Evening Star Newspaper, June 9, 1929, Page 33

turbing Crime in Nation ' (Continued From Third Page.) for the law must be revived if the law is to live. The Nation must have an intensive course in citizenship. With the specialization and preoccupation with business which have become the principal features of the material de- Velopment of the people, the task is no easy one. However, without doing more here than touching upon the necessity of its ultimate accomplishment, certain steps may be pointed out which will make the somewhat unwieldy mechanism of the law more comprehensible to the indi- vidual when the educational campaign is undertaken and at the same time Tender that mechanism somewhat more efficient. All of them are in the direc- tion of that localization of responsibility which must be the standard of the fight against criminality. Some Alarm Caused. ®ne of the fundamental changes, bearing directly upon localization of re- sponsibility, relates to that feature of our society which has caused some alarm among observers and is referred to sometimes as centralization of Gov- ernment and sometimes as the en- croachment of the Federal Govern- ment upon State rights. A still better term would be the relinquishment of State responsibilities to the Federal ‘Government It is due to the failure of the States themselves to accept —responsibility which is purely local in its inception that the Federal courts have become cluttered up with cases which are largely police matters, instead of re- maining somewhat aloof and austere, to deal with matters purely national in their aspect. Proper recognition and adjustment of the relations among the States themselves and between the various States and the Federal Govern- ment would relieve the Federal courts of much of the petty business which | now clogs their calendars. contributes to bureaucracv and causes the cry of *“Encoachment!” to go up. Wholly aside from the question of | efficiency, it is one of the rights and one of the duties of the States to enforce local laws for the protection of their own citizens. But the question of failure in the administration of criminal law is as important as in the administration of other branches of law. ‘The crook of today is making progress in his business. He makes use of the machine gun, the automatic pistol and the high-power automobile. Efficlency in the administration of the law is vital. This is an age of organization; the crook has organized. How Criminals Operate. A recent happening in one of our large cities illustrates the detailed man- ner in which criminals now operate. A group who made a specialty of holding up plants on pay day lived in & farmhouse just outside of the city. ‘They had working for them lesser eriminals with no police records. These men, some weeks prior to the hold-up, ‘would go to work in the plant. On the day of the robbery they would be stand- ing in line waiting for their pay. In the event that the robbers were appre- hended and witnesses would be produced ‘who identified them as committing the crime, their confederates with no rec- ord against them would be prepared to contradict the testimony of identifi- cation. It developed in this particular case that one of the men so used demanded more pay. Fearing that he would turn State’s evidence, the group put him off for a few days and sent him out of town. Upon his return, in the yard in the rear of their house they had a grave already prepared. They killed him and buried him there. In order to bring men of this char- acter to justice it is necessary that they should be apprehended and prosecuted in the community in which the crime ‘was committed. That is the community whose laws have been violated, whose citizens have suffered at the hands of the criminal and whose citizens will be most available and most alert as wit- nesses in that individual case. The shifting of responsibility always is detrimental to efficiency. ADVERTISEMENT. Merely passing the buck—to use the: army expression.—from the jurisdiction | of the State court to the jurisdiction of | the Federal court does not increase the | efficiency of the machinery ordinarily! used to catch the crook. Aside from the | availability of witnesses, the local| State law is possessed with many more | weapons with which to fight and punish the criminal. State's Officers Aided. The State district attorney and local | county prosecutor are supported by the police force as a whole in their respec- tive communities in the detection and prosecution of crimes. They have larger appropriations for the jurisdiction of their offices than have the United States attorneys covering the same jur- isdictions. They are not oppressed by conflicting State laws, whereas the United States attorneys for the same territory are limited as to all these things and proceed with the authority of Washington. Continued occupation of the Federal District Courts with matters that belong to & magistrate’s court will necessarily lower the dignity and prestige of the former. These factors are aiready at work. Of course, all of these problems have been accentuated and made more difficult by the jurisdiction of the Fed- eral courts in prohibition matters. Most of the prohibition cases are in their essence police court cases and tax to the uttermost the machinery of the Federal courts. Rightly or wrong order to deal with this flood, some of the judges feel obliged to institute “bargain days.” On these days we are treated to the not very inspiring sight of a court of justice negotiating with the accused and having the punishment imposed meas- ured by the necessity of clearing the docket. Interstate traffic in stolen articles has fallen withif the