Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-04-05
Cold Facts for MIR. Garland.

The annual report made t. the stockhold
ers of the Bell Telephone Company at their
meeting in Boston recently will not be agree
abln reading for Attorney General Garland
and his speculative associates in the PAN
| Electric enterprise. This is the first time the
Bell Company has broken silence since the
controversy began, and the plain, unprsterd-
ing style in which the statements are given
and the utter absence of any attempt at poliIi-
cal effect make the report all the more ironi-
cal and unanswerable.
The report supplements the accounts al
ready made public of the Pan Electric sprcu-
laton and throws a stronger hight upon solue
obscure points The machinery by which the
Pan Electric stock was to be folsted upon
the public is clearly revealed. On the 4th of
January. 1884, one ID. f.. MYERS, then in the
service of the Pan-Electric Company, wrot-
to Nr. Garland As if he were y diSintere.t-d
person and was seeking Information as 10
the value of the stock As an Investment The
next dav Mr. Garland thA owner of halt
million dollars worth OF this stock. received
on the ground floor" replied to Mr.. Myer,
that he had carefully examined the Roger,
inventions and he was clear that they in no
way infringed the Bell patent The public
did not know that Mr.. Garland was an inter-
ested person and that the purpose of his opln-
ipn, III answer W u luesllbn,
was to aid in disposing of this speculative
stock. 1t was one of the ways, however, in
which the statesmen ''let in on the ground
floor" were to assist the enterprise with their
names.
This was before the presidential campaign
of 1884 aud these ''grouud floor" statesmen
had little prospect of directing the great de-
partments of the government. When that
event doomed up, however, the visions of the
Pan Electric spectators expanded like a sud-
denly inflated balloon The plan was changed
and more ambitious methods adopted Moth
ing would satisfy them now but the crushing
out of the Bell Company, and the govern
ment was to be used to accomplish the pur-
pose. Mr.. Garand's deputy, Soicitor-gen-
ersl Goods, was conveniently at hand, and
gave a favorable decision after one days ex-
animation on the question which it has since
taken senator Thurman and other emf
nent lawyers two months to examine and de-
eide. SO eager were the Pan Electric specu
/ lators to get the aid of the Government that
when they went before Secretary Lamar thew
threw overheard Mr.. Garland's manufactured
opinion of January, 1884, as worthless. and
argued that the Rogers patent does infringe
the Ball patent if the latter is valid.
Having lured the government into bring
ing a suit against the Bell Company, the next
step of the speculative statesmen was devel
oped. This was to delay rs long as possible
any decision affecting their case. and SO cloud
the title aud cause AS much damage as posi-
BILE tn the interests of the Bell Company
Accordingly the Pan-Electvic manipu ators
appeared at once in the courts of Baltimore
and New Orleans, where application for in
functions against their own company for in
triuging the Bell patent were to be argued,
and asked for postponement until the govern
ment suit was decided. They believed them
selves able to keep the government suit going
for years before decision in the Supreme
Court court could be reached, and if their RI
val was not to be protected from infringe
ment during sill that time the gain that would
accrue to the Pan Electric Company and the
injury that would result to the Bell interests
can he easily estimated.
The report sums up the programme of the
ground floor statesmen as follows: "A
plan to sell rights which had no value on the
strength of prominent names "a plan to wreck
our property by stopping our suits pending
years of wholly unnecessary litigation;
plan to deceive the public into the belief that
the defeat of the Bel patent would confer
value upon Pan Electric stock a plan to in
veigle MIR. Cleveland's administration into
support OF thl, scheme" Such is terse and
damnlng exposure of the most corrupt at
tempt ever made in the United States to
further private interests BY the use of public
trusts. tfddeiphid Press