Your vote and how to use it

by Gertrude Foster Brown

FOOTNOTES:

[3] In some counties local arrangements make it difficult for absent owners of property to know when and where taxes are due. Every tax-collector should be obliged to follow the usage of any good business house and mail a bill for taxes.

XII
PUBLIC HIGHWAYS

Road-making has been a function of government since the early ages. The old Roman roads still exist as evidence of the labor and care that were put into them.

Ease of communication, which permits people to journey from home and see what the rest of the world is doing, is a great factor in binding people together, and tends to promote progress.

Good roads are important to every citizen, not only because of the increased use of the automobile, but because they are a vital part of the business life of the country. The farmer needs them to move his crops to market. Without them he may be unable to sell his produce at the time it is most needed and when he could get the best prices for it. The merchant needs them to receive supplies and make deliveries; the manufacturer needs them for the moving of his raw material; the city-dweller needs them so that food may come into city markets. Public highways are the connecting arteries between city and country.

New York State has recognized the need of good roads, and has spent an immense amount of money to secure them. Some years ago a bond issue of $50,000,000 was authorized in the belief that such a large sum of money would put the roads in a condition to meet all requirements for many years.

In 1907 the Legislature approved contracts for 8,300 miles of county highways, believing that the money available would be sufficient. The following year it approved contracts for 3,600 miles of State highways and another bond issue of $50,000,000 was found necessary. Not only had the cost of labor and material greatly increased, but in addition the use of motor-trucks and motor-buses was beginning to put a strain on roads and road-beds which had not been anticipated.

Old roads began to go to pieces rapidly and needed constant repair and often replacing. Even the new roads, where the road-beds were of stone only six inches deep, soon spread and disintegrated under trucks weighing from one to fifteen tons. This use of motor-trucks is increasing, and is necessary for the traffic requirements of the State, but highways are being subject to a strain hitherto unknown, and this strain will increase in both quantity and severity.

How to meet the requirements and maintain and repair roads built for light traffic which are giving way under the new demands, and how to build new roads strong enough to stand up under the strain, are problems the State finds it difficult to meet. New road-beds are now required of stone from nine to twelve inches deep.

Some roads are built by the State, some by the county, and some by the town. In many cases the cost of the work is divided between county and town, or between county and State. The State may help a town build a road, but it can only contribute the same amount or less than the town appropriates.

All material that is used in road-building must be tested in the laboratories maintained by the State Highway Department, and constant experiments are being made to test materials and specifications to find out what will stand the hardest wear.

All roads must be built and repaired under the direction of the State Highway Commissioner, but whether these instructions are carried out often depends on local officials. The public believes that there has been no part of government in New York State more honeycombed with fraud than the one of road-building and maintaining; that specifications have been skimped or ignored, different materials have been substituted from those prescribed, cheaper construction of every kind passed by inspectors, and that the result has been that many roads of the State have cost vast sums of money for which the State is in debt and have not lasted even a few years.

In 1916 the State had a total of 4,027 miles of macadam roads and 5,836 miles of gravel town roads, and more than half of all the improved roads in the State had been constructed within five years. There were 728 patrolmen employed looking after repairs.

The entire cost of bridges is met by the towns with occasional aid from the county. If a State road goes through a village, the same amount is allowed as for the rest of the construction, and if the village wants another kind of a paving or a wider road it must pay the difference in cost. The State Highway Department gives as averages of cost: for macadam roads $10,000 a mile; first-class concrete, $15,000 a mile; and brick paving, $25,000 a mile.

The State highway law provides that all construction must be done by contract. Prison labor is not employed on State and county roads as in some States, but it has been used on roads built by towns.

In spite of the huge appropriations, the State roads are far from complete as planned. Nearly $750,000 will be available in 1918 from the National government as part of New York State’s share in the Federal appropriation for roads.

“Working out” a road tax was never a method which contributed to good roads. The earth roads on which the taxpayer puts his unskilled labor are usually impassable many months of the year.

City Streets: The local government decides where a road or street is needed, and with the consent of a sufficient proportion of the property-owners may purchase or condemn the necessary property. If the owner is not satisfied with the payment offered, appraisers must be appointed to decide the amount that should be paid.

City streets must be maintained by the city government. If a person is injured by the failure of the government to keep sidewalks in repair he has a right to sue the government for damages. The municipal government, on the other hand, may require property-owners to keep their sidewalks in good condition.

