Monday, 3rd November 1913: Judges Of New Court Are Named, The Atlanta Journal

Four of the five judges of the municipal court,

which will take the place in Atlanta of the courts of the justices of the

peace, are shown here. At the top on the left is Eugene D. Thomas, and on the

right L. F. McClelland. Below are Luther Z. Rosser, Jr., and James B. Ridley,

the latter the only justice of the peace to get on the new court. The fifth

judge of the municipal court, T. O. Hathcock, is not shown in the picture.

PAGE 1, COLUMN 4

JUDGE

HILL DELIVERS

FIRST CHARGE TO

JURY

New Jurist Urges Enforcement

Of Prohibition, Concealed

Weapon, Game Laws

For the first time in many years, the

grand jury of Fulton county was charged Monday by the judge presiding over the

criminal court of the county. Judge B. H. Hill, the judge of the new fourth (or

criminal) division of the superior court, instructed the November grand jury as

to its duties, after it had been organized with Colonel W. L. Peel as foreman

by Judge W. D. Ellis, of the first division.

Hereafter the grand juries will be

organized also by Judge Hill. They will be organized and charged by one judge

in one court, term after term.

For years the court practice in this

county has been otherwise. The three judges of the civil division being the

only ones always on duty here, the duty of organizing and charging the grand

juries devolved upon them, even though the grand jurys work belongs

particularly to the criminal part of the courts business. Every two months the

judges of the civil division have been exchanging courts (as they will continue

to do), and the judge who chanced to be presiding over the first division for

the new term would organize and charge the grand jury for that term.

From now on, however, the grand jury

will be a matter solely, for the judge of the criminal division to consider. By

agreement among the four superior court judges now on duty in Fulton county,

Judge Hill will continue without interruption on the bench of the criminal

division, while judges Ellis, Pendleton and Bell will attend among themselves

to the three other divisions of the court.

TWO EVILS POINTED OUT.

Judge Hill charged the grand jury with

the enforcement of all criminal statues, and be made special reference to the

prohibition law and the carrying of concealed weapons. The two greatest evils

of civilization are the whisky bottle and the concealed revolver, he declared.

We as sworn officials, Judge Hill

told the grand jury, can have no individual opinions about the prohibition

law. It is a law and we must enforce it, so I charge you to make a diligent

investigation and if you can find where withing the past two years any

individual, corporation or club, has sold whisky, it is your duty to bring

indictments.

On the subject of carrying concealed

weapons, I am sure our opinions all agree. The offense, I believe, should be a

felony, as the old constitutional amendment, giving citizens the right to bear

arms, was never meant to apply to the modern revolver.

Judge Hill is probably the first judge

(Continued on Page Four, Col. 1.)

PAGE 4, COLUMN 1

JUDGE

HILL DELIVERS

FIRST CHARGE TO JURY

(Continued From Page 1.)

In this

country who ever especially charged a grand jury to make an investigation of

the enforcement of the game laws. The hunting season is just beginning, he

said, and you should see that all of the game laws are rigidly enforced.

Charging the jury about the gaming

laws. Judge Hill referred to his services as solicitor of the court of which he

is now judge.

In the 80s, he said, when your

fellow-citizen. James W. English, was mayor and I was solicitor general of this

circuit, we broke up all of the open gambling hells, which then infested the

city, and a vigilant police force has since prevented their return.

JURIES REPRESENT PUBLIC.

Under our system it is really the

people, represented by the juries, Judge Hill told the body, who can and do

enforce the law.

The judge is but an umpire and the

solicitor a servant of the people.

The grand jury, which is composed of

the people, must bring an indictment before the court can consider a case, and

the conviction must be made by the petit jury, which also comes from the

people.

Judge Hill, in making his first

statement from the bench to which he has just been appointed, showed very

clearly that he is an optimist and real booster for Atlanta.

We live, he told the grand jury, in

the best century the world has ever known. The United States is the best

country in the world; Georgia is the best state in the United States; Fulton

county is the best county in the state; and Atlanta is second only to the city

of which God is the founder and builder.

The honors, which the people of this

state of this county have paid my family, would, if nothing else, make me love

them and strive to the best of my ability to serve them.

When I was in the capitol as a judge

of the court of appeals, I was continually inspired by the sight of the

monument which the people have erected to my father. In the new court house

here I will be inspired by the tablet by which the people of this county have

shown their love for my brother, who served them for twenty-five years.

Judge Hill referred to his illustrious

father, Benjamin Harvey Hill, for whom he was named, and to his brother, the

late Solicitor General, Generals D. Hill.

Following his charge to the grand jury

Judge Hill appointed as the official reporter of the fourth division D. O.

Smith.

He then commenced the transaction of

the routine business of the court, disposing of a number of felony cases.

Judge Calhoun, of the city criminal

court, was dispossessed from his usual quarters on the fourth floor of the

Thrower building Monday morning by Judge Hills court. He moved to the old city

hall, where he occupied the court room on the first floor. That room usually is

occupied by the first division of the superior court, but Judge Pendleton

vacated it and convened that division in chambers.

PAGE 1, COLUMN 7

PROBE IS STARTED

BY GRAND JURORS

INTO AFFINITY EVIL

Jury Alarmed by Increasing

Number of Men and Women

Who Neglect

Formality of

Taking Marriage Vows

COMMITTEE APPOINTED

TO MAKE INVESTIGATION

Indictments Will Be Returned in

Every Case

ExposedAid of

Public Asked in

Move for

Moral

Uplift

Alarmed by the

increasing number of men and women in Atlanta who do not consider the taking of

the marriage vow necessary before they start housekeeping the Fulton county

grand jury empaneled Monday morning has inaugurated a new morality campaign.

Three of the

most prominent members of the grand jury, Samuel D. Jones, Samuel H. Venable

and T. J. Rose, have been named as a committee to launch and to push the

campaign during the present grand jurys term.

The members of

the committee do not attempt to give a reason for the situation, which they say

is not only deplorable, but alarming. They do not say the free love propaganda

has gained a firm footing in Atlanta, but they do declare the percentage of

couples living together without he sanction of the law is so sensational that

they refuse to make public the figures which were presented to the first

meeting of the body.

INVITE AID OF PUBLIC.

The members of the investigating

committee are going to give the widest publicity to the new campaign, and they

invite the public to assist them.

First, they ask suggestions as to the

best method of eliminating the free love, or affinity, evil and they ask that

letters be addressed either to Colonel William Lawson Peel, foreman of the jury

or to Mr. Jones, chairman of the committee. Second, they wish to be furnished

with all information possible relative to couples who have neglected the formality

of marriage.

The grand jury expects to bring many

indictments and, whenever possible, to force a marriage.

Chairman Samuel D. Jones, states that

it is no wise a campaign against any survivors of the houses which were in our

midst, which have been overlooked by Chief Beavers is solely assumed against

couples who live together as man and wife, and who have never taken the

marriage vows. One of the main objects of the campaign is to fix responsibility

on the father of a family. Unless the ceremony has been performed, the members

of the committee point out, there is no way to protect the woman and make the

man support his family.

In case of a desertion the father

cannot be brought back to the state and forced to provide for his offspring,

unless the mother can show she was his legal wife.

While the

marriage vow is mere neglected, the grand jury members declare, by negroes than

by white persons, they seek reports about all races and all classes and they

expect to wage the campaign with vigor.