Evening star., 1934-09-23
CUMMINGS SEES
LESSON IN CRIME
Says Lindbergh Case Will
Strengthen U. S. Program
of Enforcement.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Attorney General Cummings to-
night discussed lessons OF the Lind
bergh case" and announced that one
of them would be a program of
strengthened law enforcement to be
proposed at a crime conference here
in December.
Recent legislation has broadened
the functions of the Federal Govern
ment in the punishment Of crime in
its interstate aspects" he said in
radio address, but further practical
steps can and must be taken to IN
tegrate and strengthen all the forces
in our national life that can aid In
this great movement.
mo program that rests on sane
tions of legislation alone or that
places exclusive dependency on gov
ernment, in whatever form, can hope
to succeed in ridding the Nation OF
the criminal menace" he said in eX-
planning that public support is nee
eSSary.
NIttS LiHuUCI Sh AaoS'
Referring to the Lindbergh case, he
said that the result of the investlga-
ton was due to no master detective
of fiction working on intuition or
sporadic inspiration, but to a prac-
tical ARRANGEMENT for cooperation,
IN which trained experts, rlethodical,
patient, alternative to the smallest
details, whether these appeared i'm
portant or not, hung on to the trail
until the end came in sight"
He termed the now well known tri-
partite agreement between the De-
partment of Justice, the police of the
State of New Jersey and the Police
Department of the city of New York
as "a classic set-up.'
He outlined again the chronology
of the case beginning September Is.
1894, when a New York banking
house notified the Department of
Justice that $40 gold certificate of
the Lindbergh ransom money had
come into the bank He went on to
explain how the three jurisdictions
acting as one were set in motion.
]. Edgar Hoover Praised.
During his address he praised j
Edgar Hoover, director of the division
of investigation, saying that his fine
intelligence and indefatigable efforts
had contributed to the success of the
investigation. He went on to say that
the prestige, the power and effective
ness of law enforcement agencies is
on the increase and that renewed
faith and confidence in these agencies
is justified"
In referring to the program he said
that unless 1 misread the public S
temper the American people demand
action"
Cummings said that the American
people became diSheartened when it
was apparent that no immediate solu-
ton was possible. And. he added,
following the Lindbergh kidnapping,
and without doubt in part as con-
sequence of it, there were 90 kidnap-
ings that came within the jurisdic-
ton of the Department of Justice.
I am glad to be able to state that
with one possible exception all Of
these cases have been solved"
Vast Detail Work Recalled.
Analysis of the evidence in the
case that came from time to time
was of supreme Importance.
Thousands of letters from all parts
of the United States and other coun-
tries all over the world had been
written because of the intense public
interest in the case he said.
This vast amount of information
contained in these letters had to be
checked to determine if there was any
value attached to it. AS a matter of
mere routine it became necessary to
prepare some $4,000 index cards and
to organize the files on chronological
basis. No clue, however unpromising
could be disregarded and none was"