The Washington times., 1924-12-26
BURDEN IS
GROWING
FAST
Hah of Federal Cases Now
Are just Police Court Grind.
Judges overworked
BY WILLIAM HARD.

BY WILLIAM HARD.
The Bureau of Investigation of
the Department Of Justice reports
that last year its work resulted
in imposing upon indicted and
convicted persons sentences Of i'm
prisonment - Federal sentences
amounting in total to 4,126 years.
Let US, however, analyze that
total.
Included within it are sentences
Of imprisonment for violating the
Federal act against stealing auto
mobiles and for violating the Fed
eral act against stealing anything
that is, moving in railroad cars in
interstate commerce.
Half Are Thefts.
How tnany years of Imprisonment
were secured through the labors
of the Bureau of Investigation for
violation OF those two acts?
The answer is 2 ,431 years.
Now 2,4S1 is more than half Of
4,126.
, More than half, therefore, of the
years of Imprisonment secured
through the labors Of the Bureau
Of Investigation were in the course
Of enforcing federal laws which
make certain forms of theft into
federal crimes.
But theft in any and every form
II always and everywhere a local
crime anyhow.
To make it o Federal crime is
simply to make it a crime twice
and to provide and support by taxes
two sets of detectives, two sets Of
prosecutors, and two sets of judges
to punish 1t.
The Department. of Justice has
printed statistics showing how
enormously, how crushingly, its
work has grown.
Much Waste Effort.
The judges of the Federal courts
have protested increasingly against
the "overloading'' of their courts.
Bills are constantly introduced
into Congress for more Federal
judges. More have got created,
more are getting created, and more
are going to be created.
Moreover, the quality Of the legal
thinking done by the Federal courts
is going to decline.
In the old days Federal judges
tried cases which almost necessarily
involved deep fundamental prin-
ciples Of the law.
Now they have to give their
time trying people who have been
found with a keg of Intoxicating
fruit juice in their cellar and people
who have been found stealing q
basket Of coal from coal car
going out of Pennsylvania into New
Jersey and people who have run
away with a reighbor's Ford.
How they have to give their
minds to the grind of the work Of
q police magistrate.
Resent Police Court Grind.
They dislike it. They resent it.
They know that it not only clogs
their courts, but also prevents them
from giving adequate thought to
the fundamental legal and con.
stitutional QW' 'stions which are the
primary essen tial field Of action for
the judicial officers Of the Federal
Republic.
Their protests are in vain. The
march toward doing everything
Federally that is already also done
locally goes on without pause.
This last fiscal year the Bureau
Of Investigation of the Department
of Justice spent Federal time and
Federal money investigating 2,4s3
persons who were suspected of
stealing motor cars.
1t increased by $3,7o0 the amount
Of money collected in fines from
people who for purposes OF theft
entered railroad cars rolling in in
terstate commerce.
Now the Senate is considering a
bill declaring it a Federal crime to
break the seals on a railroad car
rolling in interstate commerce.
New Laws Add to Burden.
The car ;s rolling, let us say, IN
Illinois when the seals are broken
II they are broken for purposes
OF theft. a crime against the laws
of Illinois has been committed
Nevertheless, the police offlcsrs OF
the State Of Illinois are not thought
competent. or are not thought
worthy to be required to- catch
the thief. He must be caught by
somebody hired from Washington
Meanwhile, the House of Repre-
aentatiS es has passed a<bill provid
ing that 1t is going to be crime
20 send firearms through the mails
Local authorities cannot disarn1
our population They cannot find
! pistols and take them away from
4 the people who have them. They
cannot pacify their own localities
The Federal Government has d
step in. 1t has to check the use
Of pistols by individual citizens in
our several separate States by
banning pistols from the mails and
by making the transportation ol
pistols through the mails a Federal
Now we shall have bootleg pis.
. tolls, which are smug9led through
the mails In defiance of Fedearl
law; and we shall have in the re-
ports OF the Bureau OF Investigation
OF the Department OF Justice new
heading, under which the bureau
will report its chases after ''pistol
runners"
The local authorities meanwhile