308 DUBOIS— OBSERVATIONS ON THE [April 23, 



to affect the jury mind, giving way to some and aiming to suppress 

 others that tend to prejudice and disturb the equanimity which makes 

 for justice. But the main thesis here is that there are other and 

 subtler influences which are often a still greater menace to justice 

 and that there is little thought of reducing them to a minimum. 



Manifestly, this should be the first consideration — just as the 

 reduction of friction and of waste effort are of prime importance 

 to the mechanist. Similarly, a business requiring so much personal 

 sacrifice, such delicate mental balance coupled with resolute and 

 courageous control, such openness to conviction without the weak- 

 ness of hasty consent, — such a business should be carried on under 

 the most favorable conditions instead of under conditions tending to 

 defeat the desired ends. 



In his delicate and often vital responsibilities everything should, 

 as far as possible, conspire toward the best use of the juror's morally 

 controlled intellectual judgment, whereas this judgment is subjected 

 to an automatic conspiracy of obstacles, infirmities, and irritants. 

 He is expected to be, and, in my experience, generally wants to be, 

 free of all forms of bias for which the challenging attorneys take 

 little thought. The juror, indeed, is in no small degree a marionette 

 of which his subconscious self holds the controlling wires while the 

 whole inherited system of trial by so-called peers is the grinning in- 

 stigator. And the marionette is seldom wholly self-respecting. 



All the way down from the earliest English times when witnesses 

 were jurors and jurors were witnesses, gathering their own testi- 

 mony and acting on their own knowledge, there have been many 

 modifications of the jury system and diverse views as to its value. 



The juror's office is, in some respects, the most ironical and 

 paradoxical in the whole range of human service. Its requirements 

 are those of a learned profession with demands of extraordinary 

 versatility. The profession is to be followed by the individual for 

 a very brief period with uncompensating " compensation " (often 

 at an actual loss to the juror.) Yet the juror is so hedged about, 

 officially suppressed and oppressed that the opportunity for initiative, 

 the value of his knowledge, and the freedom of his judgment are 

 reduced to the minimum instead of being employed at their maxi- 

 mum. He is, in effect, both puppet and prisoner. 



