The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-12-28
BY WILLIAM c. uTLEY


got John Dlllinger. They got
pretty Boy" Floyd And at
the cost of two of the most promising
young men in the Department Of JUS
tice secret service, Samuel A. Cowley
and Herman e. Hollis. they got Baby
Face" Nelson. Now with Federal bull
let's having stilled forever the heart
beats and having destroyed for all time
the brains Of these arch-crlminal big
Shots" and with federal bars securely
gripping the one time power of the
biggest shot of them all. Mr.. "Scarface
AP Capone, America feels that the
time is ripe for an organized and con-
certed mobilization of all of the forces
of society In an irresistible drive not
only to track down all of the murder
ers and criminals In the land, but to
strike at their very breeding places
and cauterize the open sores of society
where the criminal pestilence is born.
This was the reason for the recent
national crime conference called by the
President and Attorney General Homer
8. Cummings. President Roosevelt
himself, addressing the conference at
Its opening, declared that two things
were Immediately necessary In girding
the land for the opening battles Of the
war.
First, I ask you to plan and to con-
struct with scientific care constantly
improving administrative structural
cAr rof, vryhi ah xrya1l In
crime-preventing, law-enforcing agency
of every branch of the government
the federal government, the 48 state
governments, and all the local govern
ments, including counties, cities and
towns" said the President.
"Your second task is of equal impor-
lance. An administrative structure
that Is perfect will still be 'ineffective
in results unless the people of the Unit
ed States understand the larger pur-
poses, and cooperate with these pur-
poses."
Inadequate organization of police
forces was blamed by the President
for conditions that have existed. He
declared that "in many instances, we
may as well frankly admit, bandits
have been equipped and better organ
lied than the officials who are supposed
to keep them in check"
Cut Out the Glamor.
Col. Henry L. Stimson, secretary of
state under the Hoover administration,
who by his very presence gave the con-
ference an air Of political nonpartisan-
ship, made the other keynote address.
He pleaded that crime be robbed of
the sensationalism that has been given
it in many stories, newspaper accounts
and moving pictures, advising that
sincere campaign to expose crime and
rob it of its glamor in the public prints
and the theaters could be of all-impor-
tant value in waging this kind Of
war.
Colonel Stimson also scored the
tardy and uncertain justice that pre-
walls in this country, citing by COM
parison the speed and dispatch of Brit
ish trials, which are more undramatic
than ours but more efficient, and re-
minding the conference that the United
States has homicide rate twenty
times as high as that of England. He
quoted statistics to show that in one
Of Americas largest cities you can COM
NIT burglary and your chances for
escaping any sort Of penalty may be
as high as 200 to 1.
''The lawyer who uses his position
as a member of the state legislature to
tinker up the criminal code of his state
In favor of the criminal class, which
he makes a business of defending in
the courts, is just as responsible for
the breakdown of justice as is the cor
rupt jury fixer or bail broker" de-
clared Colonel Stimson.
The first definite step in the cam
paign, as suggested by Attorney Cen
eral Cummings. would be the estab-
lishment of "a great national and scien-
tific training center" for training law
enforcement officials This would make
for our national police forces a sort of