province of the Fed- eral Government, though the basic of- fense is purely local—a theft. An au- tomobile is stolen on West Seventy- second street, New York, and sold in Nevada, where it is discovered and the thief or his agent arrested. The theft occurred in New York and, logically, New York should be the seat of prose- cution. Early jealousies and later in- attention, however, have rendered the processes of New York court impotent in Nevada. A New York court cannot summon witnesses from Nevada. So, instead of being prosecuted for the theft in the community where it oc- curred, the thief is prosecuted in the Federal court in Nevada for interstate traffic in stolen property. Responsibil- ity has been shifted and diffused, the Tesentment of the community against which the thief offended has been dele- gated to the Federal Government. State Agreements. Such a state of affairs is Lnemclen'.| and unnecessary and contributes to neg- ligence. It is possible for States to en- ter into treaties or agreements concern- ing the return of criminals and wit- nesses which would simplify things greatly and bring criminals home to be_tried. We have not yet fully realized the possibilities of such compacts between States which, approved by Congress, of- fer a real solution to many of the dif- ficulties, including criminal jurisdiction, heretofore considered impossible of set- tlement. ‘There are instances of its application: The compact for the construction of Boulder Dam recently approved by Con- gress; the Rio Grande controversy among the States of New Mexico, Colo- rado and Texas; the South Platte River compact between Colorado and Ne- braska. Tllustrative of this point is the statute by which approval was given to ‘Wisconsin, Illinols ichigan as to their criminal juris- diction of Lake Michigan. New York and Vermont are jes to an ancient treaty covering is very point—the transportation of witnesses in a crim- inal action from one State to the other. ‘Would Relieve Courts. Co-operation among all the States would relieve the Federal courts of such burdens as the prosecution of automo- bile thieves and those who steal from freight cars engaged n interstate com- ADVERTISEMENT. STATEMENTS OF PRAISE CONTINUE TO POUR IN People Who Are Grateful for the Relief Miller’s Herb Extract Has Given Them Want Others to Know of This Great Medicine Throughout Washington and surrounding territory friends and neighbors are asking each other, “Have you tried the wonderful medicine, Mil- ler's Herb Extract?” Every day numbers who purchase this medicine for the first time say, “I have a friend who has used it, and, judging from the improvement it has made in her, it must be truly a wonder worker.” MRS. ANNIE PFLIEGER. Mrs. Annie Pflieger, well known resident of Arlington, Vi at 210 Jefferson Street, said when she gave this statement, , residing no doubt there are numbers who like myself have tried so many different medi- cines without recelving any real benefit that they are skeptical about trying something praised so high new. Weil that was my fix also, yet this medicine was ly that about a month ago I began using it myself and thankful to say I not only found it to be just as advertised but also found it to be the most wonderful medicine I have ever used. Why for several years I have tried various remedies in hopes of finding something to regu- late the bowels and carry off the poisons that accumulated but I never found it until I found Miller's Herb Extract. I was always troubled with gas indigestion pains in the stomach, also left sidc, liver was out of order, was troubled with dizzy spells, seemed to be black spots floating before my eyes and I was always constipated.. As I sald before I was doubtful about this medicine at first, but the first bottle removed 2!l my doubts and 1 feel as though I should tell others how it helped me and hope that my statement will be the means of helr h I have been relieved of the stomacl ing others, for the first time in years pains, also dizzy spells, bowels move Tegular, liver seems to be in perfect order and I feel shat my general health is better than it has been for years. I know from experience that one can de) it to my friends and others.” It is quick results every sufferer wants, and Herb Extract brings re- sults overnight as thousands of statements, similar to the above from grateful users indicate. This remarkable preparation contains herbs, leaves and bark that pro- mote gastric juices that is' neces- sary to regulate bowel action and insure good health. Hundreds are nd on Miller'’s Herb Extract and feel safe in recommending calling dally to see the special representative direct from the Herb Juice Medicine Co., who has established headquarters at the Peoples Drug Store, 505 Tth Street N.W., to learn more of this great medicine that is bringing health and happiness to so many Wash- ington citizens. ‘ THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D.C, JUNE 9 1 929— PART merce. It is the primary offense for which the criminal should be prose- cuted, not the secondary offense, and the place of prosecution should be the place where the crime was committed and the court should be the local court of that place. Another law, local In its application, which has been foisted upon the Federal Government, for enforcement, is_that | | upon fact seems to rest upon the com- forbidding traffic in narcotic drugs. Yet New York State has no narcotic law. Traffickers in narcotics are dealt with by the Federal Government. Whether *the man is a smuggler of drugs from foreign countries or & petty peddler, it is to the Federal Govern- ment that he is brought for punish- ment. Certainly the city drug peddler ought to be