Evening journal., 1913-04-15
MR.. WOLCOTT
ASKS WOMEN
TO GIVE FACTS
Attorney Objects TO Criticism
by Mission Society Based
on "RumOTS"
ASKS THEM TO TELL
WHERE HE IS LAX

TO the Womens Home Missionary So
ciety of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in reply TO the resolutions
which that body recently adopted call
ing on the Attorney General to en-
force the liquor laws Of the State.
The letter sent by the Attorney GEN
eral follows
April 10. 1918.
Woman's Home Missionary Society OF
Methodist Episcopal Church of Will
mington Conference, Wilmington.
Delaware.
My Dear Mesdames. i have re-
ceived copy of your resolutions Of the
18th instant, sent to me by Mrs
Sarah Hough by order of your COM
mittee
note that you call upon me ito
enforce the liquor laws of this State
with vigor." You state that 1t is my
sworn duty to do So" / do not need
to be told this, for | trust that when
/ take an oath | am not so deaf to
conscience as to ever forget the fact
Do you not think that you cast
rather severe aspersion upon me by
inferentially telling me that / need
to be reminded that / am under oath =?
Your resolutions we're first read by
me in the newspapers. You gave con-
siderable publicity to the serious
charge you make against me. An Of
fetal. | know. must expect a degree
of criticism. Some of Il remains in
my memory and some of il does not.
1 confess this particular criticism
from a body such as yours arrests
my attention. / accordingly write re-
spectfully to protest against such
criticism unless IL is based on facts.
Please tell me where l am lax. | as
sure you / am not in league with law
violators, and have no love for them.
My business is to prosecute them as
vigorously as / can with what evid-
ence / have in hand. You base your
resolution on persistent rumors" Do
you think IT fair to publicly brand me
as derelict 10 my oath on mere
"rumors ?" II seems to me, because
the people elect man TO Office he is
not thereby constituted a target at
which mere rumor is entitled to shoot
aiming at his moral vitals. am at
ah utter loss to know to which cases
your refer.
Some people have the notion that
the Attorney General is a policeman
who should wear a star and carry a
club, or a county constable whose
business 1t is to go out and gather
evidence. This is a mistake He is
a prosecutor, and except in special
instances, must content himself with
the mere general instructions to Of
ficers Immediately under him to
gather evidence against law violators.
In special cases he gives special in
structions and uses his power TO sub
poena in the attempt to get evidence
in substantiation Of charges made to
him. / do not know the law viola
tors; can't know them for I don't
consort with them. Complaints must
be made to me and l will then put
the State detectives to work after the
evidence.
If there are violations OF the liquor
law in the city of Wilmington, the
Police Department is the responsible
police authority TO look to, and pro-
secutions or liquor selling offenses in
the city belong to the city court
You should remember also that the
Attorney General has just two Off
GERS, the State detectives, under his
control to use in detecting crime
throughout the whole territory Of
the State of Delaware. He has no eX-
tensive police force under his juris-
diction to gather the evidence for him.
Because of the fact that | noticed
in the public press that a certain
gentleman was present at your meet
ing and had something to say / in
fer that one case that your resolu-
tions had in mind was one of these
CLUB sales cases" now pending in the
Court of General Sessions, for this
gentleman was in company with some
others recently in my Office when the
case in question was discussed. On
that occasion l explained why the
case had been delayed. | gave the
reasons as they appealed to me; these
reasons we're concurred in as given
by the attorney accompanying the
delegation; no criticism was made by
any one present and especially was
none made by the gentleman who
was present at your gathering to
whom / have above referred.
Before your resolutions we're adopt
ed, were you informed of my reasons
for delaying the case in question?
If not, and If you refer to that case,
you did not have the facts before
you on which intelligently to act.
may be wrong in my judgment Of
how that case should have been
handled. but that | was wrong in
my heart, | deny Let us not brand
men as morally delinquent when their
only offense is one of the head. Per-
haps l am foolish in noticing hostile
criticism. 1t is against my rule, but
something prompts me in this in
stance to acknowledge the receipt Of
your resolutions by writing some
thing in reply to that portion of them
which touches me personally.
In conclusion / beg to assure you
that l am as anxious as you are to see
to it that infractions of the criminal
statutes are punished / desire the
cooperation of all good citizens TO
that end II instead of resoluting
against me at a distance you would
call on me personally and make
known your complaint, real facts
would be ascertained by you and
then if, after obtaining such facts, you
had reason to find fault, at least this
meritorious result would be obtained
to wit, you would be acting in the
light of the real situation.
In the meantime ! would thank you
for the information that rumor has
brought you showing violations of the
liquor laws that are ignored by the
Attorney Generals Office. to the end
that ] may put the State detectives
to work. have no such information,
and if you have, syou could not CO.
operate with the prosecuting officer