The Washington herald., 1922-08-09

was extended to him. As a veteran
of the war and a member of the
American Legion. when / read OF
this in the papers my heart burned
within me with a righteous indig-
nation, and in loyalty to my gov
ernment. ard to the memory of my
comrades n arms who made the
suprem" sacrifice and have gone to
the Great beyond, can / ever forget
it?
Did Debs profit by his Jail ex-
perience. or show any appreciation
of the clemency extended him? Not
at all He is the same unregener~
ate cuss. going around abusing
every one who has a change OF
shirts. and preaching sedition. an.
archy. and the overthrow of the
government.
That the present head and per-
sonnel of the Department Of Jus
tice are Incompetent is evident to
every one who has dealings with
it. and their failure to enforce the
laws and discharge the duties de-
volving upon them. He has been
in ONCE more than year. and
has only recently begun the prose-
cution of war fraud cases. and not
until there were mutterinEs and
threats of impeachment among
members of Congress. and some of
these cases had become barred by
the statute of limitations. A start
has now been made with a great
flourish OF trumpets. and by the
appointment of a great horde OF spe-
cial assistants at rat salaries: but
the only achievement so far is the
Indictment of a Southern Republic
an named Phillips, and his asso-
ciates, who was manifestly picked
to impress the public with evidence
of good faith on his part in clean
ing up the thieves. But no one is
fooled or believes that anything
practical will result from these
prosecutions. other than catching a
few little fellows, who will be made
the goats. while big and influen-
tial malefactors will all escape. His
disposition to pass the buck in
all serious matters is notorious, and
his incompetency will be further
shown in the follwing:
Never before in the history of the
Department of Justice was there an
Attorney General so incompetent.
and distrustful of his own legal
knowledge as to have to call in the
public for a hearing to tell him
how to decide a legal question that
had been put up to him by the
head of another department. This
he did up the simple legal question
as to whether or not American ves-
sells outside the three mile limit
a rfsh
stead act: thereby admitting his in
competency to deal with the ques-
ton or his lack OF moral courage
to assume the sole responsibility
for the decision by shunting II on
on part of the public to whom he
could pass the buck" in the event
the decision rendered was not in ac-
cord with what the general public
may think 1t ought to have been.
Such action turns the hitherto dig
nified Department of Justice into a
debating society, and makes IL RI
diculous. What is the Attorney
General for but to decide questions
of law submitted to him upon his
own knowledge and conscientious
belief of what the law Is without
regard to what the advocates and
opponents of the particular law
may think 1t should be- And after
all the question is not OF the
slightest difficulty To one versed In
the principles of the law. and the
rules of statutory Interpretation.
No one denies the power OF Con-
gress under the Eighteenth amend
ment to prohibit liquor upon Amer
lean vessels upon the high seas or
elsewhere. The only question at
issue Is. Did IL do SO in the Vol
stead act? Not having done So In
express terms II becomes solely a
question of the intent Of Congress
to be found in the act itself. Never
having read the act I would NOT
assume to express an opinion on
the question further than to say,
from what has been stated In the
papers about 1t. II appears to be
what Is called a casus omissus, and
was not covered by Congress In the
act.
No public question of Importance
comes up. likely to involve votes,
that he does not show a disposition
to evade 1t. or shift the RESPONSE
bility to others. Here are the coal
and rail strikes that have been in
progress about six weeks and ten
days or more, respectively. These
strikes are of the gravest import
to the peace. welfare and prosper