Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10
NATIONAL PARLEy
ON CRIME LIKELY
President Expected to Call
Session Here After
Lawyers Plea.

While the Department of Justice
continues TO maintain a strict silence
concerning the proposal laid before it
some weeks ago that it sponsor a ma
tional conference in crime, the belief
exists in some quarters that the de-
partment will see fit to adopt il and
that the call for such a conference
will come from the President.
While the nature of the proposal
has been kept a secret, 1t has been
learned that Sanford Bates, a we'll
known lawyer and criminal expert OF
Boston, is the individual who made
the proposal to the Attorney General.
Mr. Bates has declined to discuss 1t
in any way. preferring that any COM
ment come from the Attorney Gen.
eral himself. Attorney General Sar-
gent, meanwhile, has said nothing,
while the only information forthcom-
ing from the department Is that the
matter is still under consideration.
Two Factors Favorable.
Two factors, however. give the sug
gestion weight. The first is that Mr..
Bates does not fall within the classi-
fication of those who make suggeS-
tions solely for the publicity involved.
and the second is that the National
Crime Commission, organized in the
Summer of 1925 by group of public
spirited men who met in the Office of
Judge Ebert H. Gary, has about
reached the limit of it's activities un-
less some further move is made
In the way of enabling 1t to co-ordi-
nate and centralize the results Of its
work.
Mr.. Bates, who lives in section of
the country which is always looked
upon with kindness and sympathy
In administration quarters. has served
as commissioner of the Department of
Correction of Massachusetts,; he was
the official representative of the
United States Government at the In
ternational Prison Conference in Lon
don in 1925; Is vice president of the
Institute of Criminal Law and Crimi-
nology and is a member of the Com
mission to Investigate Criminal Law.
Suggestion Opportune.
His suggestion, believed, in effect,
to be that the Department of Justice
or the President sponsor a national
conference on crime comes at an
opportune time. The National Crime
Commission, as a result of Its work,
would be able to furnish such a con-
ference with a vast amount of data
gathered during the last year and a
half and bearing on statistics on
crime in the different States and
measures which the States have
adopted to remedy existing defects
in their criminal codes.
Al. = Al.
National Crime Commission found
that in many States there are no
available statistics relating to the
amount of crime of violence. or the
adequacy or efficiency of punishment
and that no agency existed in these
States for the gathering of such sta
tistics. One of its first moves, there
fore, was to urge the different States
to take up the collection of such sta
tistics without which thorough un-
derstanding of the existence and
causes of crimes of violence cannot
be reached.
At its first annual meeting, held
here last April, the executive COM
mittee of the National Crime Commits
sion announced its conclusion that
the efficiency of justice and the laws
| relating to crimes of violence, as we'll
| in the different parts of the country,
that the obvious thing to do was to
make the application of remedies the
/ subject of special investigation by sep
arate State crime commissions, fam
| liar with the local situations. The
| suggestion was made to the State
/ governors that they consider the for.
nation of such commissions
Action Before States.
While comparatively few States
have as yet adopted the suggestion
and created official State commissions,
| empowered by the Legislatures to go
into the whole matter of crimes of
violence, indications are that as the
subject becomes more thoroughly
understood the example of those
States which have created crime com.
missions will be largely followed.
New York, one OF the first States
to follow the suggestion, has created
a crime commission and through leg
islutive action has given it wide au-
thority and an annual appropriation
! OF $50, 600. II is too early to prophecy
that additional progress will be made
/ In the creation of such State commits
| sions elsewhere, as many Of the State
| Legislatures are still in session. or
such bills that have been passed have
| not received the signature Of the
State executives. But according to in
formation received from the National
| Crime Commission, the number Of
concrete proposals for the establish.
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