The Cordova daily times., 1923-04-13
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LAW AND THE COURTS

make the law popular with the people. To do this, 1t is intent upon the passage of such legislation as it proposes to liberate the courts from the bondage of the legislative arm of the government as England did in 1876.
 1t Is out also to bring the press to carry to the people more in detail and more fully and intelligently the work of the courts and the general process of the administration of the law. It is to be supposed that the bar associa- tion has been noticing that the courts are coming to be not exactly the most thoroughly respected agencies of the public service Pub lie confidence must be restored and in order to restore confidence, the light of understand ing must be permitted to shine in and the public must be allowed to see, to understand, the workings of the hitherto mysterious ma chinery.
 ''The legal atmosphere of America con- notes dusty tones and deliberate reasoning by trained minds upon technical subjects' says Thomas w. Shelton in the American Bar As sociaton Journal, Gin which no place is found for the ayman, the only actor with an inter- lest. Additionally, the administration of jus tice in America is costered. The sensational alone concerning the courts, finds a place in the popular press"
 The bar association has a broad field in which to work. The ayman is confused and ,disgustcd by the intrlcacies of the courts and the red tape and the uncertainty and the de- lays. All this has weakened his faith in the criminal law and it has bolstered up the nerve Iof the would-be criminal. It has left the or dinary citizen suspicious of the efficacy of the supervision of his property rights and his so- |cial rights.
 The language of the law and the courts has much to do with it. There is too much of nisi |prius amicus curiae bills of attander, habeas Icorpus, capias, qua warranto, fee simple, fee tail, conveyances, and all the hundreds of other unintelliglble verbiage and nomencla- ture which this writer cannot now even re- member though he has seen hundreds moro of them time without number.
 It is too easy, as it appears to the layman, to obtain writs of one g ind and another, to file peadings of hundred kinds and more. back and forth, with an appearance of hocus pocus and horse-play that make the man who takes the rabbits and toothbrushes and eggs and paper ribbons out of your perfectly good hat look like a cheap country carnival faklr For years and years it appears important bus mess may be dragged out, important decisions held in easy unhurried suspense, while these motions are gone through, nobody knowing what for.
 It may be that these are all very good and careful safeguards of the justice of the courts. It may be that they are checks and balances always ready for the unusual case where the facts are not what they seem and where jus tce lies down deep. But the English courts had them and Dickens wrote in "Bleak House" all about the famous case of Jarndyce vs .Jarndyce and somehow or another the British courts got rid of them and there IS, judging from appearance, just as much if not more justice.
 And there is more respect for the courts. It is not contended there as here that such measures as our own inderterminate sentence law are evils because it is poor policy to show mercy wh en it is so hard to get criminal into the pen because of difficulty in obtain ing convictions before the courts.
 Possibly all judges are not and cannot be Solomons but is does no harm to have the am- bition, at least. If Solomon had been working under the restrictions that bind the courts to- day he could not so signally have manifested his wisdom in the administration of justice.
 Ordinary layman, representing cross-sec- tion of the general public, make the laws. There can't be any more in them, actually, than they put in. There being no more in them, the courts and the lawyers can't take any more out, unless there is slei ght- of hand somewhere. The rabbits and the eggs and the mouse trars had to be somewhere before the magician got the hat.