The New York herald., 1921-08-14
ISON FOR TAX DODGERS, COL HAYWARD'S PLEA
u S. Attorney Says Government Would Gain
Millions Yearly if Stern Sentences, In
stead of Fines, Were Imposed

brought very forcibly to my notice since I
tackled this job. That is the penny wise and
pound foolish policy of the Government with
respect to the number and compensation of
the assistants in this office.
"The greatest remuneration any assistant
receives in this Office is $5 900 a year, and
there are only three of them-the heads of
the civil, criminal and admiralty divisions.
The salaries range from that down to 81 900
for lawyer who is expected to go into court
and get convictions in cases where the de-
fendant frequently is represented by the
highest priced lawyers in the city. Taking
into consideration the nature and extent of
the legal work done here, comparison with
the payroll of the District Attorney of New
York county or of the Corporation Counsel
of the City of New York will show the utter
inconsistency of the situation.
why, in every important case the op-
ponents that the Governments lawyers
meet in court receive for that one case prob
ably more than the Governments representa-
tives get in a year. 1t would be economy
for the Government in the long run to make
more attractive places on the staff so that
young lawyers, once joining, will stay long
enough to be of some service to the Govern
ment as well as to themselves. 1 have in
mind recent case in which an assistant re-
signed and within week was back in court
as counsel for the demonstrating the Gov
ernment and incidentally won his case
Here. is an extract from a report made on
the conditions in the office last April by Col.
Francis G. Caffey, Col. Hayward's predeces-
sor and which the latter points to as proof of
his contention that the Governments
penurious policy with regard to the number
and compensation of assistants is expensive
in the long run. Col. Caffey wrote the Attor-
General concerning ths civil department
of the office:
approximately half of the general work
of the office is civil and half criminal.
Possibly half of the time of the lawyers in
the civil department is put on matters that
do not go into court Settlements are arrived
at, collections are made out of court, or local
branches of the executive departments of the
Government require decisions from this Office
which avoid lawsuits Approximately seventy
per cent of all the customs taxes of the
United States collected at this port.
'"The civil litigation itself that has been
pending and is still pending in this district
during the current year, exclusive of ad-
miralty cases, involves in the neighborhood
of $70,000000. (This aggregate has since in
creased to more than 100000, ,000). In ad-
dition we handle a considerable volume of
suits under the various tax laws, which,
while directly involving comparatively small
amounts, are test cases. The consequences
Of those to the Government run into very
large figures. Within my experience sew
eral such test cases have been handled by
assistants in this Office. each of which in
directly had at stake for the Government
amounts running from s25,000,000 to
$50 000, 900.
"All of these cases turn on questions of the
validity or construction of provisions of the
tax laws. The questions are frequently close.