Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-15

While The country has been i'm
pressed by the charge of the Wicker
sham Commission that data concerning
crime In this country are inaccurate
and incomplete. further statements by
the chairman Of the law investigating
body give rise to study Of even wider
defects In the judicial system. Cen
eral uniformity in laws dealing with
crime a. well IS improvement in Stats
ties Is generally recognized as a neces-
sity for the future.
Quoting the statement by Mr.. Wick
ersham that "the administration of
criminal justice throughout the United
States, very largely, Is still carried on
with judicial machinery similar to that
employed In the eighteenth century"
the Rochester Times Union declares:
Mr.. WickerSham says that such inn
provements as have been effected in the
United States still leave the old
methods brought here two centuries
ago substantially in force, especially in
the field Of criminal justice. That is
q serious indictment. II there Is one
thing Americans pride themselves upon,
1t Is keeping up with the times. Yet
II Mr.. Wickersham is right, we have
woefully failed to do this in a field
where we are experiencing more trouble
than any other civilized nation"
There are in continental United
States" according to the Louisville
dictionS with their different laws and
practices, hundreds of independent mu-
nicipal police departments. thousands
OF counties with their independent law
enforcement agencies, two or three
thousand judicial districts, and there
Is little coordination OF their efforts
against crime. no uniformity of data
on which even to exchange experiences
and so arrive at an agreed understand
ing Of their common problem. This is
one reason why criminal jurisprudence
in the United States is not as methodi-
cally successful as 1t is in centralized
governments. If health and agricul-
tural authorities co-operated no more
closely than law enforcement agencies
do. this country would be devastated by
diseases of animals and plants"
+ y +
An address before the American Law
Institute by Chairman Wickersham is
mentioned by the Providence Journal,
especially his statement that wide
spread diSreSpect for law" is the great
est menace to civilization. The Journal
agrees that nobody questions that 1t Is
a very great menace" and adds as to
the general situation: experimenting
Mr. Wickershams statement comes an
interesting remark by Chief Justice
Court. who addressed the same audience
on the same day Mr.. Hughes says:
Even legislative inefficiency may re-
ceive attention, not simply in the re-
elimination Of political campaigns. or
in futile harangueS on the multiplicity
of laws. but in the intelligent devising
of improved methods This brings US
again to the important truth that there
are many laws that ought never to
have been enacted-laws that do not
accord with any substantial majority
sentiment and are correspondingly DIFF
ficult to enforce"
The address before the law institute
is q subject for comment by the
Charleston Is. c. Evening Post, which
notes the appeal by Mr.. Wickersham
for that body Ito enlist its scholarship
and research in the fight on crime and
undertake the follow-up work necessary
sion are to frucitfy into the most use
full results" The Evening Post criti-
cizeS the position of the head Of the
commission with the statement: THE
commissions vague, tnconcluSive pro-
on the liquor laws and the
situation arising under their influence
Is the sole result by which the public
knows Its work, and, that being the
case, 1t is hardly to be expected that
the lawyers of the institute or anybody
else will become emotional over the APP
peal Of Chairman Wiekersham to carry
on 50 that the work OF the commission
may 'fructify.' There aee numerous
important problems Of law enforcement
that could probably be considered with
advantage BY intelligent groups of law
yeFs and laymen and that cotId have