Year: 1871

of the Report of the Attorney General sent to
Congress yesterday


THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS.


In the main the country is we'll served by
these officers. Some of them complain, not un-
justly, of the inadequacy of their compensation.
The same service rendered to private clients
would receive a far more liberal reward They
are now paid salary of 5000 year. five dollars
day for attendance at court ten cents a mile
for travel, docket fee in each case of five, ten
or twenty dollars, according to the disposition
of it, and two per cent. of the moneys collected
in revenue cases. Should the fees exceed $4,000
o year the excess must be paid into the Treasury
after certain allowances for hire of clerks, etc.


The salary of $500 is intended as a compensa-
tion for the labor of corresponding with the
departments at Washington. This labor has
been much increased in late years. 1t often re-
quires extended investigation and much clerical
service. | know no work for the public which
is so il-paid. The general professional service
which these officers perform is of the highest
value to the Government. Unless that service
is efficient, dues to the Government are unpaid
and crime is unpunished. They opposed to
skilful adversaries, and it is essential to the
respectability as well as to the interests of the
Government that they should be men of high
professional character Such men cannot be
expected to abandon a private for o public
clientage without something like an adequate
remuneration. i respectfully suggest


AN INCREASE OF THEIR COMPENSATION
to some such scale as the following, namely
An annual salary of five hundred dollars in the



larger a doubling of the present per diem and
docket fees, and an extension of the commits
sion of two per centum to all collections for the
Government. The rule which fixes six thousand
dollars as the maximum of compensation should
also be abolished. The application of q maxi
mum rule of compensation to such officers is
neither wise nor just. One cannot earn ten
thousand dollars in fees without doing ten times
as much work as the man who receives one
thousand dollars in fees. Ten times the work
ought to bring ten times the pay. The present
system has q natural tendency to diminish the
zeal of the officer when his maximum is reached,
and to lead him to seek improper incidental
allowances. If the compensation at the pro-
posed rate should rise to an inordinate amount
in some of the largest districts, diminuton in
the rate might be made after certain amount
is reached without departing from the rule that
an increase of labor should bring an increase of
pay. Should the increase be made the assistant
district attorneys, who are now paid directly
from the treasury, could be paid in the more
lucrative districts out of the emoluments of their
principals. These suggestions on the subject of
the maximum are also applicable to


MARsHALs AND CLERKS.


In the act establishing this department Con-
gress manifests a disapprobation of the practice
of retaining


SPECIAL COUNSEL FOR THE GOVERNMENT
though the employment of such counsel is
allowed In certain circumstances by the seven
teenth section of the act. In few important
cases, where before that act took effect special
counsel had been retained by the departments
have thought that the inconvenience of a
change OF counsel in a current litigation would
justify continuance of their services, but in
new cases, however strongly urged, L have
generally declined to employ such counsel.
Not to dwell upon the temptation TO abuse
which exists where a discretion is allowed in
that matter, think that upon general grounds
the regular attorneys for the United
States and their regular assistants ought to be
equal TO the ordinary necessities of the Govern
ment, and that special counsel should only be
N a n / rs iG nffa
urged, the compensation allowed to regular
counsel and their assistants is not sufficient to
command the ability that is needed to cope with
the adverse counsel, the remedy lies with Con-
gress The regular district attorneys ought not
to be degraded to the rank of secondary counsel
for the United States in their respective dis
triets, as they practically are, when special
counsel appear for the Government in every
important case. Under the present laws, when
the Government enforces


CLAIMS UPON PARTNERS


or other co-debtors living in different districts
a separate suit must be brought in each. A law
giving jurisdiction over all such debtors to the
courts of the district in which one of them re-
sides or might be found, and providing for SER
vice of process in the other districts would
accelerate collections and save expense. The
laws of the several States eXempting certain
amounts of real and personal property from
execution for debt are held in some dis
tricts to be applicable to debts due to
the United States. The State regulations
are various, both as to the species and
as to the amounts of exempted property By
removing from a State which allows a small eX-
emption to a State which allows a large ex-
emption, debtor to the Government is often
practically released. Losses often occurred in
this way in the cases of defaulting postmasters,
mail contractors, distillers, ETC., whose bonds,
sufficient in the State where they were executed
and approved, are made worthless by the re-
moval of the obligators to other States. There
ought to be some uniform regulations on this
subject.


STATISTICS OF CRIME.


In October last a letter was sent to the Gov
ernor of each State and Territory requesting
him to furnish toI this department as early a'
possible in January, 1871, the tatistcs of crime
in his State or Territory for the year 1870
classifying the desired information as folloWs-


First. The number of prosecutions instituted
during said year. under the penal laws of the
State, in three classes-capital crimes, crimes
punishable in the penitentiary, offenses pun
ished less severely.


Second The number of criminal cases dis
posed of during said year, the report specifying
with the same classification as above the mum
Der of cases tried by jury, the number of con
VictiOns by a jury, the number of cases nOM
pressed, dismissed or discontinued, the number
of cases tried by judges or magistrates wthou
a Jury the number of convictions in such cases
the number of aequittals in such cases. To thi
request but few answers have come. Some o
the Governors report that there is no provision
in their States for collecting such information
Others furnish such statistics they possess
Meagre as these are, they are, perhaps, the be
ginning of a series of annual collections o
statistics that will finally become complete AM
valuable.