The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-07
WORK OF DEPT. OF JUSTICE IS SHOWN
 IN COLD FIGURES

Washington, Dec 7.-Only the cold figures showing the results of the work of the Department of Justice in coping with German plotters in this country are given in Attorney General Gregory's annual report sub mitted today to Congress. None of the details of the operations of the secret service of that department, touching almost every condition from the romantic to the sordfd are dis closed. Most of those must necessar- fly remain untold until the end of the war, when set of volumes rivaling the most exciting tales of fiction might be written from them. The Alt torney Generals report merely tells the story of results in the figures of prison sentences which the agents of German intrigue HoW are serving in federal penitentiaries.
 In dealing with the enemies, the Department has found that the es- pionage law, the trading with the enemy act, and the prosecution of se- ditious conspiracy have been fruitful of results. '"The governments hands have been materially strengthened so that it now has power to deal with disturbing malcontents," says the At torney Generals report. "The prose cution of William D.. Haywood and other leaders of the so-called Indus | trial Workers of the World, to the number of more than 150 in the northern district of Illinois is an in- stance of how these laws may be em- ployed for the public protection in this time of stress. The effect of these prosecutions is already having a far reaching and highly beneficial influ- ence towards the maintenance of or der and obedience to law throughout the country"
 After dealing with the war activ- ities of the Department the Attorney | General passes on to recommenda- tions concerning the civil laws or the nation. Attorney General Gregory lrenews at the outset his recommenda- tions that the commodities clause of the interstate commerce law be amended to meet Supreme Court de- cisions, to divorce transportation from production. While the legislation MT. Gregory recommends Is intended particularly to cover the coal roads, it would prohibit to the last degree a railway from manufacturing or owning anything it transports in in- terstate commerce.
 Also, the Attorney General renews his recommendation for a provision of law intended to benefit the federal courts. It would provide that when a federal judge reaches the age of 70 years and refuses to avail himself of the retirement already provided by law, the President shall be authorized to appoint another judge for the same district to take precedence over the older one. Under existing law there is no legal peEa-7y for sending threatening letters through thes mails unless to accomplish extortion or as part of a means to defraud. Gregory recommends legislation to make 1t a crime. The statute of limitations for criminal prosecution in bankruptcy cases, now one year, the Attorney General regards as having defeated justice in some cases and he recom- mends that it be extended to three years.
 the enforcement ofe the anti trust laws the Attorney General says the Department has been confronted by peculiar conditions brought about
 "a war. There are two broad limitations on the power of the de- ADartment. Increases of price. brought