Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-20
MORE PAP, BUT NO MORE
JUSTICE

~ -
TNHE Governor Of Pennsylvania, TO
4 whom as a candidate for that high
office the people of this State turned with
longing eyes and confident hearts, apostle
IF education, disciple OF reform, grounded
n academic ethics and in contact all his
lie with the sweet side of human pur
pose, put the label of his approval re-
:ently on the Infamous system Of MaGis-
rates as 1t exists in Philadelphia and
permitted his right hand to indorse the
higher remuneration Of these legal off,
GERS, whose methods Of administering
ustice have been stencil for years in
he nostrils Of this community and whom,
Is an institution, citizens of good repute
have long sought TO exterminate.
The establishment Of the Municipal
Court was at least a promise that the
Magistrates would cease eventually to be.
Their Office is a constitutional one, but It
Tas within the province Of the Legisla-
ture to nullify their activity by depriving
hem of jurisdiction. Society owed them
no reward. Their need for a 331-3 per
1ent increase in salary was not apparent.
We're not the police records indeed,
oaded with vicious cases in which Magis-
rates through their constables had ex-
,orted money from the poor. sold justice
for price, blackmailed women and con-
sorted with criminals? Here was a species
4 officer to be uprooted and starved, de.
erived Of nourishment and driven to
cover.
A great Governor would have shackled
ne Magistrates; he would never have
I'D them pap. But our leaderless
Legislature, in a frenzy of philanthropy,
ccepts the sophistry that the way to cure
he evil is to feed it; that the way to make
ne Magistrate system better system is
% make 1t richer sinecure. To that
'r equally subtle argument the Governor
ant a willing ear. Will his eyes be
opened when he sees the same old
Magistrates reelected by the same old
ang at their same old Jobs? Perhaps;
1ut while school teachers work for a pit
ance the public funds must be made to
teld their toll of lucre to a system which
las been proved in more than one case
20 be hogfat with graft.
This Magistrate system must go. This
community does not want It. The in
famous salary grab which has been en-
slneered for the benefit of the NIagis.
rates emphasizes as nothing else could
ne necessity for action. Perhaps the
Governor intended his bounty to be a
boomerang. The subtieties of guberna-
orial approval are sometimes beyond or
-inary comprehension. But we do know
hat the system is discredited, that there
little respect for some Magistrates and
.one for others in Philadelphia that the
.ourts of many of them have been in days
past hotbeds Of crime and vice, that they
represent an archaic, hopeless, damning
lnd debauching method of administering
Justice and that they cannot, must not,
Iurvive. A movement having as its OBJ
iect the abolition of Magistrates will be
veil under way before the next Legis-
ature meets. 1t will have the support of
itizens in all walks Of life. Moreover
{ will be successful, and not again will
Governor Of Pennsylvania sweat with the
,rdor of reform while handing bounties
0 the most deplorable system Of admin
,stering justice now known in the Com.
.nonwealth.
A prominent jurist once characterized
his local courthouse as a place where there
vas "plenty Of law. but damned little JUS
ice" In our Magistrates courts, unfor-
unately. law and justice run on an equal
Ooting. for seldom does either put in an
appearance.