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Qa 190 ; 3 Nardone et al. vs. United States. 3 True it is that after this court’s decision in the Olmstead case Congressional committees investizated the wire-tapping activities of federal agents. Over a period of several years bills were intro- duced to prohibit the practice, all of which failed to pass. An Act of 1933 included a clause forbidding this method of procuring evi- dence of violations of the National Prohibition Aet. During 1932, 1933 and 1934, however, there was no discussion of the matter in Congress, and we are without contemporary legislative history relevant to the passage of the statute in question. It is also true that the committee reports in connection with the Federal Communi- cations Act dwell upon the fact that the major purpose of the legis- Jation was the transfer of jurisdiction over wire and radio communi- cation to the newly constituted Federal Communications Commis- sion. But these circumstances are, in our opinion, insufficient to overbear the plain mandate of the statute. Tt is urged that a construction be given the section which would exclude federal agents since jt is improbable Congress intended to hamper and impede the activities of the government in the detec- tion and punishment of crime. The answer is that the question is some offenders should go unwhipped of justice than that officers should resort to methods deemed inconsistent with ethical stand- ards and destructive of personal Jiberty. The same considerations may well have moved the Congress to adopt Section 605 as evoked the guaranty against practices and procedures violative of privacy, embodied in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Consti- tution. The canon hat the general words of a statute do not include the Widispuiable upon the text of the act docs not aid the respondent. The eases in which it has been applied fall into two elasses. The first is where an get, 2f not so limited, would deprive the sovereign of a recognized or established prerogative title or Interest.° A clas- sical imstanee is Me exemption of the state from the operation of h Departme at of + Justice Appropriation Act of Mareh 1, 1933, 47 Stat. 3381, 6 The Dollar Savings Rank vr. United States, 19 Wall, 227, 239: United States a. Vlerron, 20° Wall 251, S08: Waited States a. American Bell Tele- Phone Co 1th US. 648, 054: United States pr. Stevenson, 215 U. 8. 190, WT, Vitle Guaruity & Sorety Co. a. Guarantee Tithe & Trust (o., 174 Ped, 385, S88. Maxwell, Ente rpret ation of Statutes €7th Ed.) 117, 121; Black on Inte ‘predation of Laws (2d Ed.) 94.