Evening star., 1950-09-19
CONTINUED From First Page.)

Governors or the President takes
action.
The Senate travelling crime in
quiry, Senator Kefauver said, has
not yet ascertained whether there
is "one or more big-time criminal
gangs operating on countrywide
basis. But he said this can surely
be reported:
Crime is definitely on an organ
ized basis in the United States.
so widespread are organized
criminal operations that
they threaten to make shambles
of law enforcement and to create
such universal disreSpect for law
that our entire system of Govern
ment may be endangered"
The gangs are the same as those
which operated ION such high
handed, even murderous basis ir
the roaring 20s,'" Senator Kef-
auver said, adding:
There is still the Costello mot
in New York, the Capone gang in
Chicago, the Purple Gang in De-
troit. The names are the same
sand - to the extent that their
owners have surviveo-the faces
are the same"
Attorney General MeGrath, ad-
dressing the same meeting, prom
ised that Federal intervention in
crime control will not invade the
jurisdiction of State and local
police.
es Two pending administration
bills, one banning the interstate
transportation of gaming ma
/. chimes and the other barring tele-
graph transmission of racing in
formation, are intended to help
the States meet serious problem,
Mr.. McGrath said.
A third speaker, Gov. Adlai E.
Stevenson of Illinois, predicted
that crime will not be cured until
police forces are divorced from
partisan political control"
Senator Kefauver declared that
corruption of law enforcement Of
ficers is rampant in many Amer
lean communities today on scale
that makes the corruption of pro-
hibition days look like kindergar-
ten play"
He told his audience that many
lawyers had been found in alli-
ance with the criminals. Some
he said, were actually partners
in gambling enterprises"
Such close Affiliations between
criminals and lawyers can have
only one result-to bring contempt
and diSrespect for the legal pro-
fession." Senator Kefauver said
Wants to Stop Corruption.
The Government cannot hope to
wipe out gambling, he said, but
must find some means of stop
ping this tide of corruption-and
we must find it without delay"
Gov. Stevenson lent his backing
to an ABA move in support of the
Kefauver committee investigation
The Governor, who recently
launched a widespread crack
down against organized gambling
in Illinois. declared "the greatest
menace is that the public will
come to accept organized crime
as something inevitable-as q
necessary part of our social
system"
Gov. Stevenson suggested that. as
q preliminary step in the wa
against Nationwide crime syn
dicates, the machinery of law en-
iorcement might be overhauled. He
urged States to set up little
Hoover Commission" to study
the problems and bring in recon-
mendations for streamlining what
is a generally obsolete system of
law enforcement.
Urges Bar to Take Lead.
He also urged that State bar
associations take the lead in
bringing disbarment proceedings
against office-holding attorneys
who do not discharge their duties
But he added:
The greatest obstacles to ef-
fective law enforcement are public
indifference and cynicism. The
greatest menace of organized
crime is not the crime itself nor
the criminal"
Gov. Stevenson charged that
"the respectable citizen who falls
for the myth that a wide-open
town is good for business is just
as effective an accomplice of the
criminal as is the politician who
seeks to win friends by inhuenc-
ing people"
THE solid citizen who thinks
that illegal slot machines are
Just fine for his country club but
bad for the corner saloon does not
realize what difficulties he is
making for the persons he has
elected to enforce the laws" he
declared.
u Events Scheduled.
The criminal law section meet
ing was among II different events
scheduled for delegates to the
joint annual meeting of the Amer
lean and Canadian Bar ASsocia-
tionS, which got under way here
yesterday.
The ABA House of Delegates ir
an action yesterday authorized
appointment of a commission Of
seven lawyers to cooperate with
the Senate committee investigat-
ing crime.
1t was ordered that the group
should look into the need for mod
ernization of criminal law pro-
cedures and practices. The group
also was directed to search for the
reasons the profession has turned
away from the practice of crimina.
law.
Florida Man Elected.
The House of Delegates elected
Cody Fowler of Tampa it's presi-
dent for the coming year. Roy
E. Willy of Sioux Falls, S. Oak.