brought under the jurisdic- tion of the immediate community Such jurisdictional changes would make for the localization of responsi- bility as to the community. It should be localized also as to the individual, the judge on the bench. Generation after generation has placed its restric- tions upon him until he has become almost an automation, a condition which tends to encourage the appoint- ment or election of men of mediocre abllity at law though, perhaps, of e traordinary ability politically. For hundreds ‘of years efforts have been concentrated upuon making the position one in which an unscrupulous man could do the least possible harm, in- stend of making it one in which an able, upright man could do the most good. Individual Safeguarded. Owing partly to the first settlers’ heri- tage of oppression and recollections of such monstrous judicial figures as Chief Justice Jeffreys and partly to a natural antipathy to things English during the early formative period of our Govern- ment, the United States from the first has sought earnestly to safeguard tie rights of the individual in the criminal courts. We were the first to give felons the right to defense by counsel, a right which England did not recognize until well into the nineteenth century: the first to develop a system of criminal | eral judges from expressing | opinions as to the credibility of wit- upon the proceedings. Comment upon the faflure of the defendant to take the stand is forbidden and legislation recently was introduced to prevent Fed- personal nesses or the weight of téstimony. Power to Comment. The power of the court to comment ‘mon law and first was denied by statute in North Carolina in 1796. Other States followed the example of North Carolina and the old common law rule permitting comment upon fact and ex- pression of views upon the evidence in the judge's charge survives probably in not more than a dozen States. Such legislation doubtless grew out of the recollection of abuses of power on the bench in England, a flagrant ex- ample of which was the conduct of Chief Justice Jeffreys who, in 1688, in the trial of the aged Lady Lisle, ac- cused of treason in harboring a fugitive rebel after the battle of Sedgemoor, was found guilty only after the chief justice had refused three times to ac- the jury with attainder. General hostility to England in the early days of our Nation was another factor in the attitude of our early law- makers, and a not unimportant one was the conduct of many Federal judges in the United States between 1795 and 1810, when the Federalist party had employed the alien and sedition law to strengthen its position. The conduct of certain judges pre- siding at sedition and libel trials in those days did much to revive the an- clent fear of a tyrannical bench. The situation came to a head in 1805 in the impeachment and acquittal of Justice Chase as a result of his overbearing de. meanor at the trials of Fries and Cal- lender, Nation Now Compact. | Those days have passed. Physically the country has been knit together by appeal, which England did not have | until 1907, and the first to permit a criminal to take the witness stand in his _own defense, a privilege which felons did not attain in England until | 1898. No one today would deny the justice of such innovations, but the which inspired their adoption has been permitted so wide a latitude that our courts have become arenas where rival lawyers contend with technicalities as their weapons and the judges play the part of referees. Experts in this or that are called to the witness stand frequently, it appears, more with the idea of putting up a smoke screen that may obscure unfavorable developments spirit | the development of means of communi- cation until it is more compact today than was Connecticut or Massachusetts |a century and a quarter ago. The ac- tion of a judge on the bench in New | England is known on the Pacific Coast within a few hours. He is elevated to a position where the whole Nation may scrutinize his every act if it will. A Chief Justice Jeffreys is impossible to- day. England, so far behind us in the days when conditions contributed to abuse of | power on the bench, is now ahead of us | | in the administration of justice, if not fully abreast of the times. In the in- dictments act of 1915 England adopted a series of rules with regard to forms of indictments, setting forth sample forms to be deemed sufficient. Provision is made for a rule committee of judges and lawyers which has power to alter rather than of throwing any real light |any of the rules relating to the form (such as are illustrated below) will insure moving some of them—and moving them QUICKLY !!! 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The court is empowered at any time before or during trial to make any orders which it sees fit for the amendment of a defective indictment. The adoption of such procedure in this country would mean a heavy reduction in trial calendars and an immediate speeding up of the administration of Justice. Not only is the appellate court given power to make any necessary amend- ment to the indictment, but it is also given authority to deal with the punish- ment imposed by the lower court. It not only may reduce the punishment—it may increase it. There is less chance of a criminal appealing upon a techni- cality or for the purpose of delay if he realizes that he runs the chance of having his punishment increased. Society Cannot Escape. | It is true that society cannot escape | its responsibility for influencing the criminal. In the conditions of our mod- ern economic organization, with its ex- acting social order, there are demoral- izing consequences. Under these