Evening star., 1938-09-14

For Mr.. Pecora brought to a sud-
den end trial in which the people
Of the State of New York" had pre-.
sented their complete case against q
Tammany leader charged with com.
plicity with a racket. and the mis-
trial was declared on a point so tech
nical that lawyers can split plenty
Of hairs about 1t.
The big fact remains that on a
technicality which he could, If he had
so desired, have allowed the jury or
an appellate court to pass upon, the
case was thrown out. A second trial
is probable. but delays of Justice"
frequently hurt the second presenta-
ton Of case
Did Judge Pecora usurp the rights
of the people? Was this a case of
judicial tyranny? Mr.. Pecora is
. president of the National Lawyers
Guild, an organization formed to COM
bat the so-called Liberty League
lawyers who were accused by their
brethren Of using all sorts of techni-
calities to obstruct justice. President
Roosevelt himself paid his respects to
that type of lawyer in radio speech
year or so ago. The whole burden
OF the Lawyers Guild attack has been
that the rich and the economically
powerful use technicalities to defeat
the purposes Of the people.
Background Often Discussed.
Some of the defenders of the Pres
ldents plan to pack" the Supreme
Court went so far in 1887 as to argue
that judges background was a fac
tor In his decisions, meaning thereby
his social and political as well as
economic background. The cry was
against one-man rule in the form of
> hve-to-four decisions Of the Supreme
Court and the words judicial tyran-
ny" were heard often in the debate
which ragged over the Supreme Court
packing plan.
Certainly there isn't whole lot of
difference between the technicality
employed by Judge Pecora in declaring
q mistrial and the technicalities by
which Supreme Court judges have
declared acts Of Congress invalid. The
law is a technical business at best and
1t would be most unfortunate now If
the Liberty League lawyers Jumped on
Mr.. Pecora for doing the very, thing
which he and his fellow crusaders have
charged against the so-calIed con-
servative lawyers Of the country.
The Roosevelt administration and
It's henchmen, however, have not been
charitable with their criticism of
judges. Political attacks on Federal
judges abound in the Congressional
Record When a judge in Milwaukee
discharged a jury because of tech
nical point involved in the effort to
indict executives of auto finance COM
panies, Solicitor General Jackson
rushed to the House Judiciary Com
mittee to try to get the judge i'm
peached or criticized. Likewise Secre-
tary Wallace has had plenty to say
about the Chief Justice Of the Supreme
Court because on technical point he
declared that a fair and impartial
hearing had not been given in the
famous stockyards case decided earlier
this year.
All sorts of prejudiced impressions
about the judiciary have been given
the American people by the New
Dealers and their journalistic spokes-
men because of technicalities in de-
clsions The innuendoes about politi-
cal influence have not been lacking,
and again and again reference has un-
fairly been made to the judges as hav-
ing this or that previous political
affiliation before they assembled to
the Federal bench.
This sort of thing may now be re-
futed because Judge Pecora, an out
standing Roosevelt man, a New Dealer,
the man who acted as counsel for the
Senate committee investigating stock
exchange affairs, found 1t necessary
to use technicality to declare a mis-
trial under circumstances which un-
happily will be given a political
meaning.
Thus Mr.. Pecora stems from Tam
many. The district attorney who has
been so energetically prosecuting the
Hines case, Thomas Dewey, has been
prominently mentioned as the prob
able candidate for Governor of New
York on the Republican ticket. He
has not sought the office but move
ment to draft him has been under
way for some time.
Some political folks will say that
Tammany judge saved a Tammany
leader by mistrial and that the peo-
pie must repudiate this sort of thing
at the polls next autumn and that now
1t Is. more important than ever that
MIR. Dewey carry the issue to the people
80 that the biggest city in America
shall be able to prosecute those
charged with racketeering without
thelr being saved from punishment by
technical rulings of the judiciary.
Such an Interpretation would be
most unfortunate. For Mr.. Pecora,
New Tory. probably acted just as did
so many OF the Old Tory judges
. honestly and with due regard to the
requirements of the law. Technicali-
ties are too often brushed aside as
inconsequential They are frequently
ridiculed and made the subject of un-
fair mnuendo. But technicalities 70
to the root of the problem of Justice.
The New Deal has made it difficult to
defend technicalities in the realm of
judicial proceeding, but nevertheless
Mr.. Pecora's disinterestedness and
fundamental indifference to political
considerations may well be defended.
even though he had to declare mis-
trial IN case in which political i'm
plications will hardly be swept aside
He was In tough spot and doubtless
acted in good conscience, even though
many will feel he made what the New
York Times calls "a profound mistak.
a Judgment"
(copyrisht. 1880