Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-20

By reason of it's sensational &C
tivity during the war in hunting
German spies, and since then in
the detection and prosecution of
anarchists, revolutionists and prof
iteers, the department of justice
has recently risen to great promi-
nence in the public eye.
This most dignified and myster-
ious of all the government depart
ments 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 25 years,
and this growth was lttingly sig
| nalized a couple of years ago when
the department, with its sixty-odd
lawyers, it's $4,000 volumes Of case
reports, its remarkable collection
of official portraits and its untrans-
i latabIe Latin motto, moved into a
new building in Washington all its
own
The new building was badly
needed About twenty years ago
congress appropriated some money
to build a house for the department
of Justice, but Attorney General
briggs delayed the building opera
tons because Of high prices. and
the department moved into an an
tique residence on K street, where
/ it staid for 20 years.
This place was large enough at
the time Of the removal. d. d.
| Caldwell. special assistant to At
torney General Palmer, who has
been in the department rs years,
y nnfnFnd Z
the department had but one tele-
phone. One of Mr.. CaldwelPs duties
was to answer this telephone, and
he says that he seldom got more
than six or eight calls in a day
Richard Olney was attorney gen
eral at that 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. Al
though his Office did not handle
1.-THE of the business which passes
through the modern department OF
Justice, it did handle some very
important cases, and Olney him
self appeared much oftener before
the supreme court of the United
States than do attorney generals
nowadays. For example, he per
sonaIIy 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 re-
ceived $780, 900 for arguing that one
case.
This illustrates a J condition
which still persists. namely, that
the lawyers employed by Uncle
Sam do not make nearly as much
money as a good lawyer can make
in private practice. The attorney
general gets only $4,000, the as
sistant attorneys 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
attorneys general with the excep-
ton 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 as
sistant attorney general gains
prestige and opportunity through
his government connection.
The government has never paid
it's LAWYERS much. Randolph, the
first attorney general, got 81, 800 a
year, and placed on record an en-
phatic protest, in which he said
that he was not making a decent
living. and described himself as "a
sort of mongrel between the states
and the United tSates."
The attorney general had no de
partment until 1870, and his depart
ment did not experience any large
growth until after the war with
Spain 1t was then that we began
the actual enforcement of anti
trust. federal railroad laws and
other legislation which required a
large and active federal legal de-
partment. Indeed, the process of
Capitalization which this govern
ment has undergone is we'll illus
trated in the growth of the depart
ment of justice, during % years, |
from a small Office employing per
haps a dozen people, to a great de- |
partment employing many hun
dreds.
The greatest growth, of course, !
came during the war, when the bu- |
reau of investigation, which is, as |
the name implies, an investigating |
bureau, larger in numbers than all |
the rest of the department put to-
gether- With the signing OF the !
aralistice, this part of the work |
ba0ap ~ shrink raDid1v but IL WAS !