The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1915-11-19

! We are willing, if Judge Light will
have an expert auditor go over the
books, to pay back into the coun-
| ty treasurer every dollar that the
indicted misdemeanor docket has
cost the county since December,
1912, when Mr.. Huddleston took
charge.
This audit should charge Hud-
dleston with the costs in each in
dicted misdemeanor case which has
gone eff the docket at the cost of
the county and credit him with all
fines and penalties assessed in each
indicted misdemeanor case / will
pay the expense of the audit.
IF this is the cause of the large
Indebtedness in Greene county, why
| is Clay county scrip worth 95 cents
on the collar, where the same poll
cy is pursued?
Judge Light is wrong in assum-
| ing tina the prosecuting attorney
| is responsible for misdemeanor in
| dictmentS. He has no control over
the grand jury in voting indict-
ments and has never asked the
grand jury for misdemeanor in
6ictment The statement is a re-
i Election upon the intelligence and
integrity Of every grand juror for
! I,n r,.,t A orv.o inv ,r
is under oath and votes an indict-
ment when in his judgment, the
evidence justifies it. Each grand
Juror asks for subpoenaes for wit
II esses from his locality to investi-
gate these little matters, such as
disturbing religious worship, drunk
enness, carrying and shooting off
pistols going to and from church
and othet' public gatherings, and the
prosecuting attorney could not pre-
vent it if he wanted to. The grand
Juror is not the slave of the prose-
cutting attorney, but he is an Off
Ger of the court with an independ-
ent duty to perform under his oath.
Nearly all of these little cases can
not be found out in a justice of the
peace court, which has no inquisi-
torial powers, and the boys will not
tell on each other until you get
them before a grand jury and make
them think that they are going to be
indicted for perjury unless they
truthfuily answer the questions. A
strict enforcement of the misdemeaE-
or laws has great deal to do with
the prevention of felony cases, and
this is the reason why the felony
dockets in the lower counties are
much heavier than ours and why
they have SO many more killings
and other felonies than we have.
These lower counties are beginning
to Understand this and are turning
their attention 20 the smaller Of
lenses in order to prevent the CO.
mission OF large ones,
eve have no objection to the JUS
tees of the peace trying all the
misdemeanor cases they want to try,
and have always been willing to-
help them whenever we could posi-
bly, do SC. 1t has been our expert
ence, however, since times have been
hard, we would hire a team at an
expense OF $500 per day, drive sew
eral miles into the country to try
some misdemeanor case which would
result in an acquittal. We would bel
cut of the office all day and at an
expense Of $500 and nothing what
ever in return, and most likely
while we were out of the office, tWol
or three farmers would have ridden
miles and lost a day to see about
some case they wanted prosecuted,
and for these reasons most OF the
informations have been filed before
a justice &C the peace in town. But
these cases do not cost the county
one cent. There is no way byI
which the costs can be taxed against
the county in case arising in a
justice OF the peace court.
I'm some localities, the law can
not be enforced properly, because
there is not sufficient public 5enti-
ment to do it, and for this reason
the cases are brought here. 1t isl
not the fault of the local justice of
the peace He cannot help it. He
does his best to enforce the law,
but the defendant gets a jury and
escapes the penalty of the law, be-
cause the evidence cannot bel
brought out strongly and clearly
like it can before a grand jury
1--WE cannot understand why this
attack was made. Whatever elsel
may be the cause, misdemeanor in
dictments are not responsible for
4Lo nroeoDt low nrina of Sarin and