The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-04-05
CATHCART PUTS
HIS FOOT IN IT
answers Field With Array Of
~Facts" That Prove to Be
Airy lmauinInus.
rrrom Thur,day,s Advertiser.l

I
report to the chamber of commerce be-
tween the work of his department and
that accomplished by the city attorney
of the County of Shelby, Tennessee. /
can scarcely believe that Mr.. Cathcart
intended to go so far as he did when
ne penned his communications to the
Star and the Bulletin, because l do not
credit him with the general ignorance
he displays in that reply.
i 'sIn the first place, Mr. Cathcart is
apparently not aware that the official
0f Shelby County, corresponding to the
city attorney of this county, is termed
the Attorney General, and that when
he talks of the city attorney of Mem
phis, the attorney generals department
and the county attorney, he Is talking
of ono and the same man, not three
separate individuals. Mr.. Cathcart is
making himself supremely ridiculous. l
do not know where he got his 'informa-
ton concerning Shelby County and the
City of Memphis, but l got mine in a
letter from a. N. Estes, attorney gen
oral of Shelby County, which letter en-
closed data of the work of his Office
during the past year and which said:
Memphis Letter.
s'You asked me the salaries re-
ceived by my Office. My salary is
g only $4,000 per year; not half what
it should be. My assistants get
$1,000 per year. There are two
assistants. Special detective con-
- .antal ,,,;+b ,,,ty offfnn fYatu k10E rnr
month. ! have no stenographer;
there is none in the court unless
the defendant employs one. No
fund for incidentals.
81 am not required to appear in
the supreme court on an appeal,
but I do.
"The title Attorney General
means district attorney general,
duties limited to Shelby County.
Population of Memphis is about
10000; Shelby County running up
to over 100000.
"This letter seems to knock the
props from under Mr.. Cathcart g charge
that compared his Office with one
differing from it in any essential. His
office is that of prosecuting attorney
for city and county with total
population of less than one hundred
thousand; the office of the attorney gen.
cral of Memphis is that of prosecuting
officer of city and county, with q
population running up to two hundred
thousand. ...t
~ Cathcart's own Report.
"The Tennessee prosecutor, with the
salaries of his Office considerably less
than the salaries of Mr.. Cathcart I
Office, does over four times the work
year than Mr.. Cathcart reports him
self for two years. Mr.. Cathcart says
that juggled the figures of the cases
handled by him. ] got my figures
regarding Mr.. Catheart e work from
his own report on file with the mayor
The figures he gives are prefaced will
these words: Herewith find report o.
the work of the city attorney 8 depart
ment for two years ending Decembel
81, 1910. His own figures credit hi
office with 497 cases for two years, o.
which note about one of every hv'
represents a nolle prosequi.
"Mr. Cathcart, in his new report
made in the newspapers yesterday, in
eludes in the number of cases handled
by his department all the petty drunk
and gambling cases of the police court
eases which in Memphis are handled b,
the deputy sheriff and which do not cal
for the services of special prosecuting
officer. There are very few mainland
cities, il any, where n special depnt.
city attorney, drawing $2l5 month
is employed to handle petty polio
court cases, which ordinarily canno
take him more than an hour day.
81 understand that few years age
before the Islands had County Act
the police court in Honolulu was han
died by deputy sheriff or anothe
police officer, inst the same az is tn
ease in Memphis today. The Memphi
total, as given by me in my report
includes 500 liquor license cases, 9
murder cases, 2l0 cases of assault wit
intent to commit murder, 800 cases o
carrying concealed weapons and larg
number of rape, larceny, burglary an
robbery cases.
"And, as 1 point ont, all this wa
handled at a less cost per year than
paid TO conduct the legal business Q
this city, with less than half the nun
Der of people and several times les
than half the number of eases. - s-
Cathcart's Letter. hf
Mr.. Cathcart's letter, to which M
Field answers by showing that the cit
attorney hash I the least idea what h
is talking about, is; in part, as follows
editor Star: notice in the morI
ing paper that Mr.. Field, in his repol
to the chamber of commerce, state
TINT the city attorney of Memphis, Tel
nessee, prosecuted e7s7 cases last yea
of which sixty.eight were murder case
and 600 liquor cases, at n cost in salarie
Of $4,000, and further that the city Al
torney of Memphis has no stenographe
or Office clerk. his force consisting opl
of two deputies and detective.
ron examining the portion of the n
port of Mr.. Field In Mr.. Spalding's POI
session relative to the legal departmer
of this city, I find that the statement
contained in the morning paper are nc
correct, and that the comparison NJ
Field makes is with the County G
Shelby, Tennessee, in which the City Z