Street-cleaning: Since many thousands of children have no playground but the street, the condition in which city streets are kept is of great importance to their health and general welfare. Disease germs are heavy and are most numerous near the ground. If playgrounds could be arranged on the roofs of high buildings the children would be the gainers from the pure air. Unfortunately, the streets in which they play are not usually the ones which are cleaned most frequently by the street-cleaning department. Old and young are disorderly—newspapers, cigarette-butts, and fruit-skins are thrown down anywhere. Streets littered with papers, with dust-laden pieces blowing back and forth, increase the dangers from disease.

Carelessness on the part of the public in throwing things into the streets adds many thousands of dollars to the cost of street-cleaning departments. Every time that a person throws a paper or any object into the street eventually some one else must be paid to pick it up.

Most municipalities have ordinances against littering the streets, but they are often dead letters.

The cleanliness and good order of city streets pay in dollars and cents, in public comfort and convenience, and in a lowered death-rate.

Parks: With the congestion of population that is not confined to New York City or any one part of the State, parks large and small have become a necessity not only for pleasure and beauty, but for the health of the community. In the country people can be out of doors as much as they please, but when families are obliged to live close together, “breathing-places” are of actual physical benefit, especially if they can be green with grass and trees. Communities often awaken to the need of parks too late, after all available places are occupied, when in order to provide the necessary oasis property has to be condemned and often enormous sums of money paid for it.

City Planning: Most of our cities have grown up haphazard without any definite plan of development. As new industries have come in they have brought in large numbers of employees, who have had to be provided with living-places, and a new section of the city has been started. Or a real-estate boom, fostered by some private enterprise, will develop another quarter without consideration for the welfare of the incoming population. As land values advance, in order to squeeze all the profit possible out of this increase, high crowded buildings spring up, planned to house as many people as possible in a restricted area. New York City and many other places are continuing to create new tenement districts in outlying quarters of the city where land is still plentiful.

It is not easy to change congested areas built up in the past, but it is a wrong to coming generations to continue to allow considerations of health and decency to be ignored in the future growth of cities. Haphazard growth has cost the public dearly in actual money values. Unrestricted crowded living conditions have cost still more dearly in the moral and physical vitality of the people who have had to put up with them. These mistakes of the past cannot be remedied, but cities and villages are still growing, and the wise community is now developing a plan in advance for its future growth, which will safeguard public health and welfare, and the convenience as well as the beauty of the city.

The Value of Beauty: Streets and roads do not need to be bare and ugly. Some attention paid to appearance costs very little and is a distinct benefit to the public. Weeds are usually cut down along the roadside, but so, too often, are the trees. When one thinks of the many years it takes for a tree to attain a fine growth, one wonders at the carelessness with which they are sacrificed. A well-shaded road bordered by trees, or a shaded city street, testifies to the intelligence and thrift of the people responsible for them. Such care is apt to be repaid by increased property values.

XIII
COURTS

In the United States there are two classes of courts—State courts and United States or Federal courts. The State courts of each State derive their jurisdiction and powers from the constitution and laws of the State. The United States courts derive their jurisdiction and powers from the Constitution and laws of the United States.

The functions of the courts are to hear and decide criminal and civil cases.

Criminal Cases are prosecutions or proceedings by the State or Federal government to enforce the laws made for the preservation of peace, law, and order in the community, by the imposition of fines, or imprisonment, or the punishment of death, in case of their violation.

Civil Cases are suits or proceedings brought for the enforcement or protection of personal or property rights; as, for example, suits to recover compensation or damages for personal injuries, or the destruction of property, or for breaches of contract, or to recover property wrongfully taken, or to restrain by injunction threatened wrongful acts for which a suit for money damages would not be an adequate remedy.

At the trial of a criminal or civil case, the judge supervises and directs the proceedings, and decides any question of law which may arise. Questions of fact, arising in criminal cases, and in most civil cases, are decided by a jury of twelve qualified citizens drawn from a panel or list; but in certain classes of civil cases the judge decides questions of fact as well as questions of law.

Civil as well as criminal cases must be commenced and carried on in a manner prescribed by law or by rules of the courts. In New York the laws of procedure are commonly believed to be unnecessarily complicated and technical. Innumerable controversies have arisen as to their meaning and effect. They have been amended and supplemented by many statutes, and there is a strong movement among lawyers to secure the adoption of a simpler and more workable system of procedure.

In New York State the courts are of the following classes: Justices of the Peace, or Justices’ Courts, try petty criminal cases involving small thefts, drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and breach of the peace, and certain ordinary civil suits involving sums of not over $200. A person accused of serious crime before a justice of the peace may be held to await action of a grand jury.

In New York City, and in various other cities of the State, the functions of the justices’ courts are performed by courts called Municipal Courts, City Courts, Magistrates or Police Courts, the latter having jurisdiction only over petty criminal cases. The powers and duties, as well as the names of these lower courts, vary in the different cities.

