The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-16


 that I would like to say, and could know that my communication would be accept l ed, would certainly try to remove enough skin from our city administration to stock up a government tannery, and would present a true picture of such loath- some corruption as would make Alabama blush with shame. But I will forbear and suppress my feelings and try to speak as temporately as I can of conditions so damnably corrupt that I falter and stag ger for words to express my indignation without giving offense.
 It used to be popular idea of the pulp lie that all courts were maintained for the purpose of suppressing vice, punish crime, and meting out justice and not for graft, oppression and the making of crim- inals, that every person who might be hailed into court would be given a full hearing and fair and impartial trial. But let me ask in all reverence: Does any sane man believe that even Jesus Christ, if here today, could sit in judgment and give fair hearing and deal out justice to 150 men and women in a single session of court of less than three hours? I don't so believe nor do I hesitate to denounce the whole procedure as a shameful fares upon courts, a reckless burlesque Of law and a whitening, blighting travesty upon justice. In fact. the whole thing if cor rectly and fully pictured, would show up such a combination of farce, burlesque oppression and asinity as would bring misses of disgust from flends in hell, if duplicated upon a vaudeville stage in those internal regions. Think of it A hundred and efifty men and women, black and white, many of them young white girls in their teens, all arrested without a warrant by policemen whose tenure of office in all probability depends upon their activity in making arrests and supplying proofs for convictions. Every victim guilty or not guilty gathered up by day and by night, some of them young white girls and women pulled out of bed at night and all thrust together, male sand female, white and black drunken buns. dirty tramps, wayward boys, hardened prostitutes, tender young shop girls, all without favor or distinction rushed like stray dogs together into a prison more vile, loathsome and overcrowded than the city pound for dogs, then all to be brought into court in an iron cage like wild ami mals, and that, too, so crowded as on Monday morning that actual physical force was necessary to jam them in the cage. White women, negro women, white girls, negro men, cut throats, tramps, bums-innoeent and guilty-all there to- gether there held captive in public view till the farce was over, and all but one of the 150 declared guilty and penalties
 
 or 15 young girls, some. perhaps, poor shop girls working for s per week and compelled to dress neatly to hold their jobs-they, too, in the iron barred cage on public exhibition, and whether so in- tended or not, naturally to invite the at tention of men who are likely to later on seek their acquaintance for their further ruin Isn't it shameful? Is it not re- proach upon the name of justice? Where were the madans of the houses at which these girls were arrested? And why were there no men arrested with them? I am informed that not one of the madams nor one of the male friends of those girls appeared In court. What of that boasted southern chiyalry and that necessary segregation of the races that submits to such diabolical conditions as now exist in our city hall? Where are our mission aries and reformers? Oh to god that the Boxers in China and in every heather land may in righteous resentment drive back home every missionary there, that they may take up more needed work here where courts of law are perverted to graft, and are made public purveyors of prostitution. If our city court Is run for revenue only, let me suggest that we do away with the judge and run the thing as a machine with a hopper and sepa- rator like that of a mill, and that all ar rested may be dumped Into the hopper, separated from their money and thus save expenses and ridicu1e, and as such a ma chine would be much more respectable and less prolific in making anarchists, prostitutes and midnight maurauders, surely a gasoline run machine would be less odorous and less shameful to justice than the present automatic cost collecting convict making, miserable pantomine and outrage on decency, than the present dam- nable farce at the city hall in this city. I could say more, tell the truth and use stronger language. But I have no asbestos paper upon which to write, and lest in spite of my predetermination to be extremely temperate I forget my self and let slip some sulphrous adjec- tives that would in a lurid way express something of what I truly feel concerning the practices and prosecutions in that bur lesque of courts. that travesty on jus tice, that outrage on everything of the name of law. equity, decency, social or der and civilization, I will shut off my