The Washington herald., 1915-01-25
AFTER "UNCLE JOE. ="
But Department of Justice Can't Find
Law to Fit His Crimes.

|
: New York World say that the Depart
ment of Justice has sent special investi-
gators to Danville. Ill. to assist the
United States attorney in making up a
J case against former Speaker Cannon, but
that the department is embarrassed by
} a defect in the law. The World further
/ lexplains that no complaints have been
) made in connection with the election in
Mr. Cannon's district that can be con-
sidered under the law as it is written.
We are not informed what should be
. in the law which is not there but since
it does not enable the Department of JUS
z tiCe to hale Uncle joe and some of
. his friends before a Federal grand jury
to be indicted for something, we conCede
. that the law must he defective. Mr.. Can
non is unconventional in many things
/ He sometimes puts his feet on the table
unbuttOns his vest. lOOsens his collar
takes on his coat when he gets 'het
, up he smokes villainOus. black cigars,
swears strange and unconventional Oaths
| holds a gavel in his left hand, and
| thrashes the air with his arms like a
windmill when he gets a-going: he
dances the Od-fashiOned two-step, eats
no lunch, plays the great American game
all night and refuses to sleep over in
the morning. None of these things is aC
cording to the rule, and, no doubt, the
| law is defective or he would have been
hanged. drawn and quartered.
But while the law is admitted to be
defective, the Department Of Justice is
sending some of it's highest-priced investi-
gators to Danville to see if they cannot
make the crime appear to fit the law, so
! long as they cannot make the law fit the
crime. 1t furnishes employment to the
investigators also per diem and helps
? to account for the $4,000 appropriated
; by Congress for the detection of crimes
Even If the investigators find nothing
for the grand jury. they can. no doubt
dig up something for publicity to show
that they are on the job, that Uncle
Joe is different from some other men,
and that Danville is the same old wicked
town it was before ii lost its place on
the map two years ago when another man
came to Congress from the Eighteenth
district.
1t is unfortunate that Congress did not
have Uncle Joe in mind when it made
the only law which ives the Department
OF Justice the authority to 20 out into
the States to look for election frauds.
But Uncle Joe did not come to Wash
ingtOn in lS1l. when Congress made the
law to protect the negroes down South
from the Ku KluX and. of course, Con-
gress is absOlved from responsibility.
Champ Clark denounced the law as
relic of barbarsm and the Democrats
thought they had repealed it along the
Federal election laws until it turned
up in the criminal code in the revision
a few years ago. Then Judge Bart
lett. of Georgia. BOurke Cochran, and
other able Democrats in the House, and
tho late Senator Bacon. in the Senate.
thought il ought 10 be repealed, but
more conservative Democrats thought it
was innOCuOus and allowed II to remain.
1t is a law. however, and has teeth in 1t
for the man found guilty Of depriving
a citizen of his rights under the COnsti-
tuition by threat or intimidation.
An attorney general who could prove
that Private John Allen admitted was
! the practice in Mississippi of firing can
non on election morning to let the dark
eys know that there was TO be blood
less election. might send some one 10
Jail for ten years and deprive him of
| all rights as a citizen forever afterward.
| But no one complains that anybody has
! been intimidated at elections for many
| years, not even in Texas where the
| darkeys are afraid to either vote or
| complain because they cannot. The De-
| partment of Justice finds that this is
! the only law under which it can in
| vestigate Uncle Joe. and it is defective.
| 1t doesn't fit any complaint against Uncle
| Joe. not even his general Cussedness. The
| law should be made effective, and in the
| present embarrassment of the depart
| ment, having no definite complaint,
/ there would be no better way to rem
| edy the defect than to make the attOr-
! ney general the poo bah OF the govern
ment, to send out mis- detectives to look
/ for something about somebody and then
swish his snickersnee and take of his
| head. Who knows what it is about Uncle
/ Joe the attorney general diSliBes? 1t
| may not be even his swearing or his
! cigars. 1t may be the bagginess Of his
/ trousers. or the cut of his whiskers, or
! it may be because he raises corn instead
| Of cotton.
/ Attorney General Gregory was born and
| brought up in Mississippi where last No
vcmber. eight Representatives were elect
| ed to Congress with a total vote of 3d.
| Gn0. The official vote in Mr.. CannOn's
/ district footing up nearly $500 to elect
/ one Representative. may he conclusive
! evidence TO the Attorney General, that
! there was either fraud or extravaganza
! i'm the use Of the suffrage in Illinois,
! and with tho administration committed
| to economy as well as the publication
/ Of politics, the one is as incXcusabe as
! the other.
! Without a bill Of particulars. Congress
/ is i'm the dark and unable to supply the
| defects in the ordinary way. by legisla-
| tion. Why not turn to A celebrated Eng
/ llSn DTeCeutut Alter NOlillOulIl > ltDtl-
| lion in SOmersetshre. the distinguished
| Lord Chief Justice Jeffrcys conducted
| the "boddy assizcs;' in the course of
which the judicial machinery, acting at
once as investigator. judge and jury. re-
moved the heads of sundry plow boys,
| hOStlers and other yokels who had borne
| their pitch forks in MOnmouth's ILL
| fated army. The chief justice found the
| law defective. but supplied the defects
| by a sort of executive-judiciaI legisla-
tion from the bench. OF course the his
toriCal reference is not in point. but the
query is fair as to how far the Attor-
ney General proposes to conduct AS
| sizes in Illinois or elsewhere in case he
| and his superiors deem a "CannOn's re-
bellion'' or some such defiance to have
| occurred. J. p. r.
Morning Smiles.