The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-27
MADE HIS RECORD
 FOR NEW YORK IN FRAUD EXPOSURE
District Attorney Says
 Success Comes From Perfect Organization

.f .. E B NT Ew YORK, July 2e.-A tall spare man. with a kindly fact and keen, direct eyes, is Joab H Banton, district attorney of New Yorl county, who has put So bucket shop' out of existence, has swept the cit! prison clean of sluggish cases and hal organized. the office inrsuch a way that at a minutes notice he can check uI on flaw in legal proceedings. HI would make a delightful subject for { magazine of flapper's daddy.
 With his penchant for speedy justice his prescription for a deterrent ts crime; he has gained a name amont credit men all over; the ceuntfy--ant among criminals. FfTE -.,. a
 He adopted the policy of one, two three method of trial versus a lonf prison sentence because his experiencl in. the practce of law has taught hin that it is the memorable speed witl which justice is meted. out to thu guilty, and not possible long incar ceration. that makes for less crime.
 A habitual criminal, he says, is not afraid of long stretch, but he is afraid of rapid-fire conviction and the cer tainty of a sentence. Perhaps this ii due to the fact that a quick trial de priyes. the criminal of the opportunity of cooking up ways and means of clog ging the wheels of the courts, and, per haps, in the final summing up, of elud ing the whip of justice altogether.
 District Attorney Banton'ss success in getting through the stupendouE amount of work that is dished up for a district attorney 365 days out of the year is probably due to the fact that he budgets his time just as he budgets his work. And perhaps, too, the care ful and thorough organization of hil staff of 221 persons helps in the smootl working of the machinery.
 Sitting at a large desk in a light cheerful room that didn't, somehow, ire mind one of the ghosts of murderers thieves, forgers and other criminals whose cases have been decided in thaI office in the criminal courts building in the shadow of the sTombs, Mfr. Blan ton drew a comprehensive circle, of which he was the center, and showed the various lines that radiate outward from his hands, and the manner 1T which he adjusts the reins so as to gair the greatest possible efficiency.
 His Supervision
 This circle included his supersion oa the routine office work of his assist ants, his contact. with lawyers anC process servers and his interest in tn, unfortunates and the confirmed crimi nals awaiting trial at the Tombs.
 What is the most interesting ex perience you have had as district at torney?" he was asked. F,
 District Banton shook his head.
 T could not say," he replied. ''Ev cry case here is equally interesting be cause every case here involves liberty or life" '> ....
 You made a statement recently thaI there is less fraud in elections in New York state than anywhere elses' he wal told. How do you account for that 2
 We are a decent, law-abiding peo pie in New York. We want electioni clean and honest. We have possiblJ the most perfect system of elections 1T the country r-,. +4 ,--.
 Aren't people elsewhere just as de eent?" he was asked. @ s-
 Yes, but in small communities ant outlying districts where everyone know everyone else, they don't take the sam, care as we do here" he said.
 How did you happen to make sucl a drive. on fraud cases?' was the mex query. .'
 Forced into it. Frauds forced m, into it." he said quickly. 3 "I came into office at the conclusion of a 7receding market and at the vbe ginning of an ascending market" h explained. "The bucketeer takes ad vantage of his customer on recedini market. The broker takes the none. and doesn't bother to execute the sale Then as soon as the market begins t go up the customer demands his SC curity. "''--
 Failures Of Brokers
 "Eighty-nine brokers have @faiIet since I came into office (Decembet 1920 with $116, 6,000O00 liabilities an, l practically no assets. The result is tha i I have prosecuted and convicted fifty five brokers. That's more than all m, predecessors convicted. But don brag about that, because they didn' have the cases have had ....s.
 "When I took up my duty here ther was a peculiar situation on the mercan tile business. Merchants began to fiji false credits. Later on when thei statements for credit were looked int they were found to be false. The filin of false financial credit is a a-crinne. had a great many of those cases t prosecute. got eighty-five conviction in three cases. Two have been ac quilted.
 "I started right out to organize thi office as I would any private office 0 my own. I created departments, mai ing men heads of departments. TheF are now departments that handle ir surance, arson. fraud cases, and so or
 Our work here on fraud cases ha attracted the attention of credit me all oyer the country. I have recent been asked to tell wholesale credit me and another group of retail credit me how we do our work. This is perhap the reason that people get the impres sion that we specialize in fraud ease'
 "We don't specialize in fraud cases that is just an incidental of our busi ness. We carry all our work on a syt tematic basis. We plug along thu Q