Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-24
Aancaster fntethgenrer.
TUESDAY EVENING, NAY "a, 1881.

TUESDAY EVENING, NAY "a, 1881.
The Parade Of the Judges.
The supreme court has afforded the
good people of the state another chance
to shake their heads, in deciding,
four TO three, that Mr.. Bond was duly
elected president of the Reading
railroad corporation by a minority OF
It will not he the fact of
The decision, probably, that will make
people wonder, 50 much as the remark
able division of the court in making it.
Most persons have quite given up the
effort to comprehend the Reading rail-
road muss, and would thankfully swal-
low any Interpretation of the law of the
case that the courts would agree to
make. 1t is possibly amusing, if not
gratifying to the doubling people to note
that the supreme court seems to be as
much muddled as they are, and to he
quite incapable of agreeing upon so SIM
pie thing as the Interpretation of the
charter of the Reading company govern
ing its elections. They may shake their
heads either for joy that they are not so
extraordinarily stupid as they feared
they were, or in establishment that the
supreme court is as stupid, or in disgust
from suspicion that it may he sinis-
ter rather than stupid disagreement of
tliat court.
When the Philadelphia Ledger under
took to shake its head few days ago
over the decisions of the supreme court
i'm Philadelphia highway matters which
it considered very strange and very
wrong, and which Judge Finletter says
a properly informed court could not
honestly have made, it was not only sur
prise that caused its head to vibrate, but
it was distrust beside. 1t plainly inti-
mated doubt of the intelligence or the
integrity of the decision it may have
been its thought that the court knew
too much about the parties it relieved
and was too much interested in them ;
or it may have only meant to say,
what Judge Finletter says. that it
showed a woeful degree of ignorance of
the case it decided so wrongly.
As the judges who made these high
way decisions were four, and three dis
sentetl; and rs the judges who make the
Reading decision are four, three dissent
ing, possibly good people may see enough
in the coincidence to again shake their
heads especially when they find the
four judges were the same four all the
time and the three dissenting were the
same; and particularly when they see
that the three are Chief Justice Shars.
wood and Judges Turnkey and Sterrett,
all judges of good repute for intelligence
and integrity, and that the four arc
Judges PaxsOn. Mercur, Green and Cor.
don, who do not in the general estima.
ton outweigh their three brother judges
in either of the qualities we have named.
If any should incline to shake their
heads over the steady dress parade to-
gether of four supreme judges they will
not cease their shaking when they observe
that it occurs on political and railroad
occasions.
In regard to the decision of the four
in the railroad case, it is to be noted that
it gives effect to the voice of an admitted
minority of the Reading stockholders,
and that it therefore needs to he sustain
ed by pretty clear provision of the
charter, and that it manifestly is not SO
sustained since three supreme judges
give it different construction.
The minority view is very clearly and
forcibly stated by Judge Turnkey. He
says that the stockholders might have met
the second Monday in January, the day
fixed by their charter, without any spe-
cial call to SO assemble from their OFF,
GERS. There WAS, therefore, no contem-
platiOn in the charter Of any failure of
the stockholders to assemble i'm annual
meeting, and no provision made for an
other one being called, though regula-
tiOns were made for holding adjourned
and special meetings..
Both opinions of the court will he
widely read Ivy the people and by lawyers,
and We will not long have to await the
verdict as to their respective strength.
The question is one which intelligent
laymen are as capable of deciding as
lawyers. 1t does not involve any ques-
tion of law; it simply requires the cor
rect reading of the provisions of the
charter, giving them the force that
heirgrlmmatical construction, language
and correlation invest them with.
1t will be noted that the majority Opin.
ion displays an anilnus against Mr..
Gowen in its concluding sentences, where
it is declared that the absentees from
thedisputed election, having confessedly
staid away to prevent a change of the
officers by the other stockholders, g pre-
sent no ground for relief from their mis-
fortunes or their folly.'' The fact
being, rs the minority opinion points
ou:, that the majority 10y staying away
showed that they were satisfied with the
existing officers and made the minority
'' as harmless as if actually outvoted.''
Judge Mercur actually twits the major
ity of the Reading stockholders with
&" their misfortunes or their folly I" while
he gives effect to the voice of the mi
nority!