The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-11-01

SO open anu 50 pdlpdDlc thdl tue duu-
itor of accounts himself in his last
biennial report recommended that 1t
be stopped as soon as law could be
passed to stop it. This is what Mr..
Graham said:
Some legislation should be enact
ed whereby all criminal causes aris-
ing within the territorial jurisdiction
of city and municipal courts should
be brought in these courts. The pres
ent methods followed in some juris-
dictlons of trying such cases before
justices of the peace or city or NUM-
cipal courts, according to the wish of
the prosecuting officer, is expensive
in that 1t tends to maintain two
courts where one would be sufficient,
and as the city and municipal judges
are paid salaries by the state and
! justices of the peace are paid by fees
which must in the end be paid by the
state, adds to the expense Of the
state the amount OF the fees of JUS
tees of the peace"
The bill introduced to cure this evil
reads:
Section /. No fees shall be allow
ed or paid to justice of the peace
in a criminal cause heard or prose
cuted in town or city in which Is a
municipal or city court, unless the
Judge of such municipal or city court
certifies that he was disqualified or
unable to attend upon or hear said
cause,
Sec. 2. This act shall take effect
December !, 1910.'
st. Adams people know very well
the condition of affairs here in st.
Adams that this act, If passed, would
remedy. They have known for years
that the city court judge here gets an
annual salary for doing this business
but the local officers of the law turn
only part of it over to him. They
send much of 1t to a justice of the
peace and the justice and the officers
get their fees for doing work for the
state that the state has already paid
one man to do The same abuse is
possible in some other cities and in
at least one is more or less extensive
ly practiced.
st. Adams people knew this fact
well enough two years ago. when a
bill was hiu oduced to do away with
this notorious misuse Of public
money. But the bill was killed
through some def manipulation on
the part Of somebody in interest.
This year another bill gets as far
as the senate, and then a well known
st. Adams politician goes to Mont
pelier for a few days, sees a few SEN
ators, including those from this coun-
", and this bill is killed.
Killed, bear in mind, In the face
and eyes Of public sentiment that
has demanded the passage of such a
measure for years, and by man that
lives In the community where that
sentiment is most in evidence be
cause the abuse shows itself in the
largest figures there
What senator that voted to kill that
bill can stand up on the floor of the
senate and give his constituents a sat
isfactory reason for voting against
the attempt to save the state thous
ands of dollars that are now unneces
sarily drawn from its treasury every
biennial term? How can he defend
his failure TO join In defeating this
open and notorious scheme that Il
milking the state treasury year aftel
year?
What senator that voted TO kill the
, bill can give any reason for doing Sc
other than that this politician asked
him 10 do IL?
The bill has been recalled In tn,
senate. Somebody. Il appears, go
ashamed and had that much done, a
least, to save the senates face.
How are the Franklin county sen
= ators going TO line up on II mex
/ time? are they going to vote for tn
people or for this politician st. Al
bans Messenger