Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-07

tion of advantage to localities or to States
should determine the location of the new
| posts. The Reorganization and enlargement
| of the bureau of military information which
the Secretary has effected is q work the use
| fulness Of which will become every year
more apparent. The work. of building
heavy guns and the construction OF coast
defenses has been we'll begun, and should
| be carried on without check.
Skill of the Attorney General
The report of the Attorney General is by
law submitted directly to Congress, but I
cannot refrain from saying that he has
conducted the increasing work of the De-
partment of Justice with great professional
skill He has in several directions secured
from the courts decisions giving increased
protection to the officers of the United
States, and bringing some classes of crime
that escaped local cognizance and punish
ment into the tribunals of the United States
where they could be tried with impartiality.
The numerous applications for Executive
clemency presented in behalf of persons
convicted in the United States courts, and
given penitentiary sentences, have called
my attention to fact referred to by the
Attorney General in his report, namely,
that time allowance for good behavior for
such prisoners is prescribed by the Federal
statutes only where the State in which the
penitentiary is located has made such pro-
vision. Prisoners are given the benefit of
the provisions of the State law regulating
the penitentiary to which they may be sent.
These are various, some perhaps too
liberal and some perhaps too
illiberal. The result is that sentence for
five yeSrs means one thing if the prisoner is
sent to one State for confinement and quite
different thing If he is sent to another.
recommend that a uniform credit for good
behavior be prescribed by Congress-
Relief for the Executive.
have before expressed my concurrence
in the recommendation Of the Attorney
General that degrees of murder should be
recognized in the Federal statutes as they
are, believe, in all the States. These grades
are founded on correct distinctions in crime.
The recognition of them would enable the
courts to exercise some discretion in appor-
tioning punishment, and would greatly re-
lieve the Executive of what is coming to be
very heavy burden-the examination of
these cases on application for communication.
The aggregate of claims pending against
the Government in the Court of Claims is
enormous. Claims to the amount of nearly
$400, 900, 900 for the taking of or injury to
the property of persons claiming to be
loyal during the war are now before that
court tor examination. When to these are
added the Indian depreciation claims and
the French spoliation claims an aggregate
is reached that is indeed startling. In the
defense of these claims the Government is
at great disadvantage. The claimants
have preserved their evidence, whereas the
Government has to send agents to rum
mage the field for what they can find.
This difficulty is peculiarly great where
the fact to be established is the disloyalty
of the claimant during the war; If this
great threat against our revenues is to
have no other check, certainly Congress
should supply the Department of Justice
with appropriations sufficiently liberal to
secure the best legal talent in the defense
of these claims and to pursue its vague
search for evidence effectively.