Evening star., 1921-03-01
Office of Public Defender.

/ Creation of the office of public de-
fender in Kansas City and st. Louis.
las proposed by Senator Proctor. is not
a response to a merely sentimental de-
Imand. but remedy for an actual i'm
perfection in our court system.
At the upper as well as the lower
end of the classification of criminal
leases changes in practice have be-
;come desirable by reason of the grad
ual transformation Of the prosecuting
Iattorney from a semi judicial officer
ito an advocate of guilt hyoptheses.
No unbiased authority remaining to
!sum up and weigh the preponderance
Iof evidence for the jury's instruction.
advantage rests with the wealthy de-
ifendant, or the representative of or
iganized crime who can command the
higher resources Of the legal profess
!sion and the production Of the kind
}of testimony that confuses. The
power to review evidence from the ex-
ipert standpoint should be restored to
Judges. But the miscar arriaSes of JUS
!tice in this direction are matched by
lmiscarriages in the opposite direction.
THE courts, which often operate with
lsuch leniency in the case Of powerful
defendants of obvious guilt operate as
jdisappointingly in the case of DOOR
Ifriendless defendants of putative in
innocence who are ignorant of their
;rights or without means to prevent
Invasion of their rights
Under the Proctor bill public de.
ifendants would be required to defend
mot only criminal cases but all di-
tvorce cases in which the defendant
fails to enter appearance or whenever
lordered by the court to defend This
lwould protect unguarded interests of
lparties to such suits and of children
las well. He must examine the list of
!prisoners in the county Jail at least
lonce month and enforce the consti-
ltutional privileges Of prisoners The
salary is fixed at $4,000 a year, and
liz an assistant should be needed one
|may be authorized by the court at 5000
la month.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat
l(republican).
TITS me" and He don't" are called
Chicagoese. But they an't-Chicago
! News.
Miss Mackey-Smith marries Can't.
! Boy-Ed. Two hyphens with a single
thought.-Minneapolis Journal.
When everything gets back to normal,
| oyster stew won't mean oysters two
Roanoke (Va.) World News
After all. it isn't hard to please a
| woman il you can make her decide what
she wants.-Petersburg Va.) Index-Ap-
peal
1t begins to look as If Hoover had
been appointed to keep the cabinet table
from tipping over in Hughes lap.-1n-
| dianapols News.
| Anyway. it will soon be time for the
Sweet Young Thing to pick her bathing
suit out of the moths hollow tooth and
HE her to the bsach.-Nashville Ten
nessean.
Nothing but the feet. says the COM
mon council, can be used in dancing at
Syracuse, n. Y. Now can thew inst
make their feet behave?-Omaha World
Herald.
! Ham and eggs arc beginning to speak
again, when they meet But old warmth
| Of friendship has not returned-Toledo
| Blade
One point that has not vet been
brought out in all its force is that Judge
Lands will also have passes to all ball
games.-Greensboro IN c. News,
Three hundred girls At State CoIlexe,
Pa, weee spectators At boxing bouts the
other night It II 1t stAte College that
several hundred boys are taking the
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