The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-06-14
THE GENERAL SESSIONS COURT.
Summer Term Convened|udge AID
rich's Charge to Grand Jury-The
Work of the Court.

Inc summer LSTu Oh lQ6 general
sessions court for Newberry county
convened yesterday morning, Judge
Aldrich, Of Barnwell, presiding. This
is Judge Aldrich's first appearance on
the bench in Newberry, though he has
been in Newberry before and. has =
wide acquaintance here and numbers
many Newberry people among his
personal friends. He comes Of a fam
lily Of ~jurists long distinguished in
South Carolina. He is an able and
Conscientious presiding judge, and is
an ornament to the bench Of the
State.
Solicitor Cooper handed out a num-
Der Of bills to the grand jury yester-
day morning.
Judge Aldrich, in charging the
grand jury, said that under u ad-
mirable system which provides that
the grand jury shall serve for the
entire year, it was unnecessary to
make any extended charge upon their
general duties, as he assumed that
had already been done. He said the
summer term of court was primarily
for the purpose of trying Jail cases.
1T has been agitated very often in
our general assembly," he said, ito
abolish this court altogether, owing
to the fact that it is a busy time with
nearly all of our people, but the leg
islature has never seen fit to pass
such an act, owing to the fact that
there ire more or less prisoners in
all the jails of the State for offences
that are. not bailable, or who are I'M
able to give the bail, and it. would be
a matter of cruelty to keep those
prisoners confined until the fall term
of the court. That being the reason
been abolished oy law, I take it to be
the spirit of the law that this court
should be devoted principally to dis
posing of cases where the parties are
in jail. For that reason I generally
confne myself in the summer term to
charging the grand jury upon such
bills as the solicitor gives out. AS I
say, you have been already charged
by my predecessor as to your general
powers and duties, and will be again
at the fall term.
"While I say this court is primar-
lily devoted to jail cases, of course the
court is open for the dispatch of bust
ness and any business that is brought
before it a be disposed Of. But I
am abiding to the reasons which i'm
pei me to pursue the course I have
done and propose to continue to/do."
Judge Aldrich then took up the
bills of indictment which had been
handed out and charged the law as to
each. In connection with the indict-
ments charging violation of the dis
pensary law, he said in part: "
Gas far back as the memory of man
goes the traffic in intoxicating drinks
has been a vexed question, agitating
the human mind. Various expedients
have been resorted to by the law
making powers to reduce the evils
flowing from this nefarious traffic.
Perhaps more suffering has been en-
tailed upon the human race by the
use OF intoxicants than from any 9TH
er one cause, and the 1aw-making
powers Of all civilized countries have
exhausted their ingenuity to reduce
those evils. They can not abolish
them, any more than you can blot out
any other sin or crime. Men will
commit murder, and they will commit
larceny, and they will commit burg
Ad1J, duC Oil IuS OIuSI CIlmSS III LuC
calendar as long as they are human
beings, and they will sell liquor at
the same time. All that, our law aims
at is to minimize the evils, reduce
them within the narrowest possible
limit, and in that effort all good men
must and do lend their aid and their
influence to make the law a success.
When We think of the disgrace, the
crime, the blood, the tears, the power
ty, the misery, the various curses that
follow in the trail Of this evil, any
good man and every good man will
lend his aid and his influence to make
any law designed to better those con-
ditions a success. And it is a bad
man, a bad citizen, who will know
ingly and wilfully violate that law. 1t
shows that he is willing for the sake
Of a dollar to bring all these dread
concon1onoae uDon h3c 1oY1o-oon