Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-07-04
A GRAVE SCANDAL.

Edmunds and His Delicate Position Re-
| garding the Confirmation of Mr.. Fuller.
| A Washington special to the New York
Tribune says:
"There is q minor question connected
with the confirmation of Mr.. Fuller which
Is attracting a good deal Of attention Just
now, and which furnishes certain quarters
with noend of gossip. The motion for a re-
hearing OF the telephone cases is now pend
ing before the Supreme Court 1t is pre-
sumed that the court will announce its de-
cision before the adjournment OF. the term.
The death of Chief-Justice Waite made
the court tie on the cases. If Mr.. Fuller
should be confirmed and take his seat be-
fore the adjournment, he would have the
casting vote in the matter. Mr. Edmunds
is one of the counsel for one of the contest
! ants. He is chairman, also, of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, before which Mr..
Fuller's nomination is now pending. In no
other country but this could it happen that
acounsel would be called upon to pass upon
the fitness of a judge for seat on the bench,
when that judge will have, in all probabili-
ty, TO decide upon the merits of the case in
which that counsel is engaged"
What business has Mr.. Edmunds accept
ing retainers from great corporation like
the Bell Telephone Companyl 1t is scanda-
lous, says the Indianapolis Sentinel, that he
should be permitted to do so; even more
scandalous that he should be willing to do
so. The position he now occupies is one
that would be intolerable to a man of keen
moral sense. Edmunds poses as a pure,
high minded statesman, and a good many
worthy people regard him as something of
a saint But here he is, with his pockets
full of Bell telephone money, passing, in
his capacity of a United States Senator,
upon the nomination of judge who will
have the decision of a case involving mill
ions of dollars to his clients. These same
clients are liable to be, if indeed, they are
not at this very time, interested in meas
ures before the Senate upon which Mr.. Ed
munds will have vote 1t is impossible,
in the nature Of things, for man so cir
stanced as Mr.. Edmunds is, to hold the
scales evenly as between the interests OF
his clients and those of the people, when
they are in conflict. He is certain to have
bias, conscious or un conscious, and it is
because of that fac t that the Bell Company
employs him in preference to greater law
yers who are not in Congress.
Two or three years ago Mr. Beck intro
duced bill in the Senate to prohibit Con-
gressmen from practicing in the Supreme
Court of the United States, or from accept
ing fees from corporations having any busi-
ness relations with the Government. The
bill was defeated, Mr.. Edmunds himself
leading the opposition. He is said to mako
more money out of his law practice than any
other man in Congress. His practice is al
most exclusively in the Supreme Court,
many of whose judges he has helped to
their positions, and his clients are MAIN
ly, if not altogether, great corporations.
Putting this and that together, let the read
er decide for himself whether George III.
Edmunds is entitled to be considered an
honest legislator or an honorable man.