Evening star., 1929-06-25
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

As we are approaching our Inde-
penderice day, 1t is o. special interest," 70
discover that so much of our American
evils In law enforcement Is due TO con-
ditions in England existing at the time
we broke bonds with her. In the CEN
tury and half since then, England has
overcome most of her defects in court
nrocedlIre. while America has remained,
to a large degree, obsessed with rever-
ence for the customs and procedures
inherited from the mother country. So
our courts are notoriouSly denclenC In
sitting justice from injustice or nom
This statement win astonish the AM
glophobic, wfo in his prejudice against
everything English, has convinced him.
self that we had not only cut loose from
caily improved upon everything Eng
lish. But it cannot surprise our law
yers and judges, whose principal stock
in trade is the inheritance OF quibbles
and technicalities and circumlocutions
| invented for the express purpose OF de-
| feating statutory law and common Jus-
| tiee.
There was good reason for the COM
spiracy," as described by Judge Martin
Kavanagh In his book, THE Criminal
and His Allies" for the rebellion OF Eng
lands courts against the tyranny ot
royal laws of the middle of the eight
eenth century, when. says Judge Kava-
nagh. "Above all other subterfuges Tor
defeating the law. the judges themselves
and the lawyers invented for that pur-
nose a thousand technicalities by which
the guilty might escape their legal
DOOM"
So severe was the system of penalties
that, according to Lord Bowen, in his
essay, Progress in the AdmniStraIio
of Justice" in 1888, "a poor little boy
of 9. who had pushed stick through q
broken window and pulled out some
nainter's colors, worth pence, was sem
fenced to death for burglary"
Common sense and humaneneSS re-
acted against such extremes OF the stat
utory law, and the judges and lawyers
formed 3 spontaneous conspiracy 70
overcome the crisis by bubbles for the
rescue of the technically guilty. and
Blind Justice became an adept at the
learned the quibbles and forgot the
fundamentals of justice.
The work Of amending England's
criminal code of procedure began in
1851: that of amending Americas code
has lust now begun through President
Hooyer's national committee on law
observance and enforcement. 1t Is
noteworthy that the title OF this COM
mittee recognizes that the problem is
two-headed-"Law Observance" has
reference to public sentiment, which Is
the obligation Of all citizens, and EN-
forcemerit'' refers only to the courts
and executive officers, including police
and attorneys, since all practicing at
torneys are sworn officers OF the courts
and their duty is enforcement of law,
not uuibbling and fencing for the de-
feat of Justice even though paid by the
party to the case. .
The committee has q broader task
than that Of considering merely the
the committee: 'The American people
are deeply concerned over the alarming
disohedience of law, the abuses of law
enforcement and the growth of organ
ized crime, which has spread In every
field of evil-doing and in every part OF
the country" This, he added, is not
a problem confined to the enforcement
and obedience Of one law"
II Is recognized that the situation Is
extremely difnculC 10 reacn, since the
LAWYERS profit by the very evils that
cry to Heaven for correction. Will ordi-
nary lawyers move to abolish quibbles?
why, it is quibbles which give them
their livelihood---as well as overcrowd
the dockets of all courts and cause the
! throttling of plain justice and the
escape Of criminals, as is testified by
Judge Edward j. Henning in his offi-
cial report to the United States De-
partment of Justice in 1927. He re-
| ported:
.Most of the rules Of practice, the
rules governing the operation of the
courts, which we imported from Eng
land, were based upon conditions ex-
isting in that country several centuries
ago. They were intended TO protect
the individual against autocratic and
tyrannical governments. The principal
changes in the British system of court
procedure have come In the last quar-
ter of century. These English re-
forms were the result of more than
half century Of agitation and tenta-
tive legislation, and it is to be noted