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a el a _ C: © CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE Feb. 2&9, 1932, e DGE WILKERSON AND CAPONE, = The United States Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed unanimously the conviction of Alphonse Capone. In so doing the court has underwritten and approved the conduct of the trial by Judge Wilkerson and the sentence of eleven years’ tm- prisonment which Judge Wilkerson imposed. The action of the higher court i@ significant in connegtion with the opposition which has de- veloped to Judge Wilkerson's promotion to the Ap- _ pellate bench. Before Capone appeared for trial an understanding had been reached with the gov- ernment for pleas of guilty to some of the charges ceainst him. Capone thought, rightly or wrongly, that he was golng to recetve a ght sentence, Judge Wilkerson refused to become a party to such an arrangement. He served notice that if Capone wished to pleqd4 enilty he must understand |% that no arrangements regarding hia sentence would be regarded as binding by the fudge. Ac. cordingly, Capone pleaded not guilty, the fury re turned ita verdict and the judge imposed a s#en- tence far more eefere than Capone had expected to recelve. It would te acninling, in view of these cir- curmetances, if Capone and his criminal associates did not ‘regard Judge Wlikerson as an enemy. It would be even more astonishing if men of gang ster mentality did not seek to revenge themaeives upon the man they regard as their enemy. That they have done so ia clear, They have pot dared to employ thelr usual methods againat the judge but they hav. teckel Cee dee the) ] wield against the judge's promotion. The oppnsi tion to the confirmation of Judge Wilkereon's ap- polutment bas come, nominally, from labor, but the animating force in the opposition is gangdom and its desire for vengeance. Gangdom, as Chicago well knows, is not without {ta political allies. They are to be found In every branch of the government, federal, state and local, Gangdom has key men fn office and organized vot- ing strength. It le not without significance In this connection that Capone was able to come to an undermanding regarding his sentence with the de- partment Of Justice. Today ganedom ts moving ! heaven and earth to punish the-man who defied its +a leader and upset his arrangements. There iz In the opposition to dudge Wilkerson’s confirmation something more than # blind frenzy for revenge. If Judge Wilkerson is promoted the impotence of gangdem will have been revealed. If} 4 the confirmation is denied, every official, and per- |: tcularly every federal judge, wil) have received | 1 unmistakabie notice that gangeters are not to be |) y UW NE ET FA Are caren ele treated Hke ordinary defendants but as a privileged ~" Class in the community. Those are the alte eo t which | today: confront the Unjted Stateq penate a * * ae ‘a a Te a oe _ bee oe WH ee