The Washington herald., 1915-12-26

Nashville and Memphis being the re-
spective capitals, the same growth OF
crime Is shown. The total number OF
indictments returned at Nashville at
the fall term of the criminal courto
approximated 1000. while the average
OF past years for that county by a
single grand jury Is about 100. The
grand juries of Shelby County. where
the average record for one term of the
criminal courts is about 500 indict-
ments. have reported approximately
1,5oo indictments for the fall term of
court.
The records in Shelby and Davidson
counties. however. are not as yet COM
plete. Some changes may be shown
in the nnal report. but IL any, they
will not reduce the total indictments.
In the case OF the Hamilton County
grand jury already noted, the record
is complete. the jury having made its
final report. Knox County. of which
the city of Knoxville is the capital.
reports largely increased work of the
grand jury and criminal courts. The
smaller cities of the State, while not
reporting SO many indictments, main
tain the average of increase of crime
that is shown in the larger cities.
thus establishing the fact that crime
increase IL general throughout the
State.
The cost Of prosecuting offenders
against the so-caIled temperance laws Of
the State has grown to large proportions.
Nor has there been any reduction in
other crimes. Instead of n reduction
there Is an increase, as shown by official
records. Available figures in this city
show that II costs around $50 to prose-
cute a negro for public drunkenness.
In his case he is first hailed before
justice OF the peace by a constable and
bound over to the grand jury. From
there he goes to Jail until the grand jury
indicts hirl Then he Is tried in the
Criminal Court. tie same set Of wit
nesses testifyinG against him in each of
the three Investigations.
Each Case Cost. Ss.
The process, counting all Of the costs.
entails an expense Of approximately $50
and the defendant is fined SO the
minimum. In nine cases out of every ten
he works out his fine on the county
roads. In the case Of the bootleggers the
route Is practically the same. and as a
result the warehouses are found made
quate to meet the demands made upon
them. There are numbers Of instances
in this county where violaters Of the pro-
hibition laws have be,l held in Jail or
permitted to go under bond until there
was room in the workhouse to accommo-
date them.
One prominent feature of the attempts
to break up TIE business of bootlegging
in Tennessee Is that no matter how many
People are sent to a workhouse for the
offense. the tribe shows no decrease in
numbers. When one bootlegger Is SEN
fenced to the county roads, another takes
his place and conducts the business. thus
forming an endless procession from the
criminal courts to the workhouses and
back again.
1t is an expensive process that Tennes-
see has not as yet learned how to bring
10 an end. The last biennial report OF the
State comptroller shows that il cost the
tax payers of the State s3i3 600 for the
Period to prosecute crime. whereas this
item for the last year Of a licensed liquor
traffic in the State was slJSoOa. In view
Of the fact that there has been a large
increase of prosecutions in the criminal
courts during the present year. il is prac-
tically certain that the next biennial re-
port on the cost bill will he near $4,000
the highest figure ever known in the
State.