Evening star., 1951-08-31

0SSSO"SS viz tttC SCItCtU W. W.
serUGtionS, conclusions and neiD
recommendations and sugoes-
tionS included in the final re-
port OF the Senate Crime Com
nrittee made public today:
1. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
This committe has served as a
powerful searchlight, exposing
widespread national and local
crime conditions to public gaze.
Its activities have had a tremen-
douS effect upon the whole field
of law enforcement. Everywhere
throughout the country citizens,
made suddenly aware of the char
acter and ramif1cations of organ
lied crime, have risen up to de-
mand greater vigilance in stamp
ing out crime and corruption.
In the first phase of its ac-
ltivities ending on May /, 1851,
the committee concentrated pri-
marily on the large cities. Since
THAT date it has directed it's at
Itention largely to the field of mar
coticS and to crime in medium
size cities.
Everywhere it has turned there
has followed an enormous increase
in local enforcement activity.
In many cities, large and small,
visited by the committe, corrupt
Iofdcials have been forced to re-
sign, grand juries and enforcement
officials have doubled their Wig
lance, and gangsters have gone
into hiding. Even Virginia and
the District of Columbia, which
were not themselves the subject
of investigation, have felt the re-
percussions of the committees
work in adjacent Maryland. In
Maryland itself at least four in
Ivestigations not previously under
way are now being conducted
largely as the result of the COM
mittee's disclosures. In New York,
-four new investigative bodies not
in existence before the commit
tee began, are now at work.
In the field of narcotics the
committees searchlight has Gre
ated a Nationwide awareness OF
the seriousness of this great evil
AS a result Investigations have
been started. court procedures
have been modified, remedial laws
have been passed, educational pro-
grams have been undertaken and
the despicable drug peddler has
run for cover. The President OF
the United States only recently
has been prompted to call for in
creased penalties in narcotics
cases.
The committees study of select
led samples of medium-size cities
was necessarily less spectacular
than in the large cities, but a
vitality important fact was estab-
Ilished, namely, that the same pat
tern Of crime conditions found in
the large cities exists in Main
streets throughout America. Crime
must be attacked at the local level
and it is from the local level that
the committee has received a flood
of pleas for information, guidance
and help.
When the committees life ends
the man in the street in every
local community will want to know
what is to take its place.
H., CONCLUSIONS.
A. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
AS the result of the committees
activities there exists great
public awareness of the nature
and extent Of organized crime, the
public now knows that the ten
tacles of organized crime reach
into virtually every community
throughout the country. 1t also
knows that law enforcement is
essentially a local matter calling
for constant vigilance at the
local level and a strengthening of
public and private morality.
People everywhere are pleading
for a means of keeping alert to
crime conditions and avoiding a
return to the State of public COM
placency and indifference under
which gangsterism has thrived for
SO long. The demand, for a per-
manent force that can, in some
measure, replace this committee
must be met.
With a view to answering this
demand, the committee. in its
third interim report, proposed
the establishment of a Federal
crime commission and a bill to
accomplish this has been intro
duced. The commission contem-
plated by this proposal is an in
dependent Federal agency in the
executive branch of the Govern
ment. organized and stated in
dependently of other Government
agencies, and required to report
to the Congress.
Opposed by Some Agencies.
This bill is opposed by the
treasury Department and the De-
partment of Justice, and Senator
Wiley has expressed his dissent.
Although the committee does not
recede from the proposal, a real
Iistic approach compels the COM
mittee to recognize that enact
ment of the bill cannot be ac-
compliShed in a short period of
time.
In the meantime, it is highly
desirable that some action be
taken promptly to afford local
communities a means of obtaining
help in their attacks upon or
ganized crime.
THE answer seems to lie partly
in the field of local, privately
constituted crime commissions
Several of these have been in
Operation for a number of years
and they have shown themselves
to be highly effective. They are
not investigative or policing
agencies. Their function is to OBJ
serve local crime conditions. to
Ico-operate with civic, educational
and enforcement agencies where
possible, and to report to the