The Washington times., 1914-08-15

and all suits under the Interstate COM
merce and antitrust laws were placed
under his supervision
4 The department. as at present con-
stituted. consists of the Attorney Gem
| eral. solicitor general, six assistant
attorneys general. five solicitors, and
about 1000 other persons. consisting ct
ee4R si
In ali there are about 800 persons u1-
der the control of the Attorney Genera
| as head of the Department Of Justice
I'm addition there Is an accounting
department with a head and force
Of clerks. disbursine department deal
| ing with property. a department dealing
with prisons and Federal prisoners,
| training schools, etc. Under the ac-
| and auditing of the accounts of, and
] the payment of the salaries of all Of
| the judges. district attorneys. assis-.
tants. marshals. and other deputies, and
Guiding witnesseg fees. juries' fees.
stationery. etc
THE department of prisons has con-
troll of the United States penitentiary
at Atlanta. with 800 prisoners. the peni.
| tentiary at Leavenworth. with 1.209
prisoners. and the penitcntiary at Nc
Nell Island. on the coast of the State
of Washington. with so prisoners, and
the paroling Of these prisoners.
How Work Is Assigned.
THE Attorney General apportions
among the different assistant attorneys
general. as he decides best. the diff
ferent kinds OF litigation. and all cor.
| respondence and papers as they come
| into the department each morning are
referred to these assistants according
to their assignments. These assistants
keep in direct communication with the
district attorneys. supervise the fnftia-
ton and progress OF the suits. and
when they reach the Supreme Court
of the United States. prepare briefs.
argue most Of them there alone or with
the assistance Of the Solicitor General
Among the duties of the Attorney
General and the department are:
ITO construe in an authoritative way
all laws passed by Congress for the
direction OF all the heads OF the de-
partments-a very arduous and I'M
portant duty: to construe almost every
provision of each tariff act. that is. 10
fix the legal duty to be levied upon
every article of commerce In every tar
riff act that Is passed; TO pass upon
lard titles, amounting to many millions
of dollars in value; to advise Congress
men and Senators about any matters As
to which they are an doubt.
Pass On An Pardons.
ITO pass upon all applications for
pardons and Communication OF sentence,
and where the application II approved
by the Judge and the district attorney,
to write an opinion therein for the
President The burden OF this work
alone can be readily seen when state
that during the past year there were
7lS applications of this character, over
200 of which, after review, had to be
prepared for the President.
ITO supervise the publicity connected
with the department concerning matters
in the department, so that the public
may know what is being done.
The Government has control over
the Federal penitentaries, and the re-
sponsibility attached thereto Is great
one.
''During the past year 1000 suits
criminal and civil-were brought by the
department, sixty-five opinions were
prepared for the president and the
were prepared on land titles. involving
$4,000 aires Of land. in the land depart
ment alone. .-...
There were pending s51 civil and .s5
criminal proceedings: 2ss civil and
eighty-four criminal proceedings were
begun. and 41s civil and S24 criminal dis
posed of.
'In matters affecting Indian lands
there were pending 2.015 civil and nifty
four criminal proceedings.
Under the antitrust law the special
agents of the department investigated
on an average thirty-siI complaints per
month. and at the beginning OF last
year there were pending forty-three
cases"