Law, Liquor, Lag

A prime argument against Prohibition was that it choked Federal courts with thousands upon thousands of new criminal cases, made it impossible for those courts to administer justice with reasonable care and dispatch. Last week, following the annual Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, Chief Justice Hughes reported that Repeal had not appreciably eased Federal court burdens. Prohibition cases had simply been replaced by liquor revenue cases. As of June 30, declared the Chief Justice, some 2,400 fewer cases were piled up in Federal district courts than at that time last year but that was because judges had stricken many an inactive civil case from their lists. Criminal cases were up nearly 2,000.

Worst swamped of the nation's 84 judicial districts was Southern New York, embracing New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester and eight other counties. On June 30 it had more than 8,000 cases pending, as compared to 5.000 for the Southern District of California, next worst. A suit entered in Southern New York comes to trial about two years later. Last session, Congress gave Southern California, where cases wait 18 months, two additional Federal judges. Last week the Judges' Conference urged that the number of judges in its Southern New York District be upped from eight to ten.

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