Statement on the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement.

THE PRESIDENT said:

"I note that the appropriation requested by the Law Enforcement Commission for its work outside of prohibition has failed in the Senate. This deleted part of the appropriation is that devoted to investigation into the cause and remedy for crime in general and for the determination of the reforms needed in our judicial and administrative machinery.

"As a matter of fact, the enforcement of any one criminal law necessarily involves the machinery by which all criminal laws are enforced, and the country is concerned over the cause of increasing crime in general. Nothing indicates the situation better than the fact that in the last 2 years there was an increase of persons in Federal prisons for serious offenses from 8,400 to over 13,000, whereas in the previous 2 years the increase was from 7,100 to 8,400--in other words, an increase of 1,300 in the first period and an increase of 5,600 in the last period. Seventy percent of these prisoners are for other crimes than those arising out of prohibition. Our State prisons show about the same story.

"There can be no doubt that the more vigorous enforcement of the laws has had something to do with the Federal situation. What the causes and remedies are in respect to these 70 percent is of vital importance. With growing crime of all kinds and with insistent recommendations from every bar association and public body concerned that we should have an accurate study of the reforms necessary in our whole judicial and administrative machinery, that we should have some constructive program for decrease and control of crime as a whole, I cannot abandon the question for one moment or allow the work of this Commission to cease. I have asked the Commission to proceed with its full program of work, and it has consented to do so.

"I have no doubt that there are private citizens sufficiently anxious for the Nation to know the whole truth as to what constructive remedies may be suggested by so eminent a body of men and women as this Commission, that I shall be able to secure from private sources the $100,000 necessary to carry this work forward to completion.

"The Commission are volunteers serving solely out of regard to public interest, and all funds, whether congressional or otherwise, are solely for investigation work.

"The Commission will, of course, need to set up a separate division to take charge of the non-prohibition section of their work, and will, of course, preside over it in a separate capacity."