It is most important that honest, sympathetic men should preside over these lower courts, for in them are tried the small offenses which may be due to ignorance of law, and a large number of people come in contact with government in no other way.

Most arrests are for minor offenses such as drunkenness, disorderly conduct, etc. They are tried here, and many of them bring first offenders into court, where the treatment received by the person accused may determine whether he will become a habitual offender or whether he will be set straight. Many foreigners come into these courts, and receive in them their first impression of justice as administered in this country. Oftentimes the offense is committed through ignorance or stupidity. A kind word or a helping hand may make all the difference between a future good citizen or a crook. In these courts, as in the justices courts of the town or village, there is great need of a careful choice of magistrates.

County Courts: In every county except New York there is a county court presided over by the elected county judge. In these county courts may be tried civil suits in which the sum involved is not over $2,000 and all crimes except those punishable by death. They also hear appeals from the justices’ courts. The county courts in Queens, Bronx, Richmond, Kings, Ulster, and Albany counties may try cases involving the death penalty.

Surrogates’ Courts: In each county there is a surrogate court, held by a judge called “the Surrogate,” who is elected by the voters of the county for a term of six years (except in the county of New York). In this court wills are probated, the estates of persons deceased are settled, and guardians for minors and executors or administrators for estates of decedents are appointed. It is evident that a county surrogate should be a man of strictest probity as well as good business sense.

Court of Claims: Any one who has a claim against the State may take it to the Court of Claims, which consists of three judges appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate. Appeals from its decisions may be taken to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court: Above the county courts are the Supreme Courts, which, however, are not really supreme, as their decisions are subject to review, and may be reversed upon appeal by the Appellate Division or the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Courts may try any civil or criminal cases, including prosecutions for murder. There are more than one hundred Supreme Court justices in the State, elected by the voters of the various districts, and the entire State is divided into nine judicial districts, in which certain of these Supreme Court justices sit. In every county, at a certain time, a Supreme Court justice holds a trial court, where both civil and criminal cases are heard before a trial jury. He also holds a special term, where he hears and decides motions and civil cases in which no jury trial is required.

Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court: As judges are human and may make mistakes, the law provides a right of appeal from the court in which a case is tried. The whole State is divided into four judicial departments, in each of which there is an Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. From the Supreme Court justices the governor chooses the justices for the Appellate Divisions. These Appellate Divisions hear appeals from decisions of the county courts and of the Supreme Courts, and they may sit wherever the public interest demands. They do not try cases originally, but only hear appeals.

The Court of Appeals is composed of a chief judge and nine associate judges, but only seven judges sit at one time. This court is the State court of last resort, and it may reverse a decision of an Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. In most cases no appeal lies to the Court of Appeals from a decision of a question of fact by a lower court, but only questions of law can be reviewed; but in criminal cases where the sentence is death the entire case may be reviewed.

Courts of Record are those courts that have an official seal and keep an official record of all proceedings. The Surrogate’s Court, the County Court, the Supreme Court and its appellate divisions, and the Court of Appeals are courts of record. Justices’ Courts and Magistrates’ Courts are not courts of record.

Federal Courts: The jurisdiction of the United States or Federal courts extends to all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, to all cases affecting ambassadors and other public ministers and consuls, to admiralty and maritime cases, and to controversies between States or between citizens of different States. Federal courts are organized in a similar way to State courts.

The United States District Courts hear, in the first instance, all classes of cases over which the United States courts have jurisdiction, except the cases mentioned below. The entire country is divided into ninety judicial districts, and each State has at least one district.

The United States Court of Claims, which is located in Washington, has jurisdiction over claims against the United States government.

The Circuit Court of Appeals is an appellate court by which decisions of the United States district courts may be reviewed.

The United States Supreme Court is the highest tribunal in the land. In cases affecting ambassadors and consuls, and those to which the State is a party, the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction. Other cases can come before it only upon an appeal, or writ of error, to review a decision of a lower United States court or a decision of the highest State court involving a question of Federal law. There is a chief justice and eight associate justices of the Supreme Court, who are appointed for life. To be a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is considered one of the highest honors in the land.

The judges of all the Federal courts are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate.

Constitutionality of the Law: One important power which the courts have is to interpret the meaning of the Constitution and laws, but they have no power to do so except so far as necessary to the disposal of cases before them.

The constitution of the State is its fundamental law, as that of the United States (together with the laws made by Congress under it and treaties made by the United States) is the supreme law of the entire United States. A question may arise as to the precise meaning and scope of a constitutional provision. In this case the court may interpret its meaning, and may declare void a law because in violation of the constitution.

