"Capitulation"

One of the arguments Franklin Roosevelt stressed in his plan to reorganize the U. S. judiciary last winter was that U. S. Federal courts were far behind schedule, unable to keep up with overcrowded dockets. Last week, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes made public a report adopted by the annual Judicial Conference of Senior Court Judges, held in Washington last fortnight. Major points:

P: In 1937, only 17 courts failed to keep abreast of their dockets, against 34 the year before.

P: "The present method of assigning judges to meet temporary emergencies is adequate."

P: Four new circuit court judges and twelve new district court judges, three in the District of Columbia, are the only additions the Federal Judiciary needs.

P: The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has been handicapped by President Roosevelt's delay in filling vacancies (one of which still exists), and even with the vacancy filled, another judge is needed.

In the President's Court message February 5, his demand for 50 new judges in Federal courts was based on a letter by Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings which said that instituting a Federal suit was sometimes "a lifelong adventure." In Washington last week Attorney General Cummings tried his best to make the Judicial Conference's findings--that four out of ten Circuit and ten out of 85 District Courts needed new judges--seem not to be a partial rebuttal of his reasoning but a confirmation of it. Said he: "The Conference recommendation is a complete capitulation and a welcome one."

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