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 The

Volume XXI

Green

May, 1909

Bag

Number 5

The New Federal Attorney at New York. City

THE appointment of Henry A. Wise to the position of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York by President Taft in a meas ure confirms the recent prophecy of a well-known Congressman that President Taft would select old men for counsel and young men for action. Not many years ago to be United States Attorney was more or less of an empty political honor, and its chief merit was in the popular conception that the individual occupying such a position was the personal representative of the President of the United States, and with the occasional prosecution of a culprit for counterfeiting the currency of the United States, his duties were chiefly political. With the great number of statutes regulating interstate com merce, immigration, naturalization, in ternal revenue, customs, United States mails, national banks, and crimes on the national reservations and the high seas, his position has become so import ant that the success of an administra tion depends greatly upon the prudence and fidelity with which the United States Attorneys perform their duties. Indeed so delicate is his position that the mere intimation in the columns of a newspaper that his office has begun to investigate the affairs of a large cor

poration, has been sufficient to cause a material depreciation in the stocks and securities of that corporation. In fact, from an executive standpoint, the office of the United States Attorney reflects the policy of the administration. Of the eighty-six districts into which the United States is divided, with one United States Attorney for each district, the Southern District of New York (com posed of the counties of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, New York, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester) is the most important. Hence, with the announcement of the appointment of Henry A. Wise, one frequently hears the query, "Who is Henry A. Wise?" Not so, however, with attorneys and persons who have had occasion to visit the United States Attorney's office during the past five years, for invariably they have left that office with the remark, "That man Wise knows his business." He was appointed Assistant United States Attorney by ex-Attorney-General Knox on September 1, 1902, and during the past six years has "served time" at every desk in the office. Notwith standing the fact that he is under thirtyfive years of age, a casual glance at the federal records shows that the number of cases in which he has represented the