One of the best charges that has ever been made to a grand jury and the people generally in this county was made this morning by Judge W. A. Devin of Granville County, who stated during the course of his remarks that it had been five years since he held court in the good county of Wilson and that he was pleased to be back here again.
Judge Bardin has informed his Honor that there were 245 cases on the criminal docket, and this fact he made the subject of his remarks. He said that several years ago in this county 100 cases would have been a large number, but there were over 200 at the present time, and there were also a large number on the Charlotte and other dockets.
Opening his remarks with the observation that this is Labor Day and that no man had more respect for the workingman than he, he felt that the best way to observe the day was to do a good day’s work in court, especially since the docket showed there was a demand for the expeditious handling of as much business as possible.
While going over the various cases and giving description of the way the grand jury should handle cases for presentation to the court, he said that he felt it was his duty to impress upon every citizen the necessity for obedience to law and to use their influence to enforce it. It is the patriotic duty of every man to do this, especially in this country which is a democracy where every man is a sovereign, and the conduct of every man exerts its influence upon that of others. Men go to war to protect their country and we laud them for their patriotism and chronicle their deeds of valor. Then why should we not also honor the man who strives in civil life to uphold the government and its institutions, he asked. He wanted everyone to feel that way about it, and that is the spirit that must be engendered in the heart of every man if we shall preserve our country, its freedom and its laws, that each and every citizen may enjoy that freedom and protection that a law by all the people guarantees.
Discussing the cause of crime, it is strange and almost beyond comprehension. Some people are opposed to capital punishment, but he did not thing that society had advanced to that condition when we should cause one to feel that he could commit murder and not suffer the penalties that the law imposed. He believed not so much in the severity of the punishment but in the certainty of punishment, and said that when that had been guaranteed, that crime had diminished, and illustrated this by saying that during the French revolution when silver and gold had flown from the country and the government had issued a great deal of paper money, and it was worthless, a law was passed which required the people to use the money as legal tender under pain of death, and they did so, and soon it was at a parity with gold.
It is the same way with other infractions of the law. If a man knew that he would receive and suffer the full penalty of the law when he committed a crime, he would hesitate a long time before he did so.
However, the cause of crime is a mystery, and there is much speculation over it. There are different minds, and different impressions are left in a different way on different minds. Some say that the courts are responsible for crime because they do not punish more quickly. Others say that the home is responsible for crime on account of the way children are raised. However that may be, we noticed that the bob-haired girl a young woman in New York who was responsible for robberies, was born on the east side, and never went to school or church, and never had a chance. But on the other hand, the two young men who killed young Franks had graduated at the universities and were raised in the lap of luxury and in the home of wealthy families. They committed murder in order to feel the thrill and see if they could get away with it.
Eighty per cent of the crimes, he said, are committed by young people under 25 years of age.
Speaking of prohibition, he said that it mattered not what our opinions are, that it is the law, and that he felt that those who could take a drink and not get drunk and drink moderately owed it to their weaker brother to help him get it away from him and also strengthen him in obedience to the law. It all the people would obey the law Judge Devin said there would be a great change in the moral and the conduct of the people in a short while, and the country would make wonderful strides along all lines.
From the front page of the Wilson Times, Tuesday, September 2, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073953/1924-09-02/ed-1/seq-1/#words=September+2%2C+1924
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