Omaha daily bee., 1900-01-16

Ruling of Internal Revenue Commits
sInncr Crcntes Cnnsiernnlinn.

WIS ~" pH ENAVbN ~ -
Ruling of Internal Revenue Commits
sioner Creates CONSERVATION.
A recent order Of Internal Revenue Com.
missioner Wilson has caused CONSERVATION
among the deputy United States marshale
OF this district and the majority of them
are seriously thinking of quitting Uncle
Sans service. The order will have the eff
feet of materially reducing their emolu.
ments and will also seriously affect the
fees which the United States commissioner
and clerk of the district court now receive,
Another direct result of the order will be
to abolish the periodical "bootleggers' con
vention,' which heretofore has been one of
the striking features of every term of fed
eral court in this city and throughout the
southern district of Iowa.
The order requires that no arrests or
prosecutions for selling liquor without the
requisite license shall be made until the
collector of internal revenue for the district
or his deputy shall have investigated the
case and satisfied himself that there has
been an intentional violation OF the law.
Deputy Collector NJ. NJ. Parkinson, whose
headquarters are in this city, has received
the following letter from ]. NJ. Kimble, his
superior officer and collector for the fourth
district of Iowa, with headquarters at Bur-
l%ington:
I have a letter from Commissioner VIII
son calling my attention to the many. cases
that are being prosecuted in my district
and l am Instructed that the policy of that
office is such that more care should be
taken in recommending these prosecutions.
You are advised that in the future you
will sign no complaints until you have in
vestigated the case and found whether the
party is Intentionally. violating, the law.
The commissioner states as follows: n
prosecution shall be commenced against
the accused unless he is found % be in
tentionally evading taxes, nor should 1t
be done unless the case Is an aggravated
one" In other words, unless you know
the party to have wilfully committed this
crime you will not commence prosecution.
All cases should be referred to this office
for final action.
The carrying out of the commissioners
order means that no deputy marshal shall
make an arrest for "~bootlegging" until he
! has referred the case to the collector of in
ternal revenue, who shall first investigate
and satisfy himself that there is an inten-
tional violation of the law before he shall
file an information before the United States
commissioner.
The majority of cases coming before the
United States commissioners have invariably
been those of persons charged with boot
Logging which is the common term for
selling liquor without a government license.
Heretofore the deputy marshals have made
the arrests and the deputy internal col
lector of revenue has filed the necessary
information on their say so. Now, under
this order, all will be changed and the num-
Der of arrests for Bookkeeping will be ma
| terially decreased. 1t has been frequently
charged in the past that deputy marshals
have abused their position and that in order
to increase their fees have made arrests of
alleged bootleggers on evidence which, when
brought before the federal grand jury, in
variably resulted in that body ignoring the
charge and ordering the release of the pris-
oner. This, it is said, was particularly true
when there was no limit to the fees that the
deputy marshals received. When the pay
of the deputy marshals was restricted to a
J certain limit about two years ago the num-
I Der of arrests for alleged violation of the
internal revenue laws was noticeably de-
creased and it was claimed that the mar
shals, as soon as they reached the limit of
the fees to which they were entitled, lost all
interest in further prosecutions.
The order of Commissioner Wilson will
save the government a large amount of
money, as the prosecution of alleged boot
leggers has always been a costly item owing
to the number of witnesses subpoened in
each case and the distance that as a rule
they have to be brought to testify, not only
before the commissioner, but before the
grand jury, and then at the trial. The
expense attendant on the prosecution of
some bootleggers has run up into hundreds
of dollars. Discussing the matter yesterday
Deputy Collector Parkinson said:
The order of the commissioner Of in
ternal revenue will mean a large decrease
in the number of prosecutions for boot
Logging. In the first place it will be utterly
impossible to give every case my personal
attention and investigation as required, and
secondly, in the past many persons have
been arrested and prosecuted where there
was no willful intention to violate the law.
Heretofore the deputy marShals have always
acted on the theory that ignorance of the
law is no excuse and have always made an
arrest where there was the slightest pre-
text for such. The order will undoubtedly
save Uncle Sam considerable money and
it will also tend to cut down the pay OF
the deputy marshals as well as that of the
commissioners and the clerk OF the district
court. The deputy marshals are naturally
up in arms against the order, but they
have no redress and will have to accept it
as final. 1t seems a lot more work for me
to do, but | will have to obey orders as
far as l possibly can"
Colonel j. j. Steadman, clerk of the United
States district court for the southern dis
trict of Iowa, said the order of Commissioner
Wilson meant a loss in fees to him of about