The Alaska socialist., 1913-11-15
COMMUNICATION
TO THE ALASKA SOCIALIST {:

and Petit Jurors, .drawn to serve at the
 coming term of Court at Fairbanks, in
 and for the Fourth Judicial Division of
 Alaska. beginning Nov 10th, 1913, and
 it will be seen, as stated in the report,
 that the great majority of both juries
 are composed of Fairbanksans. The re-
 port also says :: 'the attorneys express
 general satisfaction at selections made.'
 suppose the attorneys would have
 been better satisfied if they themselves
 had been selected jurors instead It is
 very doubtful, however, if the people of
 the Fourth Division, if they amount to
 anything, will feel as elated over the
 Juay selected. The Jury drawn may be
 composed of honest men and worthy cit
 izens. I have no desire to cast any as- persion on any of them whatever, or forecast what they may do. They may
 do what their conscience dictates. My intention is to criticise the number sell
 ected from one locality to the utter dis regard of all others. And that the city, to consider cases th they must of necessity be unfamiliar with. As it is reasonable to suppose that in a country such as the Fourth Division of Alaska the only productive industry is that of mining, that the great majority of civil cases to come, before the jury will be those involving mining rights and min ing affairs, that those whose life has been spent i'll the cities are unfamiliar with, consequently they will be more at the mercy of glib tongued attorneys, hence the general satisfaction of the legal fraternity.
 Where the majority of the jury is composed of men havings a practical knowledge .of. mining and the cases un- der consideration, .they are more in qlined to deal justly between the litig ants. and disregard the wild vaporings of lawyers; but when they are unfam- iliar with mining cases in ,..general and conditions under consideration they are more apt to be Acarried away by legal bombast.
 Now let us analyze and see what the Jury consists of that gives such general satisfaction to- the Fairbanks attorneys. Accordingato the Times, of the g names of theal Grand Jurors, 16 of them are from Fairbanks or 70 per cent. Of the i 56 names that constitute the Petit 1ury i 27 of them are from Fairbanks or 75 per cent of the whole number. That i looks like too much Johnson.
 It would be interesting to know if those names drawn out of the box was ill fair proportion to the names put \ into the box from the different voting < precincts. The method of drawing the jurors is, to.a11 appearances, fair and inn [ partial and above board But can that 1 4 s be said about the method of selecting [ the names and getting them into the ! box. It would be smpossible to draw ]. out of the box what is not put in to it.
 Heretofor the persons drawn as jurors in the Fourth Division have been fairly throughout the Division. But this time Fairbanks appears to be tie only place there is any person el- lg1ble. It is very evident from the fig ures that the Jury is ill no way repres- of the people of the different localities, be the cause accidental or in- tentional. have always been led to be- lieve that the purpose of selecting jury was to assist judge ill admin stering justice and as far possible to select it from all classes of eligible persons throughout the district and