The Washington times., 1924-12-23
With The
Abb Artists.
"A Cross Section Of the
Daily Grind in Judge
Schuldt's Court
Read EN- and Weep.
By DONALD NIacDOUGAL


Abe KabibbIe, Chairman.
Somehow. Congressman Zihl-
mans proposition to solve Wash
iEEton's traffic court difficulty by
making the judges work longer
hours, reminds us of Abe IA
bibles purchase OF the Buy-jow
Teaytcr. Able got the layout dit
cheap, because the owners had
discor2red a genius in the or
ei1estra-a violinist; who, with
proper training and advertising
could show up Ritz KreisIer. Every
thing went TO Abe as is, except
the genius, who was paroled in
the custody of his new managers.
The papers were signed at 2
o'clock, and 2:07a Able took physi-
cal possession OF his property.
just as the new-hatched wizard
arose 10 render his last-but.two
farewell solo.
Able was positively sick to see
eight or ten men in the orchestra,
loaftng and whispering to one
another on the sly while one man
was doing all the work.
You tell them lazy buns to
get to work, Able ordered the
manager. and If / ever catch
EN- loafing like that again Ill
fire EN- all. Amt they got no
conscience? This teayter is mine.
now, and they gotta do some
things to earn their m6neh." Ii
Able ever gets elected to Con
gress, he sure will feel at home
on the District Committee.
We offer this suggestion to Mr..
Hershfield, on a 10 per cent com
mission basis-a series of
sketches showing Abe in Com
gress. where his peculiar talents
could be exhibited without fear
OF overdrawing. As an ordinary
business man, Abie's sayings and
doings seem exaggerated at times,
nut as q member of the District
committee he fits like scah.
We can't very well imagine the
Complex agent ordering the or-
chestra to get busy while the
soloist is doing his stuff, but we
can very easily imagine Congress
trying to save a few dollars by
increasing the length Of the court
day.
washington. wastes about forty
hours, or five working days, OF
police time daily because we have
no separate traffic court, and cop
witnesses must hang around until
III O'Clock to learn whether their
cases are going TO be tried or not.
large share of this wasted time
comes out of the cops hide, so
under the economy rule, that
can be advanced as an argu-
ment against the system. But
there's lots of witnesses besides
cop In many cases-business men,
Government clerks. street-car
crews. etc, and the hooks will 20
into them pretty deep if the
longer court day proposition goes
through. because witnesses mlst
be kept in court until their cases
come up, and the longer the court
DAY, the longer will be the aver
age wait.
BY this cheese-paring arrange
ment, Congress will save a few
pennies in judges salaries. and
vast a good many dollars in DO
lice time. Those dollars will. Of
course. come out of the pockets of
the taxpayers. in the form of
higher rates or reduced police
protection Officers can't be in
court and out on their beats al
the same time.
A good many of us are going to
be stung twice-once in money
when We pay our taxes, and
again in time. when we get a
summons to testify about some
accident we couldn't help seeing.
and wait four or five hours for
the case to come up after we get
to court.
It the expense of a thing is
any indication of its value, this
kabibble economy must be about
the best in the world. But we
could worry along with something
not quite so fancy. and spend the
difference on street lights or bet
ter school buildings. Especially
school buildings. Some of Wash
ington's younger generation may
BECOME Congressman a few years
from now. and be assigned to
the District Committee