New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-10-09
IN INDECENT EXHIBITION.

IN INDECENT EXHIBITION
The appearance Of Judge Thurman at Wash
ington as the special advocate of the Pam
Electric gamblers is the most indecent per-
Torrance of the political canvass. This may
be said without reference to that disputed
question of legal ethics, whether lawyer is
justified or not in taking a case which he knows
to be fraudulent. Casuistry, by which learned
apoogsts Of the bar seek to vindicate law
yer's right to do everything in his power for
client even when he knows the case to be in
defensible on moral grounds, may not satisfy
high minded and scrupulous men; but the
practice is so common that an ordinary prac-
titoner may not be professionally discredted
thereby. Judge Thurman might properly have
declined in the first instance to be retained in
the telephone suit, especially as it was notori-
Gus that the Administration was intent not SO
much upon securing his legal services as upon
making use of his name and reputation in
desperate attempt to cover up an infamous
Cabinet scandal. If he took low professional
view of the case in accepting the Government
brief. he was justified possibly by the ethics
Of current legal practice He is now, how
ever, something more than the hired advocate
retained for political reasons in an indefensibe
cause. He is candidate for Vice President.
nominated by his party, and deliberately Sc
lected in the first instance by the President
himself. The improperly and indecency OF
his appearance in the case at this time while he
and the President hold the relations to it and
to Attorney General Garland which they do,
Ia Cd Of aypIo lion
or defence.
With Judge Thurman in court, retained on
their behalf the Southern ring Of telephone
spectators is banking on the name and infu-
ence Of the Democratic candidate for Vice
President. 1t adheres to the last to the policy
which it has pursued from the beginning. The
Rogers family owned patents which had no
marketable value. Out Of paper capital of
$1,000, 900 they gave away S35OO,00O in re-
turn for names and influence that would enable
them 70 sell a wildcat stock which no one
would look at on its merits. Blocks of this
stock were peddled on the floors of both houses
of Congress and taken by Democrats only.
Senator Garland received large quantity Of
IL, and gave in return for it legal opinion re-
specdng nOn-infringement. This opinion was
advertised, although the company had received
from Mr.. Marble, formerly Commissioner Of
Patents a decisive refutation Of it. CredulOus
investors were induced by this opinion to buy
stock the receipts for which Mr.. Garland and
his associates divided among themselves after
limiting at the outset to 81 so individual LA
bility for the gift stock. Banking on Mr..
Garland's name as a lawyer and a statesman
was fairly profitable The coparceners raked
in $50, 900 in hard cash.
When the company VAS sued for infringe
ment in defiance of Mr.. Garlands opinion that
the patents did not infringe, this peculiar sys-
tenn of banking was carried into the Depart
ment of Justice. He was then Attorney-Gen-
eral and had not parted with his gift stock
Several of his Pan Electric associates held i'm
portant posts in the Department Of the In
terror, and they had not parted with their gift
stock. The cOnfederateS determined to bank
upon the Governments name long enough to
force the Bell Company to compromise with
them. With this end in view they made a
secret contract with the National Improved
Telephone Company, and obtained the support
of the Department of Justice, at the head of
which was their own colleague with 81 900, 900
of gift stock in his private safe. The terms of
the contract prove that a strike" against the
Bell Company was medtated under pressure
of Government Intervention. With precipitate
haste and in defiance of law they secured per-
mission to bring suit when and as they liked.
They had no public end in view. They simply
meant to bleed great corporation with the
aid of the Department of Justice. They eX-
pected the AttorneyGenera to prostitute his
public functions for mercenary and private
ends He was one Of them, and they banked
on him freely.
This infamous plot was exposed but the suit
was abandoned only to be begun again under
advice from the Department Of the Interior,
which was fairly swarming with Pan Electric
spectators. Litigation was unnecessary since
every question Of law and of fact was already
before the United States Supreme Court but
it was continued in the private Interests of the
eneral and his fellow jobbers and
strikers Expensive counsel were retained
Judge Thurman among others the consplrators
still perseyerng in the policy Of banking upon
Democratic statesmen of high reputation. Twice |
the Government counsel have been thrown out |
of court the United States Supreme Court has |
decided e.ery issue involved in the telephone |
patents; yet the suit is continued, and one |
deficiency bill after another bears witness to |
the heavy expense. When Judge Thurman