Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-09
THE MAGISTRATES MUST GO

THERE ought not to be any magis
l. trates They represent an antiquatec
and obsolete system of procedure, ir
which ignorance has been garlanded and
petty graft has been nourished. The
organization of the Municipal Court, II
was earnestly hoped, would lead to the
abolishment of tho Magistrates Courts
by depriving them eventually of any func-
tions. It was anticipated, in fact, that
real courts would take the place of make
believe courts, in which for years the ad.
ministration Of Justice has been more or
less a travesty, dependent to some extent
on the long chance of some worthwhile
gentlemen being elected as magistrates.
Director Wilson does not think that a
coterle of lawyers-for by that name they
are called-has been favored or permit
ted to grow fat by maladminlstration of
the law, a maladministration which has
consisted generally in n division Of the
spoils which women of the street could
be coerced into surrendering under the
menace of Jail terms But what Director
Wilson thinks on this matter Is of no
great Importance. The fact remains that
men of the legal profession have prosti.
tuted their legal standing to the mulcting
of degraded women, sharing in the profits
of their Illicit trade, and in many cases
forcing back into the streets young fe-
males who under proper guidance might
have striven for moral rehabilitation.
Director Wilson, by implication, ridl.
cules the methods employed by the Mu.
nicipal Court when it's jurisdiction over
such cases was unchallenged. 1t used
to let women out on probation, is the
burden of the cry, instead of sending
them to Jail. 1t actually used to have the
same offender before it two or three times.
In the name of all those who have labored
in season and out of season for curative
punitive measures in the regulation OF
society, what did the Director expect?
It was for this that the Municipal Court
was formed to establish tribunal where
the exactitudes of justice might be tenn
pered by the quality of mercy, where
sympathetic judges, versed in the weak
nesses OF human character, might look |
through the thin veil of error into the |
human soul beneath, to discover if it |
1t and awakened again to the nobility that |
is inherent in the weaker sex and never |
can be quite extinguished What If the |
probation system did fail in some cases! |
Two thousand years ago there was an
answer TO such a contingency in the
parable of the lost sheep. To have res
cued even one woman from the dark
shadows is a greater triumph for the
Municipal Court than for the magistrates
to have sent 100 to jail and saved not
one OF them.
There is not anywhere, we trust, even
q tAdSS VI oS Siilpeittly lOI the legal HdTpleSt
aiders, abettors and co-partners Of vice
nor do we imagine that they are with
influence except in political quarters.
Why should decent citizens not now pre-
pare demand for the abolition of the
whole system of magistrates? Why not,
in fact, do some real cleaning by strils.
ing at very profitable legal end of the
vice industry? 1t ought to be done
and it can be done if the leaders of
thought and OF social development in this
community insist upon it. We trust that
they will, It is a service which calls
loudly for volunteers and they ought
to come forward, There is a slogan which
ought TO have become popular in Phila-
delphia long ago, 1t is this: The mag
istrates must go.