The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-21
DAUGHERTYT TOASK
 FOR MORE MONEY
 FOR PROSECUTIONS
Congress Beginning to Feel Personnel of Justice De- partment Is Insufficient
 For Real Work
By HUGH W. ROBERTS Washington Bureau, The Age-Hernld,
 800 Davidson Building.

Washington. May 20.--(Special.)- Although appropriations in favor of the department of justice for the cur rent fiscal year amount to Si70o0,O0o. Harry NJ. Daugherty. the attorney general when prodded into a prose- cution of perpetrators Of war contract frauds came to Congress with de- mand for s5o0,oo0 in addition. and before such prosecutions are well underway. he will again come to Con gress for funds.
 Congress readily acceded to the de- mands of the attorney general, and will, no doubt continue to accede. But the Congress, it 8 evident. feels that already IL has done enough by the attorney general to warrant him in bringing to justice those who defrauded the government In time of war. And the Congress is apparent ly resentful in that the rules com mitteee of the House and the entire republican machinery of the House is determined by parliamentary strat- egy,to prevent a vote on the Wood ruff-Johnson resolution providing for an investigation of the department of justice.
 The chairman of the rules com mittee, Representative Phil Campbell of Kansas, has said in effect that he will allow the House to vote on the resolution of investigation whenever he deems 1t wise or proper or ex- pedlent.
 Staff of Attorneys
 Mir. Daugherty has forty-seven at- torneys on his staff whom the gov ernmcnt pays siS1,2o0 per snnum. With this vast staff, he was unable to make even a beginning of a gem eral procedure against those who took advantage of this government in it's hour of peril. And then two re- publican representatives, Johnson of South Dakota, and Woodruff of Mich igan prodded him into action by threats Of impeachment, he retallated with a declaration that he would have to have additional funds to em- ploy real attorneys to represent the government.
 The situation has brought to minds of some members of the House the fact that a department when built up by preferring those to whom poIit- ical debts are owed, proves inefficient when real work develops.
 In addition to the staff of 47 att torneys. Daugherty now has on his rolls ITO special assistant attorneys who are paid from fund of S85O.- 900. In addition to all these attor- neys and special assistants, district attorneys for whom and their forces $soo,o0o are paid, are always avail able. There are also regular assist ants to district attorneys for whom appropriation has been made in sum of 3560, ,000.
 In Addition. Congress appropriated for this fiscal year s2,o00.0o0 for the employment of special agents to de- tect and prosecute crime. Statement of Critic Representative Joseph Byrns of Tennessee. member of the appropria- tions committee, relative to the near scandal in the department of justice, states today: Tn my judgment there is no excuse for the situation in which the department of justice finds It. self. When the attorney general was before the appropriations committee, asked him how many of these spe- cial war-fraud cases he had investi- gated by July l of last year. I was told by him that on July 1, 1921. they had no record of war-fraud cases. although the attorney general had been in service for a period of four months
 This shows that there was a lack of activity and in indifferece on the part of the department of justice which thoroughly Justified Represen- tatives Johnson and Woodruff In ar raigning the department for its fail ure to prosecute these cases" MT. Daugherty says today that he will proceed calmly and dispassionate- ly and that no "hysteria" vii prompt him to ''persecute" or "crucify." He will announce his legal staff ex- traordinary within a few days. he says.