An Injunction is an order or decree issued by a court, restraining some person or persons or corporation from performing certain acts, on the ground that such acts would cause an injury or loss, for which a suit to recover money damages would not furnish adequate redress. A temporary injunction, or restraining order, may be issued upon affidavits, in advance of the final trial of a case, when it may either be dissolved or be made permanent. An injunction may also command the performance of some act. In such cases it is called a mandatory injunction. If an injunction is violated, the person disobeying can be arrested and sent to jail or fined “for contempt of court” without trial by jury. Many efforts have been made to limit this power of the courts. In Oklahoma, the law provides for jury trial in case of contempt of court for violation of an injunction.

Judges are elected for a longer term of years than are other public officials. County judges have a six-year term. Supreme Court justices and judges of the Court of Appeals are elected for a term of fourteen years. The reason for the longer term of service is that the increased experience is supposed to make a judge more valuable to the State; also, on account of the long term, he is supposed to be less affected by political considerations.

Whether judges should be appointed or elected has been a matter of considerable controversy. It is argued that if they are appointed, the appointment may be a reward for political service instead of because of fitness for the position. On the other hand, if judges are elected, it is objected that they must take part in political contests, and are apt to give decisions more with regard to popular favor than to actual justice. Many persons think that in practice better judges are obtained by appointment than by popular election. State judges are usually elected, but the Federal judges are appointed.

The election of proper men for the position of judge is one of the most important duties of an electorate. Whether the process of the law insures justice and increases public security depends often more on the judge than on the letter of the law. Decisions involving the happiness, rights, and lives of countless people go through the courts of the State. These decisions should not be in the hands of men to whom the office has been given as a reward for party service, or who have been put in the position by prejudiced interests. A wise, intelligent, public-spirited judge has enormous opportunity to add to the sum of public welfare.

XIV
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME

A crime is an offense against the people of the State. Also every action that is brought before a court costs the State money and adds to the burden of taxation borne by the people.

A free government carefully guards the rights of an accused person. He must be told of the charges against him and be given every chance to answer them. He is presumed by the law to be innocent until he is proved guilty, and is not obliged to answer any questions that may incriminate himself. He may be examined at once by a magistrate, or, if he prefers, may be committed to jail to await a future examination. If held for any except the most serious crime he may be allowed his liberty by some one “giving bail”—that is, giving a pledge of money or property to insure his appearance in court at a certain date. If he “jumps his bail” the money is forfeited to the State, although that does not protect him if he can be found. If the charge of which he is accused is a serious one, it must come before a grand jury.

The Grand Jury is a body of men chosen from the taxpayers of a county to inquire into alleged crimes during a particular term of court. The supervisors or the commissioner of jurors makes out a list of three hundred names of men of integrity and sound judgment, from which the names of twenty-four men are drawn by lot.[B] From sixteen to twenty-three of these men sit in secret session, and hear the presentment of a case, and decide by a vote of at least twelve members whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant holding the accused for trial.

The necessity of a case coming before the grand jury often causes much delay in a trial, as the jury can only be called when court is in session, and there are often long periods of time between courts. On the other hand, the fact that the grand jury is made up of a man’s neighbors and friends, who would be disposed to give him fair treatment, is a safeguard to his interests. If “a true bill” is found, the accused person comes before the court and the charge against him is read to him. If he pleads guilty the judge imposes a sentence. If he pleads “not guilty” the trial proceeds.

If the accused has no lawyer, the court must appoint one for him. While a man so appointed must defend the case, the best lawyers are not secured in this way. There has been considerable demand for the creation of the office of public defender for accused persons. The State employs public prosecutors, and it is argued that it should be as much interested in proving a man’s innocence as in proving his guilt.

Trial by Jury is a right guaranteed by the constitutions of both the State and the nation. A trial jury is composed of twelve men chosen from a list of qualified men in the county where the crime is committed, or is being tried. After the evidence in the case has been presented and the judge makes his charge as to the law applicable to the case, the jury retires to a secret session, where they are kept in confinement until they reach a unanimous verdict. In England it requires only a majority of the jury to render a verdict.

Jury Service is one of the important duties of a citizen. It is not required of certain classes of men—viz., clergymen, physicians, druggists, lawyers, and newspaper-men, among others—and judges have the power to excuse men on whom jury service would entail special hardship. Jurors are paid a small sum by the day, and to many men jury service means serious inconvenience and financial loss. But to leave the settlement of cases which involve the serious welfare of both individuals and the public, to professional jurors, the hangers-on of a court-room, is a great wrong to the community.

