The Alaska citizen., 1917-03-12

man wNo sitting in judgment on
 he i-.luZs and shortcomings of hun
 drels oi his fellow men. looked into
 the hearts Of those who were brought
 before him and dealt them justice ac- cord ng jo the rule oi common sense
 rather than by technicalities and
 precedence We wish every man.
 woman and child in Fairbanks to
 read it
 In the SIX years that he occupied a place on the bench, it fell to him
 to set muuF a precedent himself and
 mark q 7. thway through the maze oi laws tha. too often dehumanize our
 courts an& make machines, without
 power of discrimination and discern
 ment. out 1f our judges. And the
 trail that Q blazed leads directly to
 he better.ent of the human race
 Without Iouht Judge McGinn made
 mistakes. The man does not now
 I've who makes none. But they were
 mistakes ui the heart, and were on
 the side O. humanity rather than in
 humanity. errors of mercy and not
 unjust punishment. Lots of lawyers
 did not Ike him. and numbers of
 people sncared at him for his sum mary manaer of dsposing of cases
 which in the light of his common sense did not stand the acid test Of right
 IL Is unfortunate that more of our
 judges dc not possess some of the views. and practice them. of Judge McGInn. III the world would be bet ter if every youthful offender against
 the law Ns given the same chance and encor agement to make new start that he gave them. If every judge Shcl}d make a practice of dis regarding those twin gods of re sDectablo Jurisprudence, precedence and teChnicality," as he mad way Of doing, justice rather than legal
 decisions would be more common than it is at present
 The 1uGse had habit of giving criminals n opportunity of making restitution. or providing for those whom tho had injured, instead of sentencing them to confinement, hold ing that if did no good to the injured person la lock the criminal up, whereas the help thus secured was
 q real source of benefit. He was
 strongly convinced from personal ob
 seryation that in> very few cases COmparat. ely speaking does Confine- ment in i-ils or penltentiaries bene-
 lit either the incarcerated or society He has hHen termed a crank" for this attitude, but We could stand a few more cTanks of his calibre and not be any the worse off for their existence. His opinion that punish mcnt is degrading and kills the good
 n the person upon which 1t is in 1iicted' + becoming more and more prevalent throughout the world to- day, and is already making inroads on the bulwarks of the law, which is generally the last fortress to sur render when any of it's prerogatives are attacked. We have no doubt . that little more of this inclination wouldn't aurt a whole lot of those
 now hold ng places or the bench , today.
 In all the years he was on the bench, there is no record of Judge
 McGinn I2ssing sentence on a per
 son on tr,Hlped-up evidence. By na- ture he bhorred the stool pigeon" |" and there are instances of his dis
 missing C4Ses where the testimony
 offered for conviction was obtained
 by a "plant.' He had too much re gard for the people, and enough self respect net to be a party to any such proceedings
 His way of brushing away impedi ments to justice, rather than deliver
 ing learned dissertations and opni- ons on some obscure point of law marked the bigness of the mans calibre, and it is more than unfortunate for the people of Oregon, and the whole coast, that Judge McGinn has given up his place and returned to the practice of law A man of his stamp can ill be spared, for there are few like him either on or off the 1 bench. For the sake of mankind we wish they were met with oftenr in wish they were met with oftener in
 the courts today.