The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1914-09-19
COUNTY FINANCES
ARTICLE NO. 7.
The Colville Examiner Series. Sept. 1s, lsi4)
Superior Court.

single luxury enjoyed by the
taxpayer, and is becoming a
heavy drain on the treasury. All
court expense is paid out of the
current expense fund, while the
only revenues of the court are:
Fines for violations of law, con-
tempt, etc.; state refund of wit
ness fees in criminal cases where
a conviction is secured; and tax
alton. Fines and refunds go to
the current expense fund.
A law-abiding spirit among the
people, or a general cusSedness
among them, may lessen or in
crease court costs. Also, to a
certain extent, the actions of the
Judge, the prosecuting attorney,
and the various justices over the
county, can make some differ
ence.
Court work is divided into va
rious classifications, such as
criminal. civil, probate, insanity,
naturalization, etc.
Most criminal cases are heard
at jury terms, held as often as is
really necessary. The setting of
criminal cases in jury term is
an important matter to the tax
payer; when several cases are to
be heard, the judge must approx
innate the time needed for each
case, so that witnesses and
jurors may work consectively
without overlapping their time.
Error of judgment on this point
has caused much money to be
lost to the county, when two or
three sets of witnesses are hang
ing around the courthouse, draw
ing pay, and waiting for their
case to be called. In the Turner,
Goakey and Drummond cases,
witnesses were served two and
three times by order of the court,
and in some cases witnesses have
been able to draw mileage sever
al times for attending one case.
This also necessitates extra ex-
pense to the sheriff's office in
summoning witnesses. Economy
demands watchfulness on the
part of judge and prosecuting
attorney.
Civil cases are a big drain on
the county when juries are de-
manded, as the county has to
pay all holding expense, and
gets but $12 revenue from case
for calling a jury.
When juries fail to convict in
criminal cases, it means that the
county has to pay all expense;
when they convict, the state
pays the greater expense. Many
juries, in cases where they knew
the defendant was guilty as
charged, have allowed sympathy
to overrule them, and have thus
freed violators and permitted
the taxpayers to foot the bill
when all the time we have good
system whereby the state board
of parole can step in and handle
all deserving cases, without cost
ing the county any more money.
If juries would decide exactly
according to the facts, and leave
their sympathy at home, our
court expense would be much
less, and justice would be given
the convicted man by the board
of pardons if he really deserved
it.
A judge may cause unneces-
sary expense by delaying cases
in trial. When trials are costing
S100 and more a day, an hours
time means more than SIG. If
the judge makes paternal talk
to the jury, it costs every tax
payer something, whether he
hears it or not; if the judge
isn't up on law points. and has
to adjourn to look up a decision.
the people pay for it; if he per-
mits the lawyers to quarrel
among themselves, or allows a
case to be dragged along which
he ought to take from the jury,
he costs the people money; if he