The Omaha Guide

NEW YORK'S DISTRICT ATTORNEY APPEARS FAIR
"ON THE QUESTION"
(Continued from page 1)

A conference of judges in the district has recently paid particular tribute to Mr. Rivers' keen legal mind. He handles only cases in the higher brackets of civil practice. Mr. Rivers, who has an A.B. from Yale, is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds an LL.B. from Columbia University. He is one of the highest paid assistants in the office, his salary being $7,500 yearly.

Still another Negro assistant is youthful Atty. James Yergan, a nephew of Max Yergan of African YMCA fame.

Mr. Dewey's Republicanism is well founded. His grandfather was one of the founders of the Republican party at Jackson, Mich., in 1854. His father, a Michigan newspaper editor, was a cousin of Admiral Dewey, Spanish-American War naval hero.

He himself was born in Owosso, Mich., 37 years ago; he graduated from the University of Michigan where his chief claim to fame aside from serving as an editor of the Daily Michigan was to become an intercollegiate singer. Winning a scholarship to study music further, he moved to New York, finished law at Columbia while also studying voice, began practice, became chief assistant United States Attorney for Southern New York then briefly United States Attorney for the same district. It was his stellar performance while a federal prosecutor which led to his selection as special district attorney to bust the New York rackets, an accomplishment which focused national attention upon him.

Mr. Dewey is concerned that the administration of justice shall not be polluted by racial discrimination; he is determined that all persons, regardless of race, shall be equal before the law. During his career as a prosecutor, a number of incidents have occurred in which Mr. Dewey saved Negro defendants who had been unjustly accused of crime. Shortly after he took office as district attorney he made a personal appearance in court to free a young Negro, Tim Smith, who had been "framed" on a gun charge. Mr. Dewey not only had the case against Tim Smith discharged, but sent the policeman who had "framed" Smith to jail.

In his campaign for the governorship, Mr. Dewey also made clear his position on the necessity of continuing relief. So long as there are men and women in need, he declared, government's duty is to take care of them and so long as he had anything to say about it government would not shirk that obligation. Similarly, Mr. Dewey emphasized the need for low cost housing for the lower income groups describing it as a long overdue activity of government.

It is understood that Mr. Dewey favors a system of cooperation between the federal and state governments in the direction of housing projects as well as relief. His attitude might well be summed up in the words: No law is any better than those charged with its enforcement. Indeed, Mr. Dewey's attitude seems to be that an honest, straight-shooting federal administration, interested in upholding the constitutional doctrine of equality, could serve in a supervisory capacity to insure that misguided citizens in no state would be able to wreak unjust discrimination upon any group. The federal government would thus serve an all-important role without actually usurping any of the functions of the states.

Mr. Dewey is also understood to favor the enactment of federal legislation designed to end the lynching evil. Indeed, in a letter to the NAACP recently, Mr. Dewey praised the association for its determined campaign to end lynching, describing it as one which would "aid our government in fulfilling its obligations to secure to citizens the right to life."

On the question of the franchise, Mr. Dewey has always been emphatic. In that same letter he described the association's fight to end disfranchisement of the Negro citizen as "the outstanding effort in America today to preserve the traditional and sacred principle that government derives its powers from the consent of those governed."

On numerous other occasions he has reiterated his firm belief that all citizens of the United States, regardless of race or creed, should be guaranteed the right of franchise and of equal opportunity for work. In the latter connection it was the Republican legislature of New York, under Mr. Dewey as titular leader of his party in the state, which passed four anti-discrimination measures, designed to insure equality in the civil service, unions and other fields. Two of the measures were vetoed by Democratic Governor Lehman.