A New Job

New York, 1895

Sprung by Vacheron and Boss Youngs.

PLUNDER OF TAX-PAYERS.

To Pay $10,000 a Year for What Now Costs $96.

CHANCES FOR POLITICAL HEELERS.

A Gold Mine for Some One's Enrichment.

ONE MAN POWER.

Ten Thousand Dollars a Year would be Added to the Expense of the Courts in the County — Supervisors Shorn of Power and Compelled to Fix Fees and Pay Bills — Unheard of Powers Conferred Upon an Individual — A Way to Build Up a Great Political Machine and Pervert Justice — All the Citizens of the County Placed at the Mercy of One Man — Personal Liberty and Property Rights Assailed.

Editorially and in the Albany news column some attention is given to a bill introduced in the Assembly by Mr. Vacheron, and Boss Youngs is alleged to be the father of it. We have secured a copy of the bill, in spite of Mr. Vacheron and Boss Youngs, and we do not believe that it will have the support of a single citizen of the county outside of the politicians who hope in some way to get profit out of it. The act proposes to establish a Commissioner of Jurors for this county, and was introduced by Mr. Vacheron on April 3, and kept a secret as much as possible, the Jamaica Standard being a party to the concealment.

The first section of the act appoints the County Judge, District Attorney and Sheriff a board to appoint a commissioner of jurors, who shall serve for five years. Two votes control the appointment — a fine chance for a combination between the Sheriff and District Attorney, to begin with.

The fourth section of the act fixes the commissioner's compensation at $3,000 a year.

Right here the taxpayers begin to be interested. Under the present law the County Clerk, Sheriff and County Judge draw the jurors for the courts of record. The fees are as follows: County Clerk, $2; Sheriff, for serving notices on jurors, $10; County Judge, nothing, he being a salaried officer. The cost of drawing and serving jurors for each term of court is therefore $12, and eight juries being drawn each year, the total cost is $96.

Vacheron and Boss Youngs, by this bill, propose to increase the cost of juries about $10,000 each year. It would be a robbery of the tax-payers.

Section five makes the board of Supervisors provide an office for the commissioner, furnish it, and supply books, blanks and stationery at a probable cost of $1,000 a year.

Section six compels the Supervisor of each town to file with the commissioner a list of names of all persons liable to jury duty. Then the Commissioner is authorized to select from these lists any names he sees fit. There is no appeal from his action.

Section 7 gives the commissioner power to hear evidence as to the right of citizens to exemption from jury duty, in the same manner as a judge of a court of record, and if the commissioner decides to grant exemption, his decision is final.

This power has hitherto been exercised by judges. To a commissioner who was a money maker a rich field would open up, for hundreds of persons would pay liberally to get on the "exempt" list.

It is made a crime by section eight for any person to refuse to answer the Commissioner's questions, and he may be sent to jail.

Section 9 gives the Commissioner the arbitrary power to summon all persons before him, and any person who fails to respond to the summons is guilty of a crime. A process server is to be appointed by the Commissioner, and paid by the county, and $1,000 is a reasonable sum to set apart for the man who gets this job.

Under section 11, the Commissioner alone makes a selection of the names to be put in the jury box.

This would make it easy to get a packed jury if one were wanted for political purposes.

Section 20 empowers the sitting judge to impose a fine of $25 on any person who fails to respond to the summons to do jury duty. Now note the remarkable thing that follows:

Section 22 empowers the Commissioner either to remit or confirm the fine, thereby making the commissioner an appellate judge.

A bonanza might be worked up under this section, for a man who had been fined $25 in court would gladly pay $10 to have the fine remitted by the Commissioner. This is one of the features that the politicians would expect to pan out handsomely and furnish boodle for campaign work.

Under section 23, if the Commissioner confirm the fine, he has all the power of the Sheriff to enforce the collection by execution.

Under section 24, the fine is entered on the judgment roll in the County Clerk's office and becomes a lien on the man's real estate or personal property, and the Commissioner can seize a man's house and sell it, or seize and sell his horses, or any other thing. That is pretty tough. There is no appeal.

Section 31 puts the Commissioner in the places of the County Clerk and Sheriff in striking special juries.

As a means of political torture or political favor this could be made to do its work with anarchistic brutality or subtle corruptness. It would be easy to convict an enemy or save a friend.

Section 32 provides that the commissioner shall keep a register and enter therein the names of all persons who are granted exemptions from jury duty.

Section 33 contains a clever joker. No person can get his name on the "exempt" register unless he pays a fee of 25 cents for entering his name, and 50 cents more for a certificate of exemption.

Section 34 works up more fees. It is provided that the Commissioner shall receive the same fees allowed to clerks of courts for orders or copies of any proceeding had before him.

Section 36 provides for soaking the taxpayers. It reads as follows:

"§ 36. The board of Supervisors shall allow the Commissioner's assistant officers for the services required of them under this act, such compensation for their services as the said board shall deem reasonable and proper in addition to the compensation now allowed by law."

The Commissioner can appoint a hundred assistant officers, and no one can object. It is here that the political heelers would come in, and it cannot be doubted that the men who have the gall to propose this bill would be liberal in the bestowal of patronage for political effect, if they had the say.

It is a monstrous bill and should be defeated, not alone because it would entail an annual expenditure of about $10,000 in place of $96, but because of the arbitrary and oppressive power which it bestows upon one man.

The commissioner can summon any citizen before him and examine him as to his qualifications. He can question the citizen about his private or business affairs, and if the citizen refuses to answer he is guilty of a crime and may be committed to jail until he does answer. As an instrument of political torture nothing like this was ever heard of.

The office is not needed in this county. Creating offices for political profit and political uses is an abuse of the public welfare.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 12, 1895, p. 1.