The sun., 1905-12-31
Gtys. VINO "KEEPS EN- THERE."
jerome Assistant who's TO Give tp 'he
Task OF Fighting Criminal Appeals

Task OF Fighting criminal Appe"s
Nine members of District Attorney
Jorone's staff, who have handed IN theT
designations, will retire tomorrow. Among
them are two assistants, William Rahu ana
Howard $. Cans, who between them nave
done a good share of the most important
work OF the office
"Rand. he puts EN- in Jail, and Cans, he
keeps EN- there" is the way one OF the
elevator men in the building describes the
duties of the two.
Rand has been in the public eye; he has
prosecuted big criminals, and everybody
knows that Mr.. jerome will be sorry to see
him leave the office. But he will be just
as sorry to lose Mr.. Cans because Mr.
Cans has "kept 'em there" His work has
all been in the appeal bureau. of which he
had charge. There has been hard work
a-penty there, and the proof of the way it
has been done is to be found in the fact
that mighty few criminals have been able
to reverse their convictions. His work
has been done before the Appellate Division
the Court of Appeals and the Supreme
Court of the United States. Few New
Workers, aside from lawyers, were familiar
with his name, but his work has been none
the less valuable.
When AL Adams was finally convicted, I,
after the hardest kind Of fight, friends
of the District Attorney congratulated him
upon the conviction.
"But can you keep him in Jail, now that
you have got him there" asked doubter
Il don't know whether l could or not"
Mr., Jerome answered, but I'm sure Howard
can"
Th,f ph@ hoo ha
Attorney felt in Gans's abilities. And Al
| Adams remained in jail.
Howard s. Cans has been in the District
| Attorneys Office since Mr. Philbin put him
there as d. A. D. A" or deputy assistant.
in 1900. He was then 2S years old and
| had been Il lawyer for six years. He had
been graduated from Harvard University
in the class of '92 and had taken degree
from the New York Law School. Mr..
Philbin soon found that the young man
knew law, that he had judicial mind,
and cold sane way of looking at things.
| His knowledge of prcccdents and authori-
ties was unusual in 80 young a man, and his
! ability vas recognized to the extent OF
making LIN full assistant
| A year after his appointment he was
working with George w. Schurman who
had charge of the police prosecutions, and
eventually the entire matter was turned
over to him. When he was through with
trying policemen for neglect of duty and
crookedness he had established new prin-
ciplesin regard to criminal liability of public
officers for neglect of duty, and the cases
which he argued are now precedents.
When Mr.. jerome was nominated for
District Attorney Mr. Cans took to the
stump and worked for him for all he was
worth. The other campaigners who came
in contact with him called him THE Wasp,
because of the sharp things he said and
the way he said them. He also took
prominent part in the management of the
campaign, and when Mr. Jerome won Mr..
Cans was put in charge Of the appeal bureau;
That was the sort of promotion he wanted
"a job with lot of hard work attached
to it.
since that time he has never had his head
above water, so to speak. Every con-
vction that has been appealed has been
sent to him for preparation. His work re-
quired an extensive knowledge OF law.
bis fellow assistants did their work before
1uries where oratory and force counted,
and when they jailed their man in many
cases Cans had to fight the same case
twice again, before the Appellate Division
and the Court of Appeals.
Lawyer Patrick with his many appeals and
attempts to escape execution, has caused
Cans many a weeks work. and every time
Patrick and his counsel have been beaten.
He argued for the prosecution in all the ap-
peals in the case against Police Capt. Her
hhy and when Jesse Lewisohn tried to
overthrow the Dowling law on the ground
of unconstitut onality and thus evade
testifying against Garfield, the gambler,
it was Cans who prepared the arguments
which caused the Court of Appeals to up
hold the statute.
1t isn't because MIR. Cans is tired of hard
work that he has resigned. He told a
friend soon after his retirement was an
nounced that he didn't want holding
office to become a habit with him. Also,
he believes it is about time that he began
to develop a private practice while he is
young He and John II. Iselin, another
member of Mr.. Jerome's staff, are to form
a partnership.