for instance, should man with a
wife and children, or any householder, be
held in bail pending an adjournment on a
charge of a petty battery or the like? The
practice of requiring bail for trivial Of
fences has brought into existence here a
large number OF professional bondsmen,
who Will go bail for s and upwards. Put
these men out of business. You know what
mean, and 1 have selected you to
do d distinct work. / have thought of it
long time. and now it falls to me TO
appoint men to do it. There were sixty
thousand persons held over night on petty
charges last year in Manhattan and The
Bronx alone who were discharged next
morning for lack of a valid complaint
The matter of petty arrests. instead of
resorting 10 a summons or notice | shall
take up with the Police Commissioner here
after. You know things can be done only
little by little
Later Mayor GaynOr addressed the fol-
lowing communication to Justice Russell:
In appointing you head justice of the
Court of Special Sessions. | desire call
YOUR attention to the arrears of business
and other conditions in that court. | ap-
point you TO see that they are done away
with. The ample powers of direction and
control given you by the new act should
be exercised by you to the full to that end
and the other justices will Loyalty support
you, no doubt. l receive constant com
plants of the said DELAYS and conditions
1t is coming TO pass that business men
prefer TO let criminal offences against them i
go than prosecute them. They have to go
before a magistrate, often several times,
and then several months later that is re-
peated in Special Sessions. The annoyance
IS more than should be borne The admin
istration of justice in these courts should
be prompt. Nor should gross offenders be
induced TO plead guilty with a promise of
being dealt with too lightly. Trials are
troublesome. bat none should be avoided
in that way.
AS stated in The Tribune yesterday. Jus
tice Russell is a Republican, bat the fact
that others said he was a Democrat led
the Mayor to write the following letter to
him.
My secretary calls my attention to the
fact that one newspaper says this morn
ing that YOU are a Republican and another
that you are a Democrat. We have worked
together all these years for certain prin-
cIpIes and ideals in government without il
ever occurring TO me which YOU were. If
you really are a Republican | am more
convinced than ever that between a good
Democrat end a bad Republican there Is
very little difference. after all