Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society from Brooklyn, New York • Page 8

8 BROOKLYN LIFE As Seen by Herbert Henshaw Making Carnivals of Criminal Trials It is only human nature that even intelligent persons should be interested in a murder trial like that which opened on Monday in the Queens County Court House in Long Island City before Justice Townsend Scudder, and we are not among those who believe that the newspapers ought not, or should not be permitted, to publish in full the testimony in such cases, but we must confess we do not see why the courts should lend themselves to the exploitation of crime by the sensational press and virtually 'assist in converting into a garish vulgar show so grave a thing as a human being charged with an atrocious crime struggling in the meshes of the law to escape the legal penalty. Yet we read in the Sunday newspapers that "the stage had been set for the trial of Henry Judd Gray and Mrs. Ruth Brown Snyder," and there was diagram as well as a description of the setting, from both of which the inference was inescapable that everything else had been made secondary and subordinate to publicity, and that no stone had been left unturned to provide the tabloids with facilities to play up the brutal murder of the unfortunate art editor of Motor Boating, who was foolish to marry a girl who, according to the World, "was born for the Boulevards," and then take his life in his hands by providing her with a bungalow in Queens Village. More than half the seating accommodation in the court house was set aside for. newspaper writers and illustrators.

That proper provision should be made for bona fide newspaper reporters is only reasonable. Forty or fifty, however, could certainly cover the case fully for the daily press of the country. Why seats should be provided for so-called special feature writers employed for no other purpose than to turn out psycho-analytical mush, pseudo-philosophical piffle and pious prune juice for the delectation of morons is more than we can understand. Feature Story Flubdub This case has a legitimate interest for intelligent persons only because of the difficulty of reconciling so abominable and brutal a crime with persons so representative of ostensibly respectable middle class mediocrity as the defendants. But what qualifications has, for example, the Rev.

J. Roach Straton, hired by some paper to do the trial, to throw any light on this point. would as soon read what Babe Ruth, Suzanne Lenglen, Izzy Einstein, the Smith Brothers, of cough drop celebrity, Uldine Utley or Heinz, the pickle man, think about it. Will Durant, who has gotten into the limelight with "The Story of Philosophy," may perhaps be better qualified to write the story of the Queens Village murder than Heinz, the pickle man, or Roy A. Haynes, the Dry Czar, but it does not enhance our estimation of him as a philosopher that he has been willing to sell his services to the Telegram for such a purpose.

The Telegram, however, assures the public in full page advertisements that it has engaged "an outstanding scholar to write his views of the Snyder murder case." "There will be no Sob Sister gush in what Durant writes no palaver about extraneous matter that dever criminal lawyers are wont to parade before tender hearted juries. But there will be plenty of food for thought, offered consumption by those who have not lost the of thinking," "You will want to read these Durant articles. They, will be a welcome relief from the fiub-dubbery so long in- dulged in. everything that we could not get on a single jury of any kind barring one to assess damages in an automobile accident case, with which exception we spent ten days kicking our heels in court rooms. The first case for which we were called was a Dago murder case about which we confessed to total ignorance.

We had to admit that, we had no prejudice against capital punishment and that we could render a verdict in absolute disinterested accordance with the evidence presented. We began to fear we were going to be accepted, when all of a sudden the attorney for the defense asked us if we knew anybody in the District Attorney's office. We were compelled to say that we did not, but suddenly the happy thought occurred to us to add that we knew Judge Cropsey, the former District Attorney, quite well. "Challenged shouted the defense attorney, and the Judge turned to us and said "I am awfully sorry to be compelled to excuse you, for you are just the kind of man who ought to serve on a to which we replied: "Well, it is certainly a privilege to be able to claim the acquaintance of Judge Cropsey." It is very difficult to understand why anything more should be required of a juryman than the admission that he can render a wholly unprejudiced verdict on the evidence, unless the purpose of the peremptory challenge is actually to encourage the selection of weak minded emotional jurymen likely to be influenced by empty rhetoric and sentimental sophistries. Slip Shod Legislation That the legislature of New jersey should be in a quandary over the fact that a proposed amendment to the State Constitution which it has twice passed, and which is to be submitted to the people at a special election in September, calls for.

