Evening star., 1938-03-31
'Average-Man' Justice
Jury Checked La Follette's Ardor in Railway
Inspection Prosecution
Inspection Prosecution.

A second one was put on trial before
a different jury. Again the Jury said
mot guilty" Senator La Toilette
thereupon gave up The remaining
four indictments were dismissed.
Average Man for Justice.
From this incident. what is to be
inferred? First. that an American Jury
made up OF average citizens will not
convict and send to jail fellow citizens
treated as Senator La Toilette treated
the six in this case. The common
sense and spirit of justice Of average
men on juries may be the country's
salvation. 1t would be too broad an
inference to say that any man unree-
sonably subpoenaed by Senate In
vestigating Committee is safe in DEFY
ing the subpoenae. Probably an ac-
curate inference would be this: II
citizen is subpoenaed and If he goes
before court to find out whether the
subpoena is legal, and If the Senate
Committee undertakes to prosecute
the citizen into Jail before the court
has passed Judgment on the legality
of the subpoena-in such a case the
citizen can probably feel, safely, that
a jury will not. convict him.
The Railway Audit and Inspection
Co. was detective company Its busi-
ness may or may not be admirable. 1t
is certainly lawful business, for it is
chartered by the State. The nature Of
the company's business has no bearing
on the public interest in the matter Of
the rights Of citizens. If a detective
company. or an individual detective,
can be subjected to the treatment
which Senator La Toilette attempted,
then any other company or individual
citizen can be subjected to the same
treatment.
Picked His Own Lawyer.
In the case there was one feature
not material to the constitutional
aspects of the case, but nevertheless
interesting. When Senator La Toilette
sought, with the greatest possible
vigor," to prosecute the six men, the
natural course would have been for
illiii W IulA ~ ONcI W t1lc OlllUcO
States attorney Of the District of Col
umbia. This is the official who nor
mally prosecutes criminal suits in the
District. But Senator La Toilette took
the case out of this officials hands. He
wanted a lawyer of his own choosing
He could. presumably. have chosen
any Of the many thousands of lawyers
in the Government service II none
Of them suited him, or could appro-
priately serve. he could have engaged
any one Of the hundreds Of thousands
of lawyers throughout the country.
The particular lawyer his search ar
rived upon was Champion Harris Of
Birmingham, Ala.-a former partner
Of Senator, now Justice Black, who at
the time was the nominal head Of the
Senate Committee.
There is yet one other rejection,
entertaining to contemplate, especially
by persons who enjoy irony. Senator
La Follette's Committee Is called the
Civil Liberties Committee" Its func-
ton, presumably, is to investigate
violations of civil liberties. About the
most important civil liberty in the
United States is that which is de-
scribed. in the bill Of rights in the
Constitution, in the following words:
THE right of the people to be secure
in their persons, houses, papers and
effects, against unreasonable searches
and seizures, shall not be violated"