The Alaska citizen., 1917-03-12

cult court and his case came before Judge McGinn only few witnesses had been heard when the judge dis missed the case
 There is no good taking up any more time with this case" he an nounced Fl will never convict any man, white. black yellow or tawny. for any offense where the state will have one nf its agents 20 there and entrap him into the commission of crime. It is wrong It is morally wrong. 1 don't care how many au- thorities will uphold it and say that it is necessary
 Tt is wrong for the state to do wrong and if the state will allow. permit and encourage it's officers to go and invite people to commit crimes and then jump upon them. the state ought to receive no con sideration It isn't decent. it isn't moral, 1t isn't rig.t. and any amount of judicial reasoning can never make it right. Every man is entitled to be dealt with fairly.
 This man sold liquor l haven't any doubt in the world of it. but the state was party to the transaction and I am not going to convict him on this kind of testimony"
 Judge McGinn has a horror of sending a man, particularly young man. to the penitentiary.
 'I was district attorney of Multno- nah county from 1886 to 1890" he said recently. and I hope I may be forgiven, for I did a great deal of wrong. But I lived up to the light that then had That is one part of my life of which l am not very proud
 Every now and then I read in the 25-year-old column of the Oregonian of convictions obtained. I ask myself, would you send that man to the penitentiary if you had it to do now? And I answer that I would not. There might be a few excep- tions-but very few, and I am doubt ful as to them
 Punishment is degrading It crushes out what is good in man There isn't one of us who does not look back sometimes and think with humiliation of punishment he has received. and with bitter feelings to- wards the person that punished him.
 'I do hope that the time will come when some way other than the peni- tentiary will be found, even for the inCOrrigibles. To send a young mat a man clean but for some miscon duct, perhaps done on the spur of the moment, to the penitentiary Is nothing short of a crime"
 Of his old views of the law and technicality. Judge McGlnn said on this same occasion:
 The old common law is good enough. We'll get more substantial justice out of the old common laws than we're apt to get out of the laws Oi this later day.
 There is sort of hysteria in the air today. Everybody seems to think that We can pass a law and that 1t will do everything. If we had a legislature that met only once in ten years. and did nothing but pass on appropriation measures. we'd be a lot better off.
 ''I have long held to the Idea that the common law was elastic and that under It justice could easily be done. but l have tried to run my court so that justice and common sense, and not teChniCality and pro. cedure. should govern. have at least worked toward that end"
 Judge McGinn has a truly remark able memory He can tell you off hand the exact date and place of as well as other facts in their per sonal history. If he hears a thing once, he remembers it always and can call upon it at any time.
 His knowledge of the law and memory of cases are also extraordi- nary. The bar universally admit that he is not exceeded in legal learning by any member of the bench.
 He is a warm. personal friend Of many well known public men. in cluding Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. His friendship with MT. Roosevelt began under rather unusual circum- stances,
 The day that Colonel Roosevelt was in Portland, in September, 1912. in the course of his campaign tour for President on the Progressive ticket, was one of the occasional hot. sultry, stifling days that occur now and then even in Portland. The colonel had been having a strenuous time of it. When he arrived at the Gypsy Smith auditorium to make a public address he was so hot and exhausted that he could not speak.
 Judge McGinn was chairman of the meeting. Colonel Roosevelt asked the judge to talk and hold the meeting while he rested. Judge McGinn, talk ing entirely impromptu. without a note. spoke for three-quarters of an hour Colonel Roosevelt declared with enthusiasm that it was one of the best political addresses he had ever heard.
 He took such liking to Judge McGinn as a result of this incident that when he came through the northwest in the summer of 1915 on his way tO the San Francisco fair