Labor & Crime v. Wilkerson

Labor & Crime v. Wilkerson

Labor is a behemoth which never forgets. When President Hoover appointed Federal Judge James Herbert Wilkerson to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago last winter (TIME, Jan. 25 ), Labor bitterly recalled that it was this same Judge Wilkerson whose mandate smashed the great railway shopmen's strike of 1922. At the request of Attorney General Harry Micajah Daugherty, Judge Wilkerson. just appointed by President Harding, issued a sweeping injunction restraining strikers all over the nation from meeting, picketing, agitating against their employers. The struggle to prevent the Senate's confirmation of Judge Wilkerson to the appellate court has been waged for the past two months inside and outside Senator Borah's Judiciary subcommittee.

In Chicago, and to a lesser extent throughout the country. James Herbert Wilkerson is something of a judicial hero. His promotion by President Hoover was frankly the result of "his splendid service" in curbing gang activities. He it was who sent notorious Terry Druggan and Frankie Lake to jail. Last summer he capped a long and successful record of imprisoning gangsters when he refused to countenance a "deal" between Scarface Capone himself, his Federal prosecutor and the U. S. Attorney General's office whereby Capone was to swap a plea of guilty to income tax evasion for a light sentence. When the prosecutor came to court with this proposal. Judge Wilkerson indignantly quashed it (TIME, Aug. 10). Brought to trial, "Snorkey" Capone received an eleven-year penitentiary term and a $50,000 fine (TIME. Oct. 26). He still languishes in Cook County jail waiting final appeal.

As a result of his gang-busting Judge Wilkerson not only received his appointment but the backing of the Illinois Congressional delegation of both parties, Senators Lewis and Glenn, Mayor Cermak of Chicago, the Chicago Bar Association, Attorney General Mitchell, President Melvin Alvah Traylor of Chicago's First National Bank and a host of solid citizens. In contesting Judge Wilkerson's appointment to a higher court. Labor found itself unhappily sided with Organized Crime.

Labor's plea, eloquently voiced for the 21 rail unions and the A. F. of L., came to Senator Borah's committee from Donald Randall Richberg, Chicago attorney. With Judge Wilkerson's 1922 injunction in mind, said he: "He set aside the constitutional guarantees of liberty of contract and free speech. He permitted his court to be used as a strikebreaking agency in behalf of the railway managements. ... In his blind partisanship and antagonism to labor unions. Judge Wilkerson has not followed the law as laid clown by the Supreme Court, but has attempted to write new law. . . ."

The amen to this speech came from President William Green of the A. F. of L. ''The entire American labor movement is a unit in its opposition to the confirmation of Judge Wilkerson."

Quickly to the defense of Judge Wilkerson sprang 80-year-old President Frank Joseph Loesch of the Chicago Crime Commission and Col. Robert Isham Randolph of the anti-crime ''Secret Six." "Sworn testimony before the Senate Committee.'' said they, "showed that Judge Wilkerson issued this injunction on the following evidence: 'nineteen deaths, 1,500 assaults, 65 kidnappings, 300 cases of actual or attempted burning or dynamiting of property, 50 actual or attempted cases of derailment of trains, and other instances of sabotage too numerous to count. . . .'"

Before closing its long-drawn hearing last week, Senator Borah's subcommittee took a sudden and surprising tack. It wanted to know what the whole country has wanted to know since last summer-- the facts surrounding the "deal" which U. S. Attorney George Emmerson Q (for nothing) Johnson made with Capone. How much or how little did Judge Wilkerson know about the understanding before it was brought out in court?

To find out whether "Judge Wilkerson broke faith with Capone and with the District Attorney and whether he failed to do as he agreed," Attorney Johnson was invited by Senator Borah to come to Washington. Most of the all-day session was taken up by Attorney Johnson with a history of Al Capone and Chicago gangdom. Toward the end of this testimony Senator Borah interrupted, "I want to get hold of your arrangement with Judge Wilkerson."

Attorney Johnson -- I am coming to that. The great fear of myself and my agents was that of reproducing the case. May I add that in the investigation that followed later [after Judge Wilkerson turned the "deal" down], after the pleas of guilty had been withdrawn, we did locate one witness who had eluded us for a year and a half, so that when we came to trial we were in better shape than we were at this time. We had given up hope of finding this witness. ... I told Judge Wilkerson that my greatest objective was to get Al Capone in the penitentiary, because my experience has always been that once these leaders have been imprisoned . . . they never amount to anything.

Judge Wilkerson advised the prosecutor to "think that over carefully." Then, said Attorney Johnson, he told Judge Wilkerson that he would recommend that Capone be sentenced to two and one-half years in exchange for a plea of guilty.

Senator -- Judge Wilkerson endorsed that recommendation?

Attorney -- Judge Wilkerson approved the making of the recommendation. No judge could bind himself to follow such a recommendation. There was a tacit understanding.

A Committeeman -- The Judge did not at any time say he would follow the recommendation ?

Attorney -- No sir, he did not. Capone is a man of unbelievable arrogance. He knew this plea of guilty involved a penitentiary sentence. The first thing that happened, to my utter astonishment, was this. ... On the very afternoon that the pleas of guilty were entered an afternoon newspaper published in headlines not what the District Attorney's recommendation would be, but what the judgment of the court would be and that brought comment from all over the country. . . .

Senator--You have not made clear why Judge Wilkerson changed his mind.

Attorney--I think the primary reason rested in the fact that Capone himself had announced what sentence he would receive. ... I have begun to believe that this agreement was a mistake. I feel that Judge Wilkerson has not done anything judicially improper.

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