Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1918-06-08

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today whether or not there was any
considerable increase in the criminal
business in the Federal Court for his
district by reason of the war or for
other reasons, made the following
statement:
Answering your question 1 can
eonservatively say that there has re-
suited a vast increase in the volume
OF business in this district as a d.
rect consequence of the war; not only
is this reflected in the increase in
the number of prosecutions in the
courts, but there is vast volume of
business claiming the attention of
myself and my assistants which is
not presented to the courts in the
form of prosecutions. For instance,
practically every day one or more
Presidential warrants are issued for
the arrest of alien enemies who are
generally interned for the period of
the war; this in itself entails a great
deal of labor and research because
Iof the insistence ON the part of the
attorney general that no injustice be
done an alien enemy upon any charge
lodged against him and that great
care he taken in the investigation of
all such cases before internment. In
addition to this we are almost daily
overwhelmed with complaints from
nearly every section of the district
against persons accsued of disloyalI
acts or utterances against the Gov
eminent; many of these complaints
are found to be either without foul-
dation or resulting from misconcep-
ton of the Espionage law. Never
theless, great many cases have been
brought to prosecution and convic,
ton
ITO give some little idea of the
volume of business we are required
handle l might refer to the three
weeks term of court which closed
in Wheeling Friday, May "a; at that
term there were approximately one
hundred and twenty cases, presented
by Indictment or information; of this
number sixteen were in violation Of
the Selective Service Act, eleven
were for violations of the Espionage
law, two were for false affidavits to
missionaries required to be fur
nished by draftees, nine cases were
presented for thefts from interstate
shipments of freight, six white slave
indictments were returned, and in
addition to all of these cases which
were felonies, we had about sixty five
cases arising out of the sale of in
toxicating liquors or the Interstate
transportation of Intoxicating hqours
in violation OF the Act of Congress
commonly known as the "Ree1
! Amendment" At the term OF court
at Philippi last week we had seventy
eight confessions and eleven jury
4 trials. OF the eleven trials there were
Gine convictions, one case in which
! the jury disagreed, and one case in
which a verdict of mot guilty" was
returned on motion of the Govern
ment. At that term of court there
were six convictions under TIE
Espionage law, at least fourteen
under the Selective Service Act
against draftees who failed to regis
ter, and four convictions under the
white slave act; all of this volume
Of business was dispatched in little
less than three weeks.
alt might be of interest to the
public to know that two men were
sent to the penitentiary at Atlanta
for terms of two years each Cor Vio'
lation of the Espionage Act, one was
sent to a term in Jail and two Others
were punished by heavy fines for the
same offense. Under the new Espion
age law of Congress, which was ap
proved by the President on the 10th
, of last month, a much wider scope
; is given in the prosecution of this
class of crime; until the passage by
Congress of this Act the prosecution
of such case was very much ham
pered by reason of the fact that the
: law was not broad enough to cover
} many acts which Were found nec9s
sary in the progress of the war, tC
, be classed as crimes. The act, as
now in effect, is sufficiently broad Ii
its terms to make it exceedingly dan
} gerous for persons having sympa
: thetic sentiments toward our enemies
z to give utterance or expression OF
' any kind or character to such senti