The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-02-22
THE PEOPLES FORUM.
The Administration of Law In Mary
land,

don less safe"-an extreme statement
of an undoubted truth in government.
Applying it to Maryland we may say
that you can not falsely imprison a
farm laborer in Charles County without
making life in Baltimore more danger
Gus. You can not refuse justice to the
humblest people IN the lowest ranks of
society without imperiling the freedom
of those most independent in life. We
are all engaged in a common undertak-
ing in this state and an injury to one,
use the old motto of the Knights of
Labor, is the concern of all.
1t is precisely those members of our
community most needing its thoughtful
care and protection in the administra-
ton of justice who least receive it. The
courts which the poor and ignorant and
defenseless know are largely those of
Justices of the Peace. Other officials
with whom they come in contact are
deputy sheriffs and constables. We
have in the counties of Maryland a
great number of Justices of the
Peace, sometimes four to an election
district, and are well equipped with
deputy sheriffs and constables furnish
ed with titles and with power to go
forth. as to constables and deputies, to
make arrests, and, as to the Justices of
the Peace, to commit to jail, with little
or no restraint We make their pay
dependent upon the number of cases
they handle and IN an Incidental way
upon the number Of convictions secured.
The sheriff or deputy who is fortu-
nate enough. as he deems it, to conduct
prisoner from distant part of the
country to the county jail or to the
House of Correction and receive five or
ten dollars for so doing, greatly con
graduates himself, and to this bene-
ficient end ne often stands ready TO
strain every nerve. His prime desire
many times is not to preserve order, to
enforce justice but to secure emolu,
ment for himself.
How many instances Of abuse have
come to the ears of all of US? How
often have we learned Of men, limo
Gently enough tramping the road, legiti-
mately returning home, who have been
arrested as Migrants and hurried to the
House of Correction to serve for months
their arrest and conviction having no
better reason for being than the few
dollars divided between the Justice of
the Peace and the sheriff or constable?
When some crime has been committed,
how often it has been the case that
without proper grounds some ignorant
man Casually colored), has peen rushed
to the county seat to await an eXami-
nation which everybody must well have
known in advance could only result in
his discharge, But the sheriff has been
literally paid for the transportation.
Perhaps in the early history of the
State, when trip to the capital of the
county was matter of days. there
might have been sufficient reason for
the creation Of neighborhood justices
and the poverty of government might
have excused at least their compensa-
ton under the fee system. Today when
the average county seat can be reached
from almost any part of the county by
automobile at least within an hour or
two, where formerly as much time was
required to travel from the boundary of |
the election district to the Office of the |
Justice of the Peace and when all con-
siderati0ns of economy demand paid |
officials, there ceases to be any reason
for the multitude of petty judicial Of
ficers we now have.
Baltimore City has recognized this
condition and established minor courts, |
the existence of which has practically |
taken the enforcement of the law out |
of the hands of Justices of the Peace. |
1t rests with our counties to have like |
steps taken for them. Until they do i
this, the administration of justice in a
minor way will continue to be an ex-
travagsnce and an offense to the very
name of Justice,
The first cost to the County of the in
Fiction of wrongful and unnecessary
punishment upon the Individual is the
smallest cost the public pays. The man
who without cause is sent to Jail or the
House of Correction finds his self-re-
spect lowered. He no longer occupies
the same position among his fellows as
before. He is the less useful citizens
of the community. He has become an
object of contempt or at least suspicion
and as an effective worker, is reduced
in value. He has experienced an init
mate association with men of the lowest
possible grade. He has learned much
of the machinery OF crime, which
through close ASSOCIATION has to de-
gree lost its repellent features. He
has been put on the way to become an
habitual criminal and likely to be ar
rested again and again. every time with
expense and loss to the state. All this
is the fair result of injustice-the sort
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