Special Message to the Congress Proposing Administrative Reforms in Federal Law Enforcement and Judicial Machinery.

To the Congress of the United States:

In my previous messages I have requested the attention of the Congress to the urgent situation which has grown up in the matter of enforcement of Federal criminal laws.

After exhaustive examination of the subject, the Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement and the officials of the Department of Justice and of the Treasury Department unite in the conclusion that increasing enactment of Federal criminal laws over the past 20 years, as to which violation of the prohibition laws comprises rather more than one-half of the total arrests, has finally culminated in a burden upon the Federal courts of a character for which they are ill-designed, and in many cases entirely beyond their capacity. The result is to delay civil causes, and of even more importance, the defeat of both justice and law enforcement. Moreover, experience shows division of authority, responsibility, and lack of fundamental organization in Federal enforcement agencies and ofttimes results in ineffective action.

While some sections of the American people may disagree upon the merits of some of the questions involved, every responsible citizen supports the fundamental principle that the law of the land must be enforced.

The development of the facts shows the necessity for certain important and evident administrative reforms in the enforcement and judicial machinery, concrete proposals for which are available from Government departments. They are in the main:

1. Reorganization of the Federal court structure so as to give relief from congestion.

2. Concentration of responsibility in detection and prosecution of prohibition violations.

3. Consolidation of the various agencies engaged in prevention of smuggling of liquor, narcotics, other merchandise, and over our frontiers.

4. Provision of adequate court and prosecuting officials.

5. Expansion of Federal prisons and reorganization of parole and other practices.

6. Specific legislation for the District of Columbia.

I append hereto a preliminary and a supplementary report from Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement relating to of these and other questions. I particularly call attention to their mended plan for reducing congestion in the Federal courts by giving court commissioners enlarged powers in minor criminal cases. discussion of the workability and the constitutionality of the which is concurred in by the eminent jurist upon the commission others whose advice they have sought, is set out in more detail in supplementary report. I also append memoranda from the General and the Secretary of the Treasury upon several phases of these problems.

I believe the administrative changes mentioned above will contribute to cure many abuses. Beyond these immediate questions are others which reach deeply into the whole question of the growth of crime and the enforcement of the laws. The causes of crime, the character of criminal laws, the benefits and liabilities that flow from them, the abuses which arise under them, the method by which enforcement and judicial personnel is secured, the judicial procedure, the respective responsibility of the Federal and State Governments to these problems, all require further most exhaustive consideration and investigation, which will require time and earnest research as to the facts and forces in action before sound opinions can be arrived at upon them

HERBERT HOOVER

White House,

January 13, 1930.