Show plan just and speedy trials for nazi bigwig bigwigs s allied Coni commission mission to handle cases of high Lea leaders dees local officials to prosecute minor offenders by news analyst and commentator service union trust building washington D C the legal profession is about to meet the greatest challenge it has ever faced the moscow declaration published november r 1 1043 1943 and signed by president Preside nj roosevelt prime minister ch churchilll u archill and premier stalin de declares clares that those german officers and men and members of the nazi party who are responsible for or who have taken a consenting part in ll 11 atrocities evidence of which has been e en received from authoritative q quarters aar te rs in many countries will be tried judged and punished according to the laws ot of those countries this same declaration also declares in its final paragraph that major criminals whose offenses have no particular geographical localization baliza will be tried and dealt with by joint int decision of the governments ern ments of the allies that Is where the united states and the challenge of its legal profession comes in the body which will try these big shots is an international military tribunal to be designated by an official title probably by the time these lines hoes are printed and it is before this court that a member of the supreme court of the united states associate justice robert H jackson chosen as american chief of counsel will appear as prosecutor he will act jointly it is presumed with the counsels of the united kill kingdom and the union of soviet socialist republics legal body without precedent never in history has such a legal body been convened never has such a task as the one it has before it been of such potential significance to the social and political well being of the peoples of the earth never at least since the day of a certain roman procurator of judea in palestine pontius pilate was unable to face his responsibility and finding that he could prevail nothing but rather that a tumult was made ile he took water and washed his hands the united states does not intend to wash its hands of the responsibility before it there seems to be a welter of contusion confusion as to just what the function of this military tribunal Is as to just what if any policy has been established by the office of the chief counsel tor for the prosecution of axis criminality which Is the title on the letterhead before me the permanent address of this office is at this writing a little uncertain but it can be reached care of the pentagon in washington soon it will establish foreign headquarters despite the confusion this institution has a definite policy and I 1 shall interpret it informally hereunder 1 we shall avoid the laws delay which so annoyed hamlet my reason for this assumption Is the tact fact that justice jackson did not retire from the supreme court the fall term of the court begins in october already he has made one trip to europe for the purpose of rounding founding up key witnesses and documents and Is now beginning final preparation tor for the prosecution his staff has been assembled tor for several weeks and he has coordinated the other government agencies interested in war crimes war department navy department office of strategic services and others authority for this action is vested in executive order of may 2 1945 which named justice jackson as american prosecutor jackson himself said when he was appointed there will be no delay on the part of the united states and we think undue delay is itself a failure 2 there is no confusion as to united states policy with respect to the type of offender to be tried many individual cases have already been prepared though not yet announced As I 1 mentioned earlier what the united states is concerned with is the big shots that is jacksons job to try the men whose offenses are broader than those committed in and Ei against members of any single community to put it broadly those charged with crimes against humanity as a whole this rules out the persons brought brough t back to the scene of their crimes the trials of 0 spies and saboteurs sabot eurs which are coming up dally offenses against american nationals or against germans or individual acts of persecution against jews or others in other words jackson Is after big game and he will not be content to fiddle with minor offenses even it if committed by major criminals HI his I 1 job will be to nail those leaders who are responsible tor for engineering the whole general criminality ol of the nazi fascist program the smaller try fry will be taken care of by other legal authorities at the scene ot of th the individual crimes or elsewhere jackson versed As prosecutor justice jacksons reputation and his record are a pretty good guarantee that he will not be stumped by any hurdles that international lawyers might try to put in his way but that does not mean he will railroad the accused ile he will not let the trials sink below a dignified judicial level they must be hi he says trials in fact act not merely trials in name to ratify a predetermined result on the other hand he does not believe that every step must be taken in accordance with technical common law rules of proof his record shows that he is a direct act factionist actionist he can be expected to pull no punches I 1 said this was the greatest challenge the legal profession had ever faced I 1 said that because upon the manner in which these trials are conducted will depend just how clearly will be revealed to the people of the world in its true light these criminals must convict themselves and their philosophies out of their own mouths they must not be a allowed to stand before the world with their testimony and that of their accusers as a background a as martyrs to what jackson himself elk calls its farcical judicial trials which rationalize previously settled opinions this would destroy the confidence of the people in the whole case for democracy he believes nor must the case against them be presented in such a manner as might give even the skeptical a false suggestion that the enemies of democracy have a vestige of right on their side the small but efficient staff which justice jackson has selected Is worth looking over there Is maj gen william donovan colorful world war I 1 hero and successful lawyer now head of the OSS sydney alderman d a distinguished trial lawyer and general solicitor of the southern railway francis shea assistant attorney general and well versed in complicated litigations naval alts james donovan and gordon dean donovan Is general counsel of the OSS dean a former assistant attorney general under jackson when he was head of the department of justice Is a brilliant and successful lawyer who is being transferred from active duty by the navy for the job there are no hand washing pontius among them the rise in income payments to individuals in the united states from an annual figure of in the prewar year of 1938 to a record high total of in 1944 was extended during the first quarter of 1945 according to the alexander hamilton institute income pay payments ments during the first three months amounted to this year as against last year an increase of 56 per cent income from every source showed eap exp expansion ancion salaries and wages rose from to an increase of 46 per cent while dividends and interest rose from to an increase of per cent although spending by consumers was at a record high rate during the first quarter it Is evident from preliminary information that consumers income exceeded spending by an amount sufficient not only to meet taxes but to add to consumers wartime savings thus increasing the threat of inflation when peace returns BARBS by baukhage the government has sold the camp to in new jersey seized from the ger man american bund it will be made into a boys camp not a concentration cent ration camp So business men recently asked the american military governor of one of their cities how to make out arl an application for i a loin loan to a rebuild th the town field marshal Man mannerheimo Manner helm commander of the finns in their wars with russia congratulated stalin on his victory over germany in 73 words stalin replied in 19 10 the british broadcasting company says it has proved during the war that telling the truth can be more effective than calculated lying maybe goebbels was wrong atter after all f |