Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-19
Crime-Ridden America.

| We think of ourselves in America as
the most progressive of Nations and one
might compile an impressive array OF
evidence to prove it, including the ma
tional readiness to scrap outworn the
cries and methods and adopt the latest
ideas.
But Chairman Wickersham Of the
Presidents Commission on Law OBJ
servance and Enforcement has gathered
some disillusioning facts. One of the
many reasons our law enforcement ma
chinery has ceased to function eff
ficiently, he told an audience in Gin
cinnati this week, is because it is so
ancient 1t fairly creaks. In an age of
airplanes, we are clinging to an OK cart
because it was good enough for our
forefathers. The legal system was
brought to this country by the founding
fathers, who borrowed the best thing
available at the time. But because it
has become an institution" we con-
tinue to use it long after others from
whom It was borrowed have discarded
1t as outworn.
Chairman Wickersham points out
that judicial machinery in the United
States is similar to that Of England y
the eighteenth century. The e.,-lent
form Of indictment with which Offend
ers were charged with crime in the days
of Sir Matthew Hale is still used in our
Federal courts, including the District
Of Columbia, with only a few Of the
States having been able to change and
simplify it. Elected judges, with small
salaries, serving for short terms, have
reduced the judiciary to the level of
petty administrative officials, despite
the relatively high standard of the Fed
eral judiciary. County, State and even
Federal prosecutors are chosen to fill
political Office, with incidental atten-
ton given to the professional fitness Of
the appointees and with such low SAL
aries that few able men are attracted.
Our reverence for the mere right Of
trial by jury too often permits loss OF
the equally important principle that
1.-The trial shall be in the presence and
under the superintendence Of judge
having power to instruct the jury as to
the law and advise them as to the
facts"
Gen. Harbord of the Radio Corpo-
ration predicted The other day that
within a few years directors of cor
porations, living in widely separated
cities, will be able to attend" board
meetings, discuss resolutions, pass
motions, sign documents, by means OF
television-equipped radios. Within a
few hours after devastating earth
quake in Nicaragua every newspaper
reading man and woman in the United
States is able to learn the details.
Messages can be sent around the globe
in the fraction of the minute. Yet the
United States remains the only great
civilized country that does not collect
and preserve statistics indicating the
prevalence Of crime, or collect data that
would emphasize the deficiencies or
the adequacy of the administration Cf
criminal Justice. 1--WE have really no
means" said Mr.. Wickersham, "of tell
ing accurately what is the effect upon
conduct of our methods of dealing with
crime" With the exception OF few
large cities, no effort is made to collect
and compile intelligent statistical rec
ords dealing with crime. And while
we have made great progress in stand
ardizing the paving brick, the method
of recording crime statistics differs
from one State to another, from county
TO county, or city to city, rendering
them useless for purposes of scientific
comparison.
The traditional complaint about the
weather has been that everybody talks
about 1t but nobody does anything
about it. AS a matter Of fact, we have
learned to do a great deal about the
weather. We know the value Of fore
casts, for one thing. Weather experts
can put two and two together and
know definitely what will happen, and
millions will profit from the knowledge.
Everybody is talking about crime in
the United States. Somebody may
eventually do something about it. Mere
Improvement of the machinery by
which guilty men are sent TO jail would
do little to lessen the number Of those
who go to Jail. Causes Of crime, as
Mr.. Wickersham points out, are as
complex as the causes Of disease. While
We may remedy our DEFICIENCIES in the
enforcement of the laws, a much
broader task confronts the Nation in
examining the reasons for violation OF
the laws. Little progress was ever re-
corded in any battle against disease
until discovery of the cause of the dis
ease. The forthcoming and final re-
port of the Wickersham Commission
will probably recommend improved
methods of dealing with the national
disease of crime. But it will emphasize
the necessity of isolating the causatiye
germs.
In certain forms CT business organi-
~