Evening star., 1934-05-19
The New Crime Laws.

The President has signed six bills.
picturesquely described as designed to
"break the back of organized crime"
in the United States, and he accom-
panies his signature with an appro-
pirate statement calling on the citi-
zens of this country Ito recognize the
facts and meet them with courage
and determination" The President
himself stands "squarely behind the
efforts of the Department Of Justice
to bring to book every law breaker,
big and little"
One of the first facts which should
be recognized by the citizens is that
these bills place an enormous and far
reaching responsibility on the Ma
tional Government. Under the new
legislation, robbery of national
bank, the transportation of stolen
property across State lines, the send
ing of kidnap ransom notes across
State lines and fleeing across State
lines in avoidance of arrest for certain
crimes are made Federal offenses. The
duty of arresting and bringing to
punishment those accused of these
new Federal crimes devolves upon
the relatively small force of Depart
ment Of Justice agents. There are
now about 400 OF these agents, less
than ten to a State A recent article
in The Star told how the Federal
men, lacking appropriations for the
modern armaments of crime warfare,
are without such essentials as fast
automobiles, radio equipment, ma
chine guns and repeating rifles. The
automobiles they use are the con-
fscated machines of bootleggers.
Pending in the Bureau Of the
Budget is a request for an appropri-
F. alton of between two and three mil
lion dollars, with which 1t is proposed
to add some 200 new Federal agents.
some 200 new, fast automobiles equip
, ped with radio; about twenty armored
cars, and such necessary equipment
as submachlne guns, repeating rifles,
etc. AS long as the United States
Government has decided to assume
great responsibility in fighting organ
lied crime, no limits should be placed
upon the money required to make
such declaration of war effective.
Conditions doubtless justify the en-
actment of the anti-crime legislation.
Its passage represented an important
departure from traditional concepts of
the role of the National Government.
But now the departure has been
made, the National Government must
go all the way. Half measures would
do more harm than good. The ten
dency is constantly to increase gov
ernmental responsibility, but every
step in that direction must be taken
with due recognition of what the
assumption Of that responsibility
means. In this case, it should mean
the expenditure of a relatively large
sum of money and the careful devel-
opment, by non-political choice on
the basis of merit and character. of
a fine body Of Federal agents, Of
which the nucleus exists already.
In his statement the President re-
minds citizens that:
Law enforcement and gangster ex-
terminate cannot be made COM
pletely effective so long as a substan-
tial part OF the public looks with tol-
erance upon known criminals, per-
mits public officers to be intimidated
by them or applauds efforts to ro-
manticiZe crime.
The public generally may be justi-
fiably accused of such tolerance, but it
is a tolerance born more or less of be-
wildered confusion and helplessness
in the face of the increasing rami-
fications of crime. 1t has been diff
cult to fix the blame, to centralize the
responsibility. Entrance of the Ma
tional Government into a field hither-
to patrolled by the local authorities
viii fix responsibility. The Govern
ment's ability to live up to 1t remains
to be demonstrated.