The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-16
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
Blu REAU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
washtngtnn. D. c
UNCLE SANS LAW FIRM.

ing the war in hunting German spies,
and since then in the detection and
prosecution of anarchists, revolution
lists and profiteers the department of
justice has recently risen to great
prominence in the public eye.
This most dignified and mysterious
of all the government departments has
also achieved in recent years a great
actual increase in power and in scope
of duty In fact, nearly all of its
growth has occurred during the last
twenty-five years, and this growth was
fittingly signalized a couple of years
ago when the department, with its
sixty-odd lawyers. its fifty thousand
volumes of case reports, its remarka-
BILE collection of official portraits and
its untransiatable Latin motto. moved
into a new building all Its own.
The new building was badly needed.
About twenty years ago congress ap-
propriated some money to build
house for the department of justice.
but Attorney General briggs delayed
the building operations because of
high prices, and the department
moved into an antique residence on K
street, where it stayed for twenty
years.
This place was large enough at the
time of the removal. Mr.. D. D. Cald-
well, special assistant to Attorney
General Palmer. who has been in the
department twenty-five years, says
that when he first entered 1t the de-
partment had but one telephone. One
of Mr.. CaldwelPs duties, was to an
swer this telephone, and he says that
he seldom got more than six or eight
calls in a day. The Honorable Rich
ard Olney was attorney general at the
time. 1t is said that he was a great
tennis player, and that he seldom
failed to reach the courts by early in
the afternoon.
But Olney was a great lawyer as
well as a good tennis player. Altho
his office did not handle a 1.-THE of
the business which passes thur the
modern department of justice, it did
and Olney himself appeared much
oftener before the supreme court of
the United States than do attorney gen.
erals nowadays. For example, he per-
sonally argued the old income tax case
against Joseph Choate. Olney's salary
at that time was $4,000 a year. and
it is said that Choate received $780,
900 for arguing that one case.
This illustrates a condition which
still persists, namely that the lawyers
employed by Uncle Sam do not make
nearly as much money as a good law
yer can make in private practice. The
attorney general gets only 1000, the
assistant attorney general $500, and
the rest Of the department lawyers
from two to five thousand. In spite
OF these low rewards the department
has always been able to command a
high grade of legal ability because of
the prestige which service with the
department conferS upon a lawyer.
Retiring attorney generals with the
exception of a few who have gone to
the supreme court bench, have always
gone into private practice and have
made big money, while even an assist
ant attorney general gains prestige
and opportunity thru his government
connection.
The government has never paid its
lawyers much. Randolph, the first
attorney general, got $1,000 a year.
protest, in which he said that he was
not making a decent living. and des-
cribed himself as "a sort of mongrel
between the states and the United
States"
The attorney general had no depart
ment until 1870, and his department
did not experience any large growth
until after the war with Spain. 1t was
then that we began the actual enforce
ment Of antitrust federal railroad
laws, and other legislation which re-
quired a large and active federal legal
department. Indeed, the process of
Capitalization which this government
has undergone is well illustrated in
the growth of the Department of Jus
tice, during rs years, from a small Of
flee employing perhaps a dozen peo-
pie to a great department employing
many hundreds.
The greatest growth of course, came
during the war when the bureau of in
vestigation, which is. as the name i'm
plies, an investigation bureau, grew
larger in numbers than all the rest of
the department put together. With
the signing of the armistice, this part
of the work began to shrink rapidly.
but it was revived when the reds be-
came active. The prosecution of the
I. w. w. which was conducted by
Asst. Atty. Gen. Frank K. Nebeker,
was one of the greatest cases ever won
by the department. Between forty
and fifty headquarters of the radicals
were raided. In one Chicago case
there were 120 defendants, 90 of
whom were convicted. This prosecu-
ton is generally given credit for hav-
ing broken the back of the revolution
list organization in this country.
AS now organized. the department
of justice has. in effect, about six dis
tinct divisions, each under an assistant
attorney general. These are in charge
respectively of criminal cases in which
the government is involved, investiga .
lions such as those of the reds and
the German spies, claims against the
government, admiralty cases. war risk
insurance, and the public lands. In
addition to prosecuting and defending
cases in court, these divisions must
furnish legal advice to any depart
| ment of the government which asks
1t. In addition to these six divisions,
| there is a solicitor general who directs
the handling of all appeal cases.
As impressive feature of the de-
partment of justice is it's collection of
portraits. From the very first it has
| been customary for the attorney gen.
70 HI Of
government expense before retiring
from office, and to leave it hanging
on the office wall. Thus, when you
enter the attorney generals office.
| you face the solemn and impressive
| gaze of all the departed attorneys
| general The assistant Attorneys gen