Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/160

 146 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

prisoners, and a motley audience of onlookers in the court, all of whom talk more or less continuously. What the magistrate says can seldom be heard more than ten feet away, while the witnesses and prisoners must come close to the desk to be heard at all. In the midst of such confusion, noise, and incessant movement no one can hope to understand the procedure of the court clearly without some legal training, and perhaps not even then without close connection with the court itself.

By chap. 6oi of the Laws of New York State for 1895, ^^^ old justice courts were abolished and the Board of City Magis- trates substituted. Under the charter of Greater New York the police divisions are two : the first division composed of the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, the second of Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. The present account is limited to the first division, i. e., Manhattan and the Bronx. For this division there are seven districts and twelve judges, appointed by the mayor in 1895 for a term of ten years, at a salary of ;S7,000. Previous to 1895 ^^^ justices were elected, and received a salary of S8,ooo. By the charter of Greater New York, 1898, magis- trates receive a salary of only S6,000. It is interesting to con- trast the salaries of five Boston magistrates, who receive an average of 84,000 per year. A police magistrate, under the new charter, must be a resident of the city, and must have been admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law in the courts of the state at least five years previous to the date of his appointment. Other officers of the court are :

Police clerks, who are appointed by the Board of Magistrates for a term of four years, at a salary of $2,500 per year. The police clerk must give bonds to the amount of §5,000.

Stenographers: seven, one for each district, appointed and salary fixed by the board.

hiterpreters : seven, one for each district, appointed and salary fixed by the board.

Thus the amount of political patronage which each magis- trate has under the present law, during a ten-year term of ofifice, is six clerkships, one stenographer's, and one interpreter's posi- tion — not a large amount; but the total patronage of the board