Evening star., 1924-12-15
Congress Members Prefer
Extension of Present JUS
tice Machinery.
ZlHlMAN PLEA FAILS
TO CARRY PROPOSITION
Blanton Refuses to Vote-Ball
Explains Reasons for Changing
His Mind.

Despite urgent pleas and recommenda-
tions of the Commissioners, Police De-
partment, police officials and motor ex-
perts. the joint District committees Of
the House and Senate, at meeting to-
day, voted against the establishment of
a traffic court in Washington.
Although members of both commit
tees have gone on record as favoring
what officials agree is one of the neces-
sary remedies for the wave of traffic
criminality which has been sweeping
over the city. and although the estab-
lishment of a traffic court is provided
for in the tentative bill drafted by the
Senate District committee after a COM
prehensive investigation, the joint COM
mittee took an abrupt about face and
passed the resolution Of Senator Cope
land Of New York that II any additions
were needed to the courts it would be
by addition Of judges to the present
court and not in the establishment of a
traffic court"
BIanton Not Voting.
The vote on the Copeland resolution
was 9 to 4. Representative Thomas
Blsntou of Texas refused to vote,
pointing out that he did not believe
that the committee had sufficient data
on the conditions in the courts.
The traffic court may be the only
way that we can handle this situs-
tion," he said "I am not ready To
say that we should not establish a
traffic court when we have no data
from which we are able to make
decision. 1 happen to know that the
present courts are disgracefully
crowded, and that the two judges
have more work than they can pos
sibly handle. ] am in favor OF giving
the District Immediately more
judges and 100 more policemen"
Representative Zihlman of MARY
land urged the committee to establish
a traffic court. He said that he had
made a study OF conditions in Wash
ington. and that he was convinced
that such a court was necessity.
Work for More Judges
There is plenty of work to keep
two additional judges in a separately
created traffic court busy all the
time" he asserted. THE two judges
in the present Police Court handled
thousands of traffic cases last year
in spite of all their other work. but
the docket is so crowded that justice
is SLOW. They are unable to give
each case the proper attention. any
one familiar with the situation can
give you the full statistics.
THE thing we need here is traf-
fic court. two judges and the neces-
sary clerks The judges should have
nothing but traffic cases, because in
this way they acquire the experience
and get to be familiar with chronic
offenders This type of law violator
should be dealt with severely, and
only Judges before whom they come
time and time again can Adequately
deal with them.
Explained by Ball.
Senator L. Heisler Ball, chairman
of the Senate District committee.
opened the meeting by explaining
that a bill had been drafted by the
subcommittee on traffic and that the
first item on the proposed bill was
the establishment of a traff1c court.
AT one time" said the Senator, 81
was in favor of the creation of such
a court The more I think about IL,
however, the more / believe that in
the interests of economy, additions
should be made to the present court
rather than the establishment of
new one. l want full and open dis
cussion on this matter by members
of the joint committee"
Senator Copeland asked the chair
man if the present courts were
crowded and citizens were delayed
in getting trial of cases
>"I understand that they are very
much crowded. answered Senator
Ball, land two more judges are need
ed for the present courts. OF course.
with the addition of judges, clerks
the court attendants are necessary,
too. The thing that l dislike about
the traffic court idea is that the
Judges will have only one kind of
case to handle and 1 am afraid they
will get into a rut."
Would Give Wider Scope.
Stating that he could not agree that
traffic court was not necessary,
Representative Blanton said that he
believed that such a court should be
created, with two more judges, and
that the court should sit at night,
He also said that the judges should
be given general jurisdiction so that
if there were no traffic cases on the
docket they could work on, other
matters.
Representative Kent of Pennsylvania
said that he was not in favor of going
on record for additions to the present
court or the need of a traffic court.
He asserted that II the committee did
that 1t would be going on the as
sumption that violations Of the law
were going to continue to pile up.
''If we could get at the cause of
these violations, instead of Furnishing
them after they occur, there would
not be SO many court cases and there
would be no need for more judges or
another court" he said. .
The committee will meet again to-
morrow morning at. 10 o'clock to dis
cuss the needs of the present court
and to take up other features of the
tentative Senate bill.