Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/651

 620

THE GREEN BAG

a new one and gets it. In this way he has personally drafted and secured the enact ment of what is commonly known as the "Canfield Bill, " which covers so exhaustively the question of the privilege of witnesses in gambling cases who decline to answer questions on the ground that their answers may tend to incriminate them, that prac tically every gambler in New York City went out of business on its passage. In the "Prince Bill, "which amplifies the law against bribery to include specifically the bribing of representatives of labor organi zations, and also extends the non-availabil ity of pleas of privilege as established by the "Canfield Bill" to witnesses in pro ceedings instituted thereunder, he performed a valuable service to both labor and capital; and by his statute passed to remedy the desperate situation in which creditors found themselves after a fraudulent bankruptcy, where the books of the bankrupt had dis appeared, by making the failure of such an one to produce his books on due notice presumptive evidence that his written rep resentations as to his financial condition were originally false, he has rendered inesti mable assistance to the merchants of the state. By the simple drafting of a statute, Je rome drove the gamblers from New York when no other district attorney, no matter how honest may have been his intention, saw his way to do more than make a few ineffectual attempts to prosecute them be fore juries which rarely found them guilty, and it is not unreasonable to believe that the number of fraudulent bankruptcies will hereafter be reduced fifty per cent, when prior to Jerome's incumbency in office, con victions for crimes arising out of such frauds or for obtaining goods or credit by means of false representations as to finan cial condition, were practically unheard of. Statutes of this character could have been drawn only by a man who united with a thorough knowledge of the necessities of the

situation a comprehensive and subtle knowl edge of the law itself. No public official could have accomplished what Jerome has done unless he had had con fidence in himself and in his own judgment. Jerome follows no interpretation of law which does not seem to him reasonable and right. He steps boldly in where angels might well fear to tread. If the law per mits him to do an act he does it, and he stops at nothing in carrying out his objects within the law. When as a Special Ses sion justice, he cooperated with District Attorney Philbin for the purpose of demon strating that the alleged inability of the police to put a stop to the pool rooms was a pure farce and a mere cover for the col lection of graft, many there were who raised their hands in horror at the sight of a judge doffing his silken robe of office, ac companying the officers while they executed warrants which he himself had issued, and in many cases holding court in the very locus of the crime as soon as the arrests had been made. There were among these horri fied conservatives, many men learned in the law and prominent at the Bar, who averred that such acts were in violation of the con stitutional rights of the persons thus appre hended. But Jerome the lawyer thought differently. It was no mere desire on his part to jump into the public eye and plav to the gallery irrespective of the law, that animated him, but a conscientious belief that only in this way could the situation be dealt with, arrived at after a comprehen sive study of the law governing the situa tion. When Jerome the lawyer had deter mined that his course was justifiable, then Jerome the judge went out and followed it. That his opinion was right is demonstrated by the fact that although over fifteen writs of prohibition, mandamus and habeas cor pus were brought on the ground that the constitutional rights of the defendants had been violated in these cases, the Supreme Court in even' instance dismissed the writs, and every prisoner indicted by the Grand