The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-03-01
JURY SYSTEM
j TO Be SCORED
Williams Wants Power Of
Prosecutor Curtailed.
RIDDLE AFTER DENSMORE

Graft Prober Says Man Whose Testi.
mony Was Sought In Slater Case
Made Application Too Late For I'M
snunity 6ath-Gibbs Has Plan to
Sell Canals Of State by March, t9tt,
Winters Introduces New Public
Utilities Measure.
Columbus, o., March 1.--At meet
ing of the legislative committee that
is investigating the high price of food.
stuffs, the work of drafting the report
which 1t will submit to the general
assembly was commenced. Chief
among the recommendation to be
&. made Is one that the grand jury sys-
tenn of the state be so revised that
the influence of the prosecuting attor.
ney will be mitigated. Mr.. Williams,
chairman OF the committee, feels that
II any action is to be taken which
will permit the wiping out Of illegal
combinations among dealers the first
step will be the enactment of some
legislation which will compel juries
to act as their own judgment dictates
instead of following blindly the sug.
,gestions of prosecutors. IN too many
instances" he said, grand juries, in.
stead of following the desires of the
,people, submit to the dictation of the
prosecutor. This should be done away
with and the jury system put back to
what it was originally intended to
be-"
AS preparatory step to the hear.
ing which is to be given next Friday
by the state graft probers TO Hy Da.
Wis, former state fire marshal, expert
accountants have been put to work
on the books and accounts in the of.
fee of the fire marshal during the
past few administrations.
N Representative Riddle of the com.
mittee promises there will be some.
thing turned up to discredit the bus-
ness methods of some of the former
fire marshals.
- The report is current that d. W.
Dinsmore, whose dealings with Slater
for several years brought him under
suspicion, will be here Friday TO tes.
itify before the Beatty committee.
Representative Riddle said: "If Dins.
more does come, I'll make a fight
against permitting him to testify and
thus get immunity from prosecution.
We had a hard time at first getting
information, but we have It now and
I'VE don't need any gratuitous testi-
smony. We got that from Brelsford." ."
Riddle says the committee knows
where Dinsmore Is working.
In the senate a number If bills
were introduced, the most important
being one by Mr.. Clevenger of Clinton
county, giving the accused the right
TO see the records of the grand jury
AZ the court approves. The bill was
tdrawn BIZ Smith Bennett.
" In the house the usual large mum.
-ber of bills were dropped into the
hopper among the important ones
being the following:
& BY Mr. Nye of Pike, TO make en-.
-gaging in bucketsnop business a fel.
ony..
Mr.. Swan of Preble, to provide for
competitive bidding for state deposits,
the governor, treasurer and superin.
tendent of banks to constitute a
board to receive bids.
Mr.. Reed of Wood, to create a coun.
ty board Of review to be appointed by
the county commissioners, and to con.
sist of three members. The board is
TO have all powers now conferred
upon county commissioners to review
valuations.
! Mr.. Grover of Gallia, amending the
Akin liquor tax law so as to provide
that it shall be paid into the state
treasury and the portion allowed