The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-07-05
TO EMIT WIRE TAPPING.


 Notwithstanding the decision of the United ctatos Sunreme Court recently upholding the legality of evidence in the Roy olmstead case obtained by agents of the Prohibition ohlt ps means of tapped private telephone wires II lS apparently not the intention of the GoVefh1ieh' to resort extensvly to this more or less ques- tionabe practice in the future. Assistant sec retary of Treasury Lowman commenting on the decision said snooping in the nome Is no mart of the program of the Prohibition Bureau and that wire tapping is to be confined to groups who are wilfully violating the law ana where detection is difficult He said;
 Through the tapping of wires in
 necessary cases the Prohibition Bureau
 has been able to build up successful
 prosecutions against eonspirators to Vlo-
 late the law. We have not used thls
 extreme method except in conspiracy
 cases involving large number of per
 sons or in other important drives against big bootlegging operations.
 Most of the wire tapping done by the agents has been in the larger cities in the country notably New York Chicago and Detroit and al most entirely in conspiracy cases That the Government itself believes this is an unusual method of gathering evidence is strongly indi- cated by MT Lowmans characterization of it as 'extreme"
 The decision of the Supreme Court was five to four with Associate Justices Brandeis, Holmes, Butler and Stone taking the view that wire tapping is illegal The majority opinion was based on the ground that the language Of the Fourth Amendment cannot be extended and expanded to include telephone wires reaching to the whole world from the defendants house or office"
 Justice Holiness eoncurrng in the minority view, sad "The Government ought not to use evidence obtained and obtanable only by erim- inal act. It is desirable that criminals should be detected and to that end all available evil dence should be used It also is desirable that the Government should not itself foster and pay for other crimes when they are the means by which the evidence is obtained.
 That may not be good law and sound public doctrine Indeed, majority of the Supreme Court dssented from it's reasoning and philos ophy But it will appeal very strongly to tho average American citizen whose respect for tho law of the land has from the very cradle beer founded upon the idea that the officers of tho Government the servants of the people ant that when such servants break any law the. are required to answer for it in equal degre that private citizen would be.
 The principal dissenting opinion was writer by Justice Brandes It is we'll worth reading Defending the proposition that the tapping o wires comes within the meaning of the Fourt Amendment of the Constitution which holds tha 'the right of the people to be secure in thei persons houses. papers and effects against un reasonable search and seizures shall not be vic lated" he said:
 Before any of the persons charg
 ed had been arrested indicted, the
 telephones by means of which they
 habtually communicated with
 other and with others had been tapped
 by Federal officers. To this end line
 man of long experience in wire-tapping
 was employed on behalf of the Govern
 ment and at it's expense. He tapped
 eight telephones in the homes of
 the persons charged, in their
 offices. Acting behalf of the Gov
 ernment and in their official capacity,
 at least six other Prohibition agents
 listened over the tapped wires and
 ported the messages taken. Their opera
 itons extended oyer period of nearly
 five months.
 The Government makes no attempt
 to defend the methods employed by it's
 officers Indeed it comedies that if wire
 tapping can be deemed a search and seiz-
 within the Fourth Amendment such
 wre-tapping practiced in the case
 at bar unreasonable search and
 seizure and that the evidence thus ob-
 tained inadmissibe. But it relies
 on the language of the amendment; and
 it claims that the protection given
 thereby cannot properly be held to in-
 cude telephone conversation.
 Subter and more far-reaching means
 of invading privacy have become avail
 able to the Government Discovery and
 invention have made it possible for the
 Government by means more effective
 than stretching upon the rack to ob-
 tain disclosure in court of what is whis-
 pered in the closet
 The progress of science in furnish
 ing the Government with means of es-
 pionage is not likely to stop with wire
 tapping Ways may day be devel-