Women Jurors[C] have not yet been permitted in New York State, although in some Western States they have served with much success. There are certain cases involving young girls and children where it would seem that only women should be allowed on the jury. Cases of murder committed by a woman might be treated with more impartial justice if women served on such juries. Sentimental considerations would not influence them as they do some men in such cases.

The Police: Much of the public welfare and safety of a city depends on its police force. A modern police is organized on a military basis. The men hold their positions for life or during good behavior. Promotions are based on merit, and pensions are paid men who have served a certain term of years. This plan has improved conditions by taking the police out of politics to a large degree. The policy of the head of the department is of the greatest importance to the public. The temptations for graft and corruption in a police department are enormous, but the assurance of a square deal all up and down the line, strict orders to uphold the law, and a well-defined policy against graft of every description, will do wonders to keep a department honest and efficient.

In recent years the plan has been developed of making the police helpful in many ways in the life of the city. The uniformed officer has many opportunities to help and direct children, especially the boys on the streets, to prevent violations of the city’s ordinances, the littering of the streets, and in many ways to prevent before the act, rather than to arrest after it has been committed.

This helpful spirit has been adopted by the police of New York City, to the great good of the city. It is exemplified in the Christmas trees in the station-houses for the poorer children of a neighborhood at Christmas-time.

Prison Reform: Modern government is learning not to avenge itself on a criminal, but to impose a sentence which will tend to reform him. Instead of sentencing a person to a definite term of imprisonment, an indeterminate sentence may be given him, the length of which will be determined by his behavior, and by the promise he may show of leading a better life if set free. If he is released he may be put on probation. This means that he is required to report at regular intervals to the court, or to a probation officer, to show that his conduct is law-abiding. If he goes wrong again, he is remanded to serve out his sentence.

Men and women, wherever confined, must be given employment. Idleness is bad for even an educated person. Imposed on one who has no resources within himself, it becomes a source of demoralization scarcely to be measured. The old custom was to hire prisoners out to contractors at low wages. This brought goods manufactured by prison labor into unfair competition with honest labor.

The modern idea is to teach the prisoner a useful occupation and to pay the wages to his family. It is not common-sense to support a man in prison at the expense of the State, and to allow his family to suffer from having his support taken away from them.

Probation: First offenders, or persons committing minor offenses, are often put at once on probation, with the sentence suspended during good behavior. This has proved of great value in saving many from a criminal career. It is far less costly to the State than keeping them in prison, and often leads to the establishment of an honest life.[4]

Jails and Prisons: Every community has some kind of jail for the detention of offenders. Those who come in contact with the law are often the poor and the friendless who cannot get bail. Even innocent persons may be held some time awaiting trial, or the action of the grand jury. Young girls are often detained, sometimes as witnesses, sometimes pending investigation of their own cases, sometimes as runaways from home. In such a case there is no place of detention but the local jail. These jails are often filthy and unsanitary, unfit for human habitation. Their surroundings, and the character of the sheriff or constable, and jail officials, must inevitably have an effect on the prisoners, especially on the younger women. It is most important to the community that a woman shall not be sent out from jail a more hardened criminal because of her confinement there. It is a wrong, the responsibility for which every woman in the neighborhood must share, that there is no better place of detention for young girls. Women matrons in all prisons where women are held and women probation officers are now recognized as essential.

It is unintelligent to allow a man to leave jail penniless far from his home and friends, to become a tramp or to be tempted to a new offense to get money. The modern ideal of criminology is that his stay in prison should teach a man an honest way of earning his living; also that he should be given some supervision after he has left the prison doors, to help him to lead an honest life.

City Farms for the detention of offenders are a great improvement on indoor prisons, and the open-air occupation both saves the State money and is beneficial to the prisoner.

The Prevention of Crime: If as much money and organized effort could be put on the prevention of crime as is given to its punishment, the need of jails and prisons would be greatly lessened. The chief causes of crime are drunkenness, feeble-mindedness, overcrowded living conditions, low wages, and insufficient education and recreation. Drunkenness is now known to be a disease; feeble-minded persons should not be allowed freedom of action; the State may prevent congested living, it may establish a living wage, and it has the power to provide proper vocational training and sufficient facilities for healthful recreation. It tries to separate the young offenders from the older ones, and the first offenders from the hardened ones. It has not succeeded very well in preventing inequalities before the law. The rich man has the advantage of being able to employ the most skilful lawyers and to appeal his case to court after court and drag it out over a number of years. When a fine is imposed he can pay it and so sometimes escape punishment. The poor man may have to go to jail because he cannot pay his fine and he is often unable to fight a suit.

To lessen the hardships and secure equality of treatment for all alike should be the endeavor of the State.