The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-01
TEE TELEPHONE SCANDAL.
The Greatest Official Scandal Ever Known in
the History Of the Government.


The New York Times admits that the public
condemnation of Attorney general Garland,
Tor continuing to hold Pan electric shares after
his appointment as chief law officer OF the gov
erDment, Is just; but with regard 70 the princi-
pal point in this scandalous case, the Times
passes it over in silence
we refer, of course, to the fact that, while
thus holding large amount of such shares the
Attorney general allowed the authority and
name OF the United States to be used for the
purpose of promoting. under cover of sham
lawsuit, the sale Of Pan electric shares, and for
the purpose of enhancing their marketable
value. This is the great point of the scandal,
and this. as we say, our contemporary carefully
overlooks
The Times, however, touches, though with
light and skillful hand, upon conspicuous feat
ure of the affair. Mr. Garland it tells US, re-
fused, on account of his ownership of the Pan
electric to bring suit for the annullment of the
Bell company's patents; and yet he permitted it
to be brought by his suborddates until President
Cleveland ordered them to stop. But now,"
says the Times, ut has been decided in the
hearing before the Secretary of the Interior
that such a suit ought to be brought by the gov
ment."
Here is where Mr.. Lamar has swamped him
self in this shameful affair. After long exam
nation of the testimony regarding the Bell pat
ents, in which not single fact single
bit of new evidence had been presented, and
with the circumstances before his eyes that
three justices of the Supreme Court-Matthews
Biatchford and Gray-and four circuit
judges of the United States-Low-
ell. Bond, McKenna and Wallace
and a number of district judges
with them. had all held, after a careful and pro-
tracted hearing of the same testimony, that the
Bell patents were valid Mr.. Lamar, either out
OF some deplorable intellectual eccentricty or
from Willingness to oblige Mr. Garland, or
from some other unjust and unjustifable reason,
reported that III his opinion, suit should be
brought in the name of the United States be-
cause, he said, no private suit could avail to set
aside patent that had been fraudulently pro-
cured. Yet in the face of this surprising and
unaccountable declaration, the Revised Statutes
of the United States (Section 4920) expressly
provide that any defendant who contests the
validity of patent shall have the right to prove
that the patentee "had surreptitiously and I'M
justly obtained patent for that which was in
fact invented by another"-a provision which
covers the whole case and expressly contradicts
and ridicues Lamar's labored and irrational ar
gument
Here, then. we have the Secretary of the In
ploy the name, the authority and the money of
the United States to institute and carry on, in
their own private interest, and for their personal
enrichment litigation against patent granted
by the United States government 1t matters not
to them that both district courts and circuit
courts of the United States have repeatedly de-
clared that they have good ground of action,
and have granted in junction after injunction;-
the Attorney general and the Secretary of the
Interior propose to array the executive against
the judiciary, and to bring the Treasury of the
United States to their aid in overawing the
courts and overthrowing justice, that the con-
spirators may become rich beyond the widest
dreams of avarice.
Another point which should not be overlooked
is the fact that there is no legal authority which
allows the executive to bring the proposed suit,
without an act of Congress previously obtained.
This was we'll known to the SPECTATORS and
they last year undertook to procure such
ab1g legislation; but their bill failed to pass the
Senate. Now, however, time is short, and they
do not wish to wait any longer So great is
their Impotence that the Attorney general allows
suit to be begun without any shadow of power
ard the Secretary of the Interior, likewise dis
tingaished lawyer and statesman, seconds the
motion. and endeavors to drag the President and
the whole administration into the same deadly
slough.
This is indeed an official scandal of the first
magnitude, overlapping everything else of the
kind that has ever been tsansacted since this
Nation has been in existence.