The Washington times., 1938-03-05
Congress Can Blame
Itself

(Ldst night Representative Schultz OF indiana GO0s
held up and robbed of 1900 checks $16 in cash and
tuuo gold matches by three stckup n'sn.-Ed note)
WHEN Members of Congress criticize conditions
w in the District of Columbia they winking
in the dark.
Senator Ashurst of Arizona with characteristic
inconsistency condemns Washingon's probation sys-
tenn for first offenders as 'velvet glove" AS to
lavbreakers generally he Thinks is time to substl-
tute the mailed fist.
Almost at the same hour Senator McKelar, of Ten
nessee stood on the floor of the Senate and charac-
terzed Washington the criminal capital of the
world repeating phrase previously used by Senator
Borah He expressed the view that something ought
to be done about it, and that probably the solution
lies in change in the District government which
would substitute local authority, exercised by elected
officials for the Federal authority, which has failed
30 miserably to solve the Capitals crime problem.
We can agree with everything they say. But we
must remind them that when they complain about
the laws and the of their enforcement or
?, nonenforcement, they denounce their
1ney ACCUSE own derelictions.
themselves Senator Ashurst happens to be
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee SEN
ator Borah is the ranking minority member OF the
same committee. It is the judiciary committees OF
Congress which frame the legislation creating the
courts and setting up the law-enforcement machinery
of the District of Columbia.
Senator Mckellar is a MEMBER OF Lne OenaIe COm'
mittee on Appropriations. It is the appropriations
committees of Congress which provide or fail to pro-
vide the money to police the National Capital and
the courts.
| If our streets are not safe-and they not-the
fault lies not with the citizens of Washington, but
with Congress.
IF murder and rape 60 unpunshed in Washington,
and bandits nightly terrorize its people with car
nval of holdups and housebreaking, the blame rests
in the spot
Congress creates the courts, fixes the number Of
Judges gives the probation system which its mem
bers now condemn Does that make sense?
Commissioner Hazen's tabulation Of murder and
rape cases originating in the Disr e in the last four
years shows that only Is murderers paid the death
penalty or sent to prison for
1rsy rew DsuS IT, life, although there were pa MUIR
H"ec"'e" He'e ders. It shows further that although
1872 of rape reported only % have gone
to prison for this crime. For undisclosed rea-
son. only half of the rape reported were fol-
lowed by prosecutions. Broadly, it is apparent from
the record that who commits rape IN the Dis
tric of Columbia has considerably better than $3.50
chance to go free and that murderer has chance
in four to escape any penalty whatever.
If could get Congressman to listen inteigently
for moment, we would make them this proposition:
! ''You have made mess of things here in Wash
ington by trying to run everything from Capitol
Hill You see now that it doesn't work Suppose
you give the people who live here chance to see
= what they can do about it, We can't do any worse.
: We might do good deal better.
'You can start by giving us the vote And in
the meantime, while you are thinking about it, you
>. can give more courts and more police"
No4iono1 TTcod Cor Wook