Evening star., 1948-06-18
Hioh Standard of Justice

There are reasons for the remarkable
change which has come over the District
Court in recent years. So remarkable,
indeed, has been the change that Chief
Justice Vinson OF the Supreme Court ana
Attorney General Tom Clark were moved
to comment on it in glowing terms at the
Judicial Circuit Conference here Thursday.
A decade or more ago the court was so Tar
behind in its work that justice sunered
shamefully. Today the court is looked
upon nationally as shining example OF
judicial efficiency. It's docket is current"
The Transformation was not achieved
without a struggle. The court caught up
with its work not because the load de-
clined On the contrary, the work OF the
court has greatly increased. But the court
has been able to wipe out a backlog OF
cases and to keep abreast of current ones
because its judges and its administrative
staff, under the leadership of Chief JUS
tice Laws, have reorganized the machinery
of justice along approved business lines.
Before Chief Justice Laws began to
institute series of reforms, cases in both
civil and criminal branches were so stag
mated that by the time they finally were
called for trial key witnesses often mad
died or disappeared or suffered memory
lapses Some criminals who should nave
been sent to Jail escaped prosecution or,
II brought to trial, benefited from absence
of witnesses or vague and confusing testi-
mony. The District Attorneys office on
one occasion was forced to drop sew
eral hundred old criminal cases which, if
tried promptly, might have resulted in
convictions.
After a series of conferences with the
other judges, with prosecutors, with bar
groups and with representative citizens,
Chief Justice Laws began reorganization
which has had amazing results. Pre-trial
procedures in the civil branch relieved the
Judges Of, much time consuming routine
work through advance stipulatlons An
orderly system of assigning cases was In
stalled, eliminating conflict and insuring
an equitable distribution of the workload.
The court cracked down on contipuanceS
by adopting a policy OF granting delays
only for very good reasons. Each Judge
was given supervisory responsibility for
certain administrative functions of the
court or for liaison with outside agencies
Gradually the reforms began to tell. The
logjam of cases was broken, trials were
speeded up and new and better brand OF
Justice evolved The court today has
reason to be proud of its record OF bring
ing 633 per cent of its criminal cases to
trial within four weeks of Indictment
51.3 per cent within two weeks of indict-
ment 1t has achieved this record despite
the fact that it is called upon to try some
of the most important and difficult cases
In the country-like those of General Ben
nett Meyers, the GarsSons and the Holly
wood contempt-of Congress defendants.
Chief Justice Laws and his colleagues
we'll deserve the fine tributes which have
come to them from Chief Justice Vinson,
Mr.. Clark, members of Congress and other
advocates of prompt, effective justice A
still greater compliment is the fact that
many other district courts are striving to
match the gains of the local tribunal. 1t
is no exaggeration to say that law enforce
ment nationally is proflting from the high
standards being maintained by the United
States District Court for the District of
Columbia