The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-12-16

one OF these justice Oh Lne PeaSe
courts. This experience, followed by
association with men whose CHER
knowledge of justice was the Unjust,
ice done by these inferior courts, LED
Bill to become believer in "idrect &C
ton" and as his part in the work OF
bombing squad, to destroy S4O,0oO
worth Of property.
Direct Losses from the Decisions
of Poor Courts
On account Of the large number OF
cases brought in justice Of the peace
courts, the direct loss in dollars and
cents from wrong decisions is prob
ably considerable. But whether these
money losses be great or small the
vital and human facts are these:
/. A suit by a washerwoman for 30
is often just as important to her as a
suit by a rich man for OooO. IL
means the loss or gain to her OF as
much happiness, and often OF more
health and comfort;
2. Her suit is usually still more I'M
portant to the State and society as u
whole than the suit of tie man who
has more. In the case of Mary Bourke
the material loss to Mary was 500,
but the loss to society was not only
the harm done by Bill but also the
whole life of ELLEN Bourke and the
happiness she would have brought to
many human beings.
In the lives OF poor people, VINO
never even have a claim to fifty dol.
lars, health, happiness and life itsel1
are often positively dependent on very
small sums of money. In the cities OF
Missouri this winter, scores of families
of poor people will lose one of their
number by death where that death
would not have occurred if that fam
lily had had ten dollars more money
Indirect Losses to individuals from
Decisions of Poor Courts
In money-The indirect monetary
losses to individuals are even greater
than the direct. This is from the OBJ
vious reasons that l, human beings are
the most productive machines we
have: 2. most of such machines are
poor people; 3, the amount of work
these poor people can do and keep up
is dependent on their health, and THIS
is so often lost temporarily or perma-
nently by the lack of few dollars.
In human happiness-The indirect
losses in human happiness from the
inferior decisions of these inferior
courts" are necessarily great. They
come not only from the sickness or
other economic disability of the hui
man macl.ine, but also from the SICK
ness or death of moral wrong dom" OF
loved ones, as we'll as the loss of So
cial or spiritual happiness through the
lack of small material things purchas-
able by the few dollars which are lost
by such wrong decisions.
Losses to the Whole State from De-
cisiOns of Poor Courts
The loss to society, as whole,
from such decisions is probably much
greater and also more difficult TO cal
culate than the loss to individuals.
The economic loss is somewhat
greater than the total economic loss
to individuals, because normally a
mans labor not only pays for itself
but also produces profit.
The social loss that results from
the ignorance and injustice of these
inferior courts often also results par
TALLY from other things, and one does
not know exactly how much comes
from these decisions.
But when day laborer goes into
court and sues for 500 wages that ne
knows are Justly due him, and is told
before hand that he will lose because
the Justice of the peace is "hXed >
and when he does lose, and when TINS
$50 is all the property he has IN the
world and this court is the only one
he can 20 to to get it, We do know one
thing. We know that these decisions
lead straight to anarchy, direct ac-
tion" and a "lawlessness" by the la
borer to match the "lawlessness" OF
the Justice of the peace, even though
| we do not know to now much laWless-
ness it leads.
We cannot tell whether the laborer
will steal Just twenty dollars 10
match the 500 wrongfully taken from
him by the justice and his employer.
We cannot tell whether, seeing the
Justice continue in his lawllessness, ne
will also go on and like the JUSTICE
break the law, whenever he can sue
! cessfully. Nor can we tell whether
he may sometimes kill to keep from
being caught, nor can we tell how
many times he may be caught, and
how much will be the criminal costs
paying police to catch him, Jailers to
hold him, states attorneys to prose,
cute him, witnesses to testify against
him, Judges to try him, jury to con-
Wet him and a penitentiary to i'm
prison him. Nor can we tell how
many times all this will be gone
through with in his life time.
But we do know that most criminals
are poor people and that they often
have perverted ideas of law And we
also know that lin the cities especial
ly) the only courts of which they have
direct knowledge, as rule, are per-
verted courts of law.
Happily, however, we know Other
things. We know that to give the
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