con- ditions certain individuals lacking the equipment and the strength, the en- ergy and the intelligence for this strug- glg, become filled with a sense of social injustice. However crime may be influenced by climatic or cultural or economic condi- tions, the causes of crime are still in doubt and involve a consideration not only of religion, but of economics, edu- cation and sociology. Undoubtedly there are causes beyond the control of the in- dividual, but common experience recog- nizes the difficulty of too easy general- ization and indicates that most crim- inals are much like other men. They have been similarly endowed with a sense_of personal responsibility, and it is only by gradual steps of disintegra- tion that they have fallen. Certainly one great moving force in the commission of crime is the desire to obtain something by force or craft or deceit rather than by work. In my ex- perlence as district attorney I was fre- quently impressed with the parents of young criminals—steady. saving. good living, simple people. tent to spend hard days of work and put aside the simple savings from their labor. But the younger men, seeing | others of their own age in easier or| luxurious positions, sought to reach that | place by more direct methods, and they in turn would become dope peddlers, bootleggers or gunmen. It is doubtful if scientific treatment can deal adequately with this evil. The only finally eeffective deterrent is moral education and betterment. Urges Speedy Punishment. But while we do not seem able to deal definitely and certainly with the under- lying causes of lawlessness, there are certain methods of procedure for com- bating violations of the law that may make the problem less difficult. The ob- ject of criminal procedure always is punishment. That punishment is in- flicted not as retribution or redress, but as an example. To make that example effective greater stress should be laid upon the fact that punishment be sum- | mary, certain and impartial rather than | dilatory and uncertain, although per- haps severe. To accomplish this pur- pose our methods must be simple and | direct. | Shortening and simplifying the proc- | esses of criminal law, extending the | power of the judge upon the bench, en- forcing local’ laws locally instead of through the already encumbered Fed- | eral courts, developing a sense of re- | sponsibility in the individual citizen in the community and in its judicial offi- | cers—these are the steps which will bring about the control of eriminality. | When a beginning has been malle upon | them the crook no longer can encourage | himself with the secret conviction that he gets the breaks | s M e, | Ford Buys Antique Coaches. SAUGERTIES, N. Y., June 8 (#).— Customer and seller are both pleased. An automobile dealer, a former livery- | man, has sold for a song a dozen swanky coaches, a century or more-old, used for funerals and parades. He is glad to get use of the storage space. The purchaser, Henry Ford, is delighted collection of American #\Use This Coupon, SAVE $500 to $2,000mm BEFORE YOU BUILD Get This Book contains 144 pagesof atrractive homes, ex- plains our financing plan and money saving “Honor Bilt” methods. ‘They were con- | 545, SEARS, ROEB W6 TonrSt Washington Muio %637 Call, phone or write for this book without obligation. Star 6. Street Address ... State . The Rhododendron Festival . . Mardi Gras of the Mountains . . June 17-22 Aqmmmuc has donned her ¥ay- est attire to celebrate her annual Rhododendron Festival—Eastern Amer- fca’s most beautiful floral fete. The whole “Land of the Sky” is a falry= tand of blossoms, encircled with age- old, mile-high peaks. Nature in her most lavish mood has scate tered her treasures of beauty throughout the sapphire country— delicate hued laurel, flaming aralea and gorgeous rhododen- dron, princess of all the wild flowers, which join in a majestic anthem of color reachlng its flaming crescendo during Festival days—June 17 to 22. Throngs of visitors, gay with the spirit of the occasion, will be here to sce the fanciful floats as they roll through the streets, to dance far into the night to the rapturous’ tumes of Southerm orchestras, fo joln in all the festivitles of these gala days. You, too, can share them all If you pack your things at once. But whether you come now or later, make Asheville and the “Land of the Sky” your vacation play- ground this summer. Here you will find all vacation joys comcentrated for your pleasure. Water sports In 15 crystal-clear lakes in the shadow of towering peaks. Sporty trout fishing in mountain_ stream. A thousand miles of state-paved motor highways, safe and easy to drive at all ys places to go, things to do. archery, trap shoot Rlding or hiking over mountain tralls. Golf on five Donald Ross courses. Metropolitan hotels inns offer you a servico and cuisine unsurpassed in” America. Ample accom- modations nts and rooming houses. Companionship with interesting people—a soclal life steeped in the fine old traditions of Southern hospitality. A trip to Asheville Is now most economlcal. Atk your Tocal ticket agont about ,special fares a co over hhs road via South- rofer to motor up to way, bordered by unusual interest. F formation about hotels, for 52-page Asheville and the “'Land of the Sky," write DEPT. 7, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE {Ashewlle North - & - Corolino Tomorrow we offer you a CLEARANCE—is the only object and excuse for the sensational reductions which we are making in THIS STOCK REDUCING EVENT. 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Less 830 ite guarante e A suite any on ul Our finest bedroom with finest DINING ROOM SUITE H and Eye 827-829 7th St. N.W. o 5