Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-09-04
WHAT ABOUT THIs7

WHAT ABOUT THIST
Any attempt by any portion OF D.
ciety to shoulder onto another por-
ton responsibility for the astound-
ing increase in crime would be worse
than futile, as we are all in the same
boat and there Is need Of the will ana
, strength of all ell-disposed mem
bers to pull together, to unite In plac-
ing the mutinous in irons until we
make port.
Foreseeing possibility Of hysteria
under the stress Of present conoi-
tons, Dean Roscoe Pound OF the
Harvard Law School undertook the
other day to warn the public against
it, aNcommendable effort on his pars'
but in doing it he conveyed to some
minds the impression that he woulo
have US believe the situation Is not
so serious but we should go slowly
and investigate all the conditions be-
fore taking any active measures.
Mr.. Pounds confidence in efficacy
from compiling crime charts is not
shared by Mark o. Prentiss, creator
of the national crime commission,
who is aroused and takes exceptions
to any such impression. He goes
further and declares the legal pro-
fession is chiefly responsible, that
for a generation bar associations
have been passing resolutions deplor-
ing crime conditions and have done
nothing else, although their influence
predominates in lawmaking bodies.
He declares that during the past Is
days the agitation of the public over
this matter has really done more
than 10 years of legal analysis has
done, that the public is being I'M
pressed with the idea that the ad-
n,inistration of justice is breaking
down.
Speaking, Wednesday, on the sub
ject of Liberty and Law before the
American Bar Association OF which
he is president, the Honorable
Charles Evans Hughes. who general
ly knows what he is talking about,
-sp.--~- ~. -. .-..---ss go.
in criminal cases, adding:
LET me not talk simply of rules OF
procedure in the desire to obtain the
appropriate punishment of crime and
the enforcement of law, but make 1t
our concern that trials of criminal
cases shall be less a game OF please
the spectators and more an effort to
deal promptly and efficiently with
precise charge, with no right infring-
ed, with no nonsense tolerated.
The need of orderly process
should not be overlooked nor need
society get panicky. 1t does need to
have something done, however. Or
derby processes were observed in no.
ticeable degree by the Vigilantes.
who cleaned up California, years ago.
We don't need the vigilantes nor
their kind of orderly processes but
we do need continuance Of the es-
sential orderly processes we now
have, and the abandonment Of un-
necessary delays, bubbles over tech
nicalities, passing of the buck and
the various expedients under which
all recognize that criminal experts
have succeeded so often in defeating
the ends of justice.
Some would hesitate to finger
print every immigrant, and some
would insist not only on doing that
but also on finger printing every in
dividual living without visible means
of support. Mr.. Prentiss would have
the immigrants finger printed, and
they would have no logical objection.
He would have the transportation of
firearms prohibited and every publ
cation advertising them excluded
from the mails. What howl would
go up if that were done. Perhaps
we need howl, If for nothing more
than to trace out the sources whence
the howl comes.
There may be expected a bewild-
ering assortment of remedies propos-
ed. We should be cool while making
the selection but we should not ne
glect the very important fact that
remedy is needed. 1t would be as
silly as it would be unjust to blame
it all on the lawyers, when we have
executives issuing pardons in seem
ing disregard of the findings of the
courts, and voters voting. for such
executives regardless of misuse of