two elections of state legislatures a year instead of one every two years, as the drafters intended it should and the legislators who voted for it thought it did, can hardly be called no laughing matter. It seems to us laughable in the extreme, and yet it serves to emphasize the slap dash, haphazard way in which the industry of manufacturing laws is carried on in this country today. It seems to be a case of quantity production minus standardization. Not only are we the most law ridden people in the world, but whether because our legislators are unable to express themselves intelligibly in the English language, or the demand for new laws is so urgent that they have no time to put them into intelligible language, no people is so dependent ippn its courts for information as to what its laws mean, if anything. The present embarrassment of the New Jersey Legislature is due to the fact that the drafters of the proposed amendment used the word "biannual" instead of "biennial," It is now confronted with the grave question whether to correct the error which would make it necessary to do the thing all over again, or let it go at "biannual," in the hope that the people have, confidence enough in the courts to believe that they will riot insist upon taking the legislators at their word and forcing them to hold state elections twice every year instead of once in every two years.

If, however, we were a New Jersey voter, our respect for the integrity of the language would suffice to us voting for any such interpretation, and if we were; a judge the, same; respect wpuld cprstrain to decide that a law must be construe td; mean what, it. says and nothing else, and Ifhatj ifj legislators do not say what they mean teymuitakejthje ii 1 The fact that so crass a blunder as this could pass two legislatures before being detected seems to us a curious commentary on the intelligence of New Jersey's law making body. Oh, no, the Telegram cannot afford to overlook that large and influential part of the public which has lost the "art of thinking." The Durant articles may, to be sure, be a relief from the flub-dubbery so long indulged in, but "they are not the only treat offered to New York Telegram readers." No one who has lost the art of thinking and revels in flubdubbery need turn from the Telegram to the tabloids to satisfy his or her craving for morbidity. As an antidote to the metaphysical ratiocinations of the great philosopher, Durant, the same paper will publish the intuitions of Maurine "the brilliant creator of 'Chicago' now appearing at the Music Box," and the reactions of Jane Dixon, who did such wonders in the way of flubdub in the 'Hall-Mills case that she rendered herself clearly liable to prosecution for criminal libel. To be specific she manifested such virulent personal animosity against JMrs.

Hall that she deliberately pronounced her guilty not only in advance of the verdict, but even of the testimony. It was lucky for her that she was so far surpassed by the Daily Mirror that she was able to get away with the vicious libels she wrote without involving the' Telegram in a 'suit for libel. We are not condemning" the Telegram or any other newspaper for playing up sensational murder cases by hiring celebrities or notorieties to write up stories. It is good business if it sells. the papers, but let the papers as well as the celebrities be honest about it.

Let the papers admit that they are not doing it for any high moral or educational purpose, but for the purpose of increasing their sales by providing the people with the kind of stuff they eat up, and let the feature writers, whether parsons, philosophers, novelists, prize fighters, or what not, admit that they are doing it for money, which is all they are doing it for. We do not think that what Mr. Durant, the Rev. Straton, Walter Lister, W. E.

Woodward or the Marquis of Queensbury are going to write about the Snyder murder case is going to do anybody any particular harm, but we do not see how it is going to do anyone any particular good. Least of all do we see why the courts should co-operate with the press to play up a vulgar, sordid murder case to an extent wholly incommensurate with its importance and. tp the exclusion or subordination of news "frt more vital concern. Indeed, the feature stories so-called are not news at all. All the news about the case will be found in the columns reporting the testimony.

The rest will be flubdub of one kind or another. On Selecting Juries The fact that a panel of upward of fifty talesmen was exhausted before anyone stupid enough to qualify as a juryman in the Snyder murder trial could be found calls attention again not only to the absurdity of a system permitting peremptory challenges, but to the unnecessary waste of time and money in drafting persons with human intelligence for jury duty only to disqualify them for reading the newspapers and forming opinions about what they read, when all this time as well as expense could be saved by selecting twelve good men and true from some institution for the feeble minded. We are glad to' say we never had serve on a jury in, a criminal; casnpt pecause we; should not enjoy it, but we would hatejto have to admit being able to qualify, which would seem tantamount to admitting that we had at least given to the legal talent the impression of being mentally In fact we were never called to perform jury duty of any kind but once, and the truth is we were so knowing and had so many opinions about Well, is more uian one Kinu oi nuu-ubbery a'd if' are going to' be so satisfying and illuminating, to those "who have not lost the art of thinking," why does the Telegram not rest content with Durant's philosophical speculations, plus detailed reports of the trial, by members of its reportorial staff?.