Justice Report

Brief, pithy, non-controversial was the annual report of Attorney-General William DeWitt Mitchell. Like his predecessors, he requested special legislation from Congress which would permit a husband and wife to testify for (and against) each other in criminal cases; a grand jury to sit after the end of the court term; a consolidation to be made of all U. S. legal activities within the Department of Justice. For himself he asked little--removal by Congress of the present restriction which prohibits the Department from employing as a special assistant any lawyer who in his private practice is prosecuting a case against the U. S.

"General" Mitchell marshaled battalions of statistics to show how U. S. court business has increased, cited the case of Judge Joseph West Molyneaux of Minneapolis who ''has broken down from overwork and is unable to return to the bench." On June 30 there were 149,033 cases, civil and criminal, pending in U. S. courts.

P: Anti-trust cases were summarily reviewed: The year began with 26 on the dockets, to which 20 were added; the U. S. won 11 out of 13 completed.

P: Like an echo from the past came the account by Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt. retired Assistant Attorney-General, of the prosecution of Prohibition cases. With patent pride she gave the year's figures: 56,786 new cases started, 56,455 finished; 47,100 convictions. 1,477 acquittals; 21,602 jail sentences aggregating 8,663 years; $4,200,052 in fines collected. Mrs. Willebrandt insisted that ''contrary to the general belief, considerable success was obtained" in her prosecution of New York night clubs (TIME. Aug. 13, 1928). Of 98 defendants, 80 pleaded guilty, 15 were convicted on trial "while only three were acquitted--a doorman and two women entertainers" (Mary Louise ["Texas"] Guinan and Helen Morgan).

P:Spirited was the report of Superintendent of Prisons Sanford Bates who called for the "professionalization of prison management." In ironic statistics he suggested his difficulties: "8,563 parole cases came before the parole board, of which the Superintendent of Prisons was by law a member. If he sat every working day, he would have to hear 28 cases a day. This is one of his sparetime diversions." And again: "One of these [officers] had 1,738 probation cases in his charge. If he visits them once a month, he will have to visit almost 60 a day, seven days a week."

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