New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-09-25
MR.. CLEVELAND And HIS ATTORNEY
GENLEdL

MR.. CLEVELAND AND HIS ATTORNEY
GENLGAL.
President Cleveland Processes to regard pub
lie office as a sacred trust which it is infamous
10 use for personal gain or even for partisan
ends. Having gained his position by such pro-
fessions, he would be peculiarly diSgIaced if he
should suffer the power of the Executive De-
partment to be used for his own private gain,
or for the private gain of any Cabinet Officer
1t would be well for him, therefore, ta consider
without any delay what Attorney General Car
land is doing, and whether the conduct of that
official is calculated to fill his pockets, and the
pockets Of his associates. That the President
may not be imposed upon in this matter, the
facts are set forth With care in q dispatch from
Washington published to-day. The President
is certain to read this news. and it wonld be
well for him to consider what his own sup
porters would have said if such facts could
have been established against his competitor,
or any other Republican official.
A. III. Garland is not only Mr.. Cleveland's
Attorney General of the United States, but hc
is also attorney for the Pan Electric Telephone
Company. But he has less stock in the United
States than IN the telephone company, for in
the certificate of incorporation of that company
he appears as the owner of 81 ,000,0 C0 of its
stock, and if the company could succeed in
breaking the patents held by the Bell Tele-
phone Company all its stockholders would be-
come enormously rich. 1t seems to be a
political telephone company all it's officers are
influential Democrats. Its president is Joseph
f. Johnston, Mr.. Cleveland's United States
Commissioner of Railroads its vce-president
is Senator Harris, Mr. Cleveland's chief adviser
for Tennessee its secretary and treasurer is
Casey Young, of Tennessee, former Democratic
CONGRESSMAN its attorney is Mr. Cleveland's
Attorney G eheral ; and its directors are j. d.
G. Atkins, Mr.. Cleyeland's Commissioner of
Indian affairs, Mr.. Looney, member of the
Democratic National Committee for Tennessee,
and j. Ii. Rogers, formerly Electrician for the
Democratic House of Representatives
Against this powerful political combination
the Bell Company brought suits for infringe
ment of patents, ana one of these was To come
ND on Tuesday of last week. The question at
issue had been tried many times before, and by
courts in different States decided i'll favor of
the Bell Company. The issue, then, WINS about
as certain as it could be- until the power of the
Executive Department of tho United States
Government was employed to turn the scale. 1t
is the Presidents duty to see what the At
torney General did in these circumstances, and
whether it was done to enrich himself and his
Democratic associates.
After consultations here and at Washington,
Mr.. Casey Young went to Memphis, where H..
McCorry of his own city, had been appointed
District-Attorney. Young left Washington on
the 9Th on the 10th, McCorry brought suit in
the name of the United STATES against the Bell
Company, to set aside its patents, the grounds
alleged being those on which that company has
been repeatedly sustained by the courts in
different States The suit was brought by ex-
press authority of the Attorney General. This
was stated by Mr.. Cleveland's District-Attorney
| Sterling, of Maryland in his effort TO prevent a
| decision and injunction in favor of the Bell
! Company on the trial last week. The question
| for Mr.. Cleveland is whether the object of this
| suit was TO enrich his Attorney General and the
eminent Democratic politicians who are his as
sociates. Such, at all events, would plainly be
the effect of the suit il sustained by the courts ;
and does not President Cleveland see that this
company enjoys q great advantage in having
the United States Attorney General fighting its
cause in United States courts No other
political ring, of the many known to the past
history of the country, ever had the United
States Government to appear in its behalf. by
its chief law officer and at its own cost, in It's
own courts, TO deprive private citizens of their
| property. 1t is for President Cleveland 20 de-