The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-07
IRA DEMENT IS SPICY TOWARD GRAND JURY Justice of Peace in Lewis
 burg Precinct HE GROWS SPHERICAL  Maintains That the Inquisitors Have Assumed Too Much of the
 "Holier Than Thou" Atti-
 tude in Report

Justice of the Peace Ira Dement, of the Lewisburg beat, characterized by the recent grand jury as Bloody Beat %, who was roundly scored in the report oi the inquisitorial body, makes a spicy re- ply to their charges of himself in par ticular and everyone else in general.
 His statement follows:
 "1n their report the grand jury demon- strated that they were merely human in one respect and that is that they could not see their mistakes; but dog gone that other feller,' no one with a grain of sense would have made that mistake.
 "They criticized every officer, praeti- cally, in the county and gave the gov ernor of the state one or two punches. But we the grand jury are without fault
 "They criticized the coroner because he did not hold more persons on charges of murder, pending an investigation by their august body, yet of the 22 murder cases disposed of by them they found only il true bills.
 "Thev criticize the solicitor for failure to convict in many cases where the grand l jury had found a true bill, yet they, with | only the prosecutor S Slut pl tue NtisS ht-
 fore them, returned only 196 true bills out of 332 cases disposed Of. Surely they would not want any one convicted con- l trary to law and evidence.
 "They criticized the board of revenue
 in regard 10 their system of book keep 1 ing, and one could hardly believe that a
 school boy would adopt any such sys- l tenn. much less five business men chosen
 by the voters of Jefferson county They
 recommend that new court house anu
 jail be built and advise that. if the voters
 the tax payers Of Jefferson county say | by their vote that they don't want that. 1 the board of revenue should in some
 manner negotiate loan that these same 1 tax payers will have to repay with in- | terest l wonder how many numbers 1 of that grand jury claim to be demo I crats We IS men, the grand Jury o' l Jefferson county, say that we must nave | new court house and jail, and althoush
 there are other men in the county who | have served as grand jurors and although 1 every other man In the county should 1 say they don't want 1t, still it should be l built and they should have to pay for l if because we, the 1912 grand jury, say SO"
 "Oh. democracy where art thou. "'rhey told the people of Lewishurg something they did not know and that they do not believe and that was that spirit of anarchy prevailed In that vicinity.
 "The grand jury stated that many witnesses have testified that it was common talk that conspiracy existed ont there but fear of personal harm prevented them from disclosing the names. An honest person is never afraid to do right and why should any one be afraid to testify to something l h1t rOf talk?
 l How would you, a law abiding eit- l izen, like to live in a precinct and l have 1t referred 10 as the grand Jury referred to precinct 222 Sheriff Me Adory has two deputies stationed in 1 this precinct. Ask them what kind or peep.e live here. If there are anarch- l iss and conspirators living here, the grand jury should have indicted them.
 The grand jury should not be crit l icised because they have made mis- takes; neither should they have shown | such anxiety to criteise others. They 1 should remember that the man who Lever makes mistake never makes any thing else. They should be as just to others as they would expect others l to be to them.
 "Thev should never think because I they are grand jurors that they are the | only intelligent men in the county. All men under all circumstances should do what they believe to be right. If the law is to pay our officers l fees and the officer gives value received as fixed hy law, 1t does not behoove us as voters to condemn the law, but l if we believe better system could be arranged we should endeavor with our vote to change the law,
 "'rhe grand jury, after criticism Of the fee system and the reckless eN- l penditure of the county funds, rec | ommends that an automobile be pur- chased for the use of the board of rev enue and recommends in closing their report, that grand jurors pay be in- creased to $500 per day
 1 "Consisteney, thou art truly an un- discovered jewel IRA DEMENT,.
 Justice of the Peace