Evening star., 1931-05-17

and representatives Of this department
throughout the country who may be
listening in tonight that their loyalty
and devotion to the public service and
response to the demands Of their
superiers do not go unnoticed here"
Care In Prosecutions.
The Attorney General ranged him
self upon the side Of the antitrust
laws, although he said that In the
present business depression the Justice
Department has proceeded with the
enforcement of these laws, Impressed,
however, by the necessity OF using par
ticular care to make no unjusttfied at
tacks upon any business and to so
regulate our action as not unnecessarily
to aggravate distress"
IF we are to abandon these funda-
mental concepts and permit combins-
tions to limit competition, substituting
governmental regulation to protect the
public against extortion and oppres-
sion," the Attorney General continued.
''the change will have to be made BY
legislation
Calling attention to the fact that
overproduction and low prices In the
field of natural resources, such as oil
and minerals, have led to demands that
the antitrust laws be modified so as to
permit combinations to regulate pro-
duction, Mr.. Mitchell said such
proceeding would make it necessary for
the Federal Government to supervise
the combinations In the interest OF the
public. He regarded that dubious
proposal"
Possibly Congress might consider
sympathetically some measure permit
ting combinations to limit production OF
natural resources as an emergency
measure" he continued, ito prevent
waste. limited as to time, under Gov
ernment supervision, and to be followed
by an early return to our present sys-
tenn of competition without restraints"
The Attorney General discussed the
enforcement of prohibition during the
10 months since it was taken from the
Treasury Department and placed in the
Department of Justice. He said the
Prohibition Bureau had been consid-
erably reorganized. with an exper-
fenced lawyer and prosecutor with high
professional standards at its head"
When the eighteenth amendment was
adopted, he said, it was not intended
that the Federal Government should
undertake the whole task of enforce
ment.
Local Police Duty.
"T'he American people did not plan,
and would not tolerate the organiza-
ton of a Federal police force adequate
to locally police the entire country In
an attempt to prevent every variety of
violation of the national prohibition
act" the Attorney General said. The
policy of the department has been to
direct the activities OF the Federal
agencies toward the large commercial
violators. leaving to the State authori-
ties a large share of the enforcement
work"
The reorganization Of the Federal
prisons to meet the increased demands
for caring for additional prisoners has
been one of the problems tackled by
the department, the Attorney General
said, pointing out that new Federal
criminal statutes had increased the
load" He said that in 1910 the num-
Der of prisoners sent to Federal prisons
per million of population was ia. In
1920 this had increased to 26 and in
1926 to 40, in 1929 to So and in 1880
to 80. The Attorney General said
these increases showed great activity
in the enforcement of Federal criminal
laws.
Mr.. Mitchell pointed out that SO per
cent of Federal prisoners are eventually
returned to society. For that reason,
he said, 1t was important that as many
of the prisoners should be rehabtlitated
as possible for that purpose. He added
that nothing visionary is being done"
Strengthening Of Courts.
Mr.. Mitchell stressed the fact that
much could be accomplished in the
matter of speeding up justice in this
country by fully manning and ade-
Quately paying the forces in the Offices
Of the United States attorneys, the
United States narshals and clerks of
court, and by providing an adequate
number of judges.
He pointed IN particular to what has
been done in the District Of Columbia
through addition Of two more judges
to the District Supreme Court That
court, he said. had been a year and
a half behind in disposing of its crini-
nal cases, but with the aid of the bar,
it had been able to bring its criminal
business up to date, and is able to try
every criminal case within a few weeks
after it is begun. He predicted that
be able to make its civil docket current.
Within the last 25 years, the Attorney
General said. the Federal machinery of
justice has been overloaded with new
duties. He said that until 1t has been
able to catch up, it should not be fur
ther loaded down with the passage OF
new criminal laws
The full text of Attorney General
Mitchell's address is published in the
editorial section Of today's issue Of The.
Washington Star.