84 HISTORY OF THE 



cooperative branches of the city government, leaving 

 some of the owners in a state of dependence. 



Cordially your friend, 



Samuel E. Sawyer. 



Pertinent to the foregoing, I here copy a newspaper 

 article directly to the point, dated August 2, 1886, 

 headed ''Jury Reform:" 



" Chicago has just found that getting a jury from the 

 pi'omiscuous drawing from a voting list is a farce, 

 and all her trade and manufaclurers' associations have 

 united in an api:)eal for reform. Massachusetts has 

 fonnd that her system of letting selectmen and alder- 

 men set up a list to be drawn from, is a mistake, in that 

 in most cases men are called to pass judgment upon 

 things they have never had the least conception of. 

 If a connnission could be secured which would call 

 jurymen for specific cases, who might be supposed to 

 be somewhat acquainted with the general character of 

 the issue, greater satisfaction would follow jury de- 

 cisions. 



A case in j)oint was that of a suit in our State Court 

 last month, when the plaintiff sued for the value of an 

 estate held at $500,000, which the defendant adjudged 

 worth much less. 



IS^one of the jui-y who arbitrated had evei* been in the 

 business on their own account; only two owned houses, 

 and not one of them had ever had an income of over 

 |2,500 a year. 



Putting such vast sums into the hands of men inex- 

 perienced in affairs of finance and estate was evidently 



