Evening star., 1921-08-21

about the practices in vogue at the
| District Police
Police Courf Court. and q spe-
cial committee Of
1nvestlgatlon. the house of dele
gates was named to investigate the
matter. The Star In its issue OF
August is thus discusses the situa-
! ton:
''The report on the Police Court,
made by the committee Of the house
of delegates yesterday. was to have
been expected from the evidence be-
fore 1t, and while courteous in it's
tone. it 10 trenchant in dealing with
! the fragrant abuses proved to be in
corporated in the management Of af-
! fairs by the subordinates OF the court
The committee also, while exonerat-
! ing Judge Smell and Clerk Grey from
any wrongdoing, censure them for
| not giving due supervision to the
conduct Of the subordinates.
| "It is natural that the disclosure Of
this rotten state Of affairs should
cause great prejudice against the
court, and the cry comes up from va
rious quarters for its entire abolition
| and the return to the system OF police
magistracy. We are inclined to agree.
however. with an intelligent corre-
spondent who argues that we should
not abandon the Police Court system,
found in all leading cities to be the
| true system. but that We should seek
to reform the abuses in 1T. As shown
by the report of the committee, it is.
! when properly managed. more eco
nomical and efficient than the system
of police magistracy, and even when
, the management is defective 1t Is
much more easily reached when the
| responsibility is centralized than
when it is scattered among q dozen
magistrates.
The recommendations in the way
by Delegate Boswell individually
| (whose views from his experience as
! a police magistrate should have
weight) are judicious in the main. but
we cannot agree with Mr.. Boswell in
favoring the return to the police
| the party to appeal to the Police
| Court IL aRgrieved' This would re-
suit in making the Police Court sim
ply a court of appeal, and would COM
of Police Court and q police magis-
tracy, and at the same time carry US
back to all the admitted defects OF
the old system.
THE proper course is to appoint
careful. reliable officers In place OF
! the fast young men who have been
running the court machine, and at
the same time change any feature in
the police system found to be de-
fective in its workings. Mr.. Bos-
wells resolution requiring the court
to hold evening and Sunday sessions
and reducing the onerous fees seems
to be a step in the right direction.
1T seems to US also that valuable
hints can be got from the practice In
Police courts elsewhere. In the
Boston police court. generally eon-
ceded to be one of the best in the
country, there are no court attorneys.
The policemen prosecute their own
cases, except the important cases.
when the judge designates some at
torney to prosecute. The policemen
they are familiar with the facts.
BY adopting this practice here nine
tenths of the abuses shown to exist
in our present court system and the
most of its enormous expense would
be abolished. Then. again, the ex-
penses OF the court might be greatly
reduced by having the policemen act
as bailiffs. Other reforms can doubt
less be suggested, but with these the
court can be reorganized In a way
institution having the confidence of
the community"
y x
| In The Star of August 16, 1871, is
a news dispatch from New York
telling OF the verdict
wasffeId rendered that day by the
T. v,.. coroners jury in the
! teru1ct' case Of the steamer
Westfield, the boiler of which q short
time before had exploded, killing
about eighty persons. The jury
found that the explosion was due to
a flaw in the iron and to the negli-
gence Of the engineer in carrying an
overpressure of steam 1t also
| charged the company as responsible
! for the disaster for failure to have
| in service a competent superintendent
engineer and mechanic. 1t recon-
menJed the district attorney to take
action, and scored the government
| inspection as imperfect. Warrants
were issued for the arrest OF the
president, directors and superintend-
ent of the company and the en-
| gineer.