Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-09
Continued From Third Page.)

for the law must be revived If the law
Is to live. The Nation must have an
intensive course in citizenship. With
the specialization and preoccupation
with business which have become the
principal features of the material de-
Velopment Of the people, the task is no
easy one.
However. without doing more here
Than touching upon the necessity Of its
ultimate accomplishment, certain steps
may be pointed out which will make the
somewhat unwieldy mechanism of the
law more comprehensive to the indi-
vidual when the educational campaign
Is undertaken and at the same time
render that mechanism somewhat more
efficient. All of them are in the direc-
ton Of that localization of responsibility
which must be the standard of the fight
against criminality.
Some Alarm Caused.
One of the fundamental changes,
bearing directly upon localization of re-
sponSibility, relates to that feature OF
our society which has caused some
alarm among observers and is referred
to sometimes as Capitalization Of Gov
eminent and sometimes as the en-
croachment of the Federal Govern
ment upon State rights. A still better
term would be the REIMBURSEMENT of
State responsibilities to the Federal
Government.
It is due to the failure of the States
themselves to accept responsibility
which is purely local in its inception
that the Federal courts have become
cluttered up with cases which are
largely police matters, instead of re-
manning somewhat aloof and austere,
to deal with matters purely national in
their aspect. Proper recognition and
adjustment of the relations among the
States themselves and between the
various States and the Federal Govern
ment would relieve the Federal courts
of much of the petty business which
now clogs their calendars. contributes
to bureaucracy and causes the cry Of
''Encoachment!" to go up.
Wholly aside from the question Of
efficiency. it is one of the rights and
one of the duties of the States to
enforce local laws for the protection of
their own citizens. But the question
of failure in the administration of
criminal law is as important as in the
administration of other branches Of law.
The crook of today is making progress
In his business. He makes use Of the
machine gun, the automatic pistol and
the high-power automobile. Efficiency
in the administration of the law is
the crook has organized.
How Criminals Operate.
A recent happening In one Of our
large cities illustrates the detailed man
ner in which criminals now operate.
A group who made q speciality of
holding up plants on pay day lived in
q farmhouse just outside of the city.
They had working for them lesser
criminals with no police records. These
men, some weeks prior to the hold-up,
day of the robbery they would be stand
ing in line waiting for their pay. In the
event that the robbers were appre-
hended and witnesses would be produced
who identified them as committing the
crime, their confederates with no rec
ord against them would be prepared to
contradict the testimony Of identifi-
cation
It developed in this particular case
that one of the men so used demanded
more pay. Fearing that he would turn
States evidence, the group put him OF
for q few days and sent him out of
the rear of their house they had a
grave already prepared. They killed him
and buried him there.
In order to bring men Of this char
acter to justice It Is necessary that they
should be apprehended and prosecuted
in the community in which the crime
was committed. That Is the community
whose laws have been violated, whose
citizens have suffered at the hands Of
the criminal and whose citizens will be
most available and most alert as wit
nesses in that individual case. The
shifting of responsibility always Is
detrimental to eff1ciency