The union times., 1943-08-21
Tap On Wrist Given Defrauders Of U. s.

One of the scandals of the war emergency is the tender. ness with which business sa. boteurs and grafters are being treated by the courts.
 Judges are apologetic when called on to pronounce sentence on crooks who have pleaded guilty to crimes that have inter fered with the war effort, and in some instances have imperilled the lives of our fighting men.
 Almost without exception the penalties imposed have been so light as to give the lie to the con- tention that "crime doesn't pay"
 Readers will recall that Federal Judge Thomas w. Slick at Indian apolis, imposed fines tOtalling $31,- 900 on officials of the Anaconda Copper Company who confessed having defrauded the government of $5,OOO,OOO by palming off on the army through fake tests defec- tive cable intended for use at the front.
 In Federal Court at Chicago this week a big mercantile establishment convicted of having unlawfully di- verted $105,000 worth of strategic ma terials escaped with a fine of $1.
 Washington was also treated to 9 sample of this misplaced sympathy when Justice Bolitha J. Laws, ir Federal District Court passed sen tence on two former chiefs of the War Production Board and three business men with whom they had conspired to defraud the government of urgent ly-needed machine tools, and who, ir the transaction, filled their pockets with crooked money.
 The W.P.B. officials were Roberl B. Rhoads, former chief of the used tool division, and his assistant, Ralph L. Claser. They had pleaded guilty to charges of having pur- chased from Louis E. Emerman, a Chicago tool dealer, machines for which they paid $7O, ,OOO and resold to Frank L. and Clarence O'Brien, Philadelphia tool dealers, for $1OO,OOO. The profit was pocketed by Rhoads and Claser.
 The former WIPE. officials were fined $15,O0OO each-the exact amount of their graft-and given suspended jail sentences. Emerman was fined $10000 and the O'Briens got off with fines of $7,5OO each.
 Justice Laws justified the light penalties with the statement that the crooks had been advised by their lawyers the deal was legal.
 That would seem to suggest that lawyers who give such ad- vice should be given a chance to repent inside prison walls.
 The judge also contended there was no evidence the war effort had been hurt by the skullduggery.
 In other Washington court the owners of a half-dozen restaurants located in the heart of the nations capital were enabled to escape trial on charges of selling and keeping de cayed food, with maintaining filthy premises and with violation of a law requiring the sterilization of utensils by the simple expedient of forfeit. ing collateral of $25.
 n~e ~oS4ovwox3 ox,uow x.,Lo cold decomposed meat and was found with IFS pounds of the stuff in his refrigerator forfeited $lOO which he had been forced to post because two weeks earlier he had been ar rested on a similar charge and de- faulted on a $25 depOsit-a small enough fee for license to kill his customers.
 Something like this is also going on in the Old Country, showing that there are no boundaries to greed or judicial complaisance towards the highly-placed.
 Tn London, the wealthy Lady Nancy Astor, whose husband in- herited part of the ''Astor mill Iions," made in this country, plead ed guilty to violation of rationing regulations. She urged friends in this country to purchase for her an elaborate wardrobe.
 Lady Astor was fined $25O, but is still in Parliament, where she will assist in making laws that or dinary Britishers will be expected to obey.