THE PRESIDENT said:
"The report that I am proposing to Congress any extension of the Federal criminal laws to cover racketeering is untrue. Every single State has ample laws that cover such criminality. What is needed is the enforcement of those laws, and not more laws. Any suggestion of increasing the Federal criminal laws in general is a reflection on the sovereignty and the stamina of State government.
"The Federal Government is assisting local authorities to overcome a hideous gangster and corrupt control of some local governments. But I get no satisfaction from the reflection that the only way that this can be done is for the Federal Government to convict men for failing to pay income taxes on the financial product of crime against State laws. What we need is a more widespread public awakening to the failure of some local governments to protect their citizens from murder, racketeering, corruption, and other crimes, and their rallying of support to the men of these localities that are today making a courageous battle to clean up these places."
Note: The President issued the statement at a time when highly publicized campaigns against crime and racketeering were being conducted by the New York Committee of Public Safety and the Chicago Association of Commerce. On November 21, 1930, Attorney General William D. Mitchell announced that Federal agencies were giving particular attention to Chicago and were cooperating with local leaders there.
Herbert Hoover, Statement on State Law Enforcement. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/212497