The record-union., 1891-12-11
Report of the Attorney-General
Submitted to Congress
RECOMMENDATION CONCERNING THE
EXCLUSION ACT.
Over six Hundred Bills Introduced in
the Senate Yesterday, the Largest
Number Ever Introduced in That
Branch of Congress in Single Day
Congressman Springer's Views on
the Tariff Question.
Special to the REcoRp-Uxrox.

port of fAttorney-GeneralM Miller was sub
mitted to Congress to day. It reviews
the business of the United States Su-
preme Court and devotes a chapter to the
Circuit Court of Appeals, which, says Mr..
Miller, has been organized in each circuit
and is ready for business, although an
additional Circuit Judge in each circuit
has not yet been appointed.
Mention is made of heavy increase in
the business of the Court of Claims, and
the recommendation is made that the
working force of the court be largely in
creased.
The Attorney General says it is also
necessary that some provision be made
for the representation OF the interests Of
the Government before the Board Of APP
praisers in customs cases appealed from
collectors to the Board of Appraisers. He
also invites attention to the special report
on the subject of Indian depreciation
claims, and shows the Importance Of a
change in the conduct of that business.
The claims aggregate $40, 100000.
On the subject of United States prisons,
the Attorney-General says: In pursu-
ance of recommendations IN the annual
report of this department bill was passed
by the last Congress authorizing the con-
struction of three United States prisons,
10 be located, one north and another south
of the thirty-ninth degree Of north lati-
tude and east Of the Rockies and the
third west Of the Rockies; but, by an ev
ident inadvertence, Congress failed to
make any appropriation for the purchase
of such sites and the erection of such
buildings. l recommend that the appro-
priations evidently contemplated by that
Act be made. so this work may go for
ward"
After speaking of the well-known diff
cultieS in the enforcement Of the Chinese
Exclusion Act, the Attorney-General
says: eff it is desired that these laws
shall be made effective, they should be so
changed that they cannot be misunder-
stood. To arrest and try such persons,
and as result simply send them back
across the British line is shown to be an
idle expenditure of time, labor and mon
ey, by the fact that, as might well be eX-
pected, the same persons have TO be ar
rested and tried over and over again.
Moreover, it is quite uncertain whether
the order requiring Chinese prisoners to
be sent back into the British Dominions
could be made effective. This subject
demands prompt consideration"
From information, official and unoffi-
cial, in regard to the administration of the
laws in Alaska, the Attorney-Ge is
impressed that such administration is not
satisfactory, and that it can only be made
satisfactory by new legislation.
The Attorney-Generalc calls attention to
the evils of the 'fee system" ;" and advises
the substitution of stipulated salaries in
all cases.
He reviews the legal proceedings in the
case of the Chilean steamer Itata and
sums up as follows: upon the trial of
this Indictment it was held by the District
Court that these proceedings were not in
violation Of the neutrality laws of the
United States, first, because the enter
WAS n aIal t1.aI1
action, and, second, because the Congress
sional party Of Chile, not having at the
time received recognition from the Gov
ernment of the United States, either as a
Government de J3Cre or as a beiligerent,
acts done by the representatives of and in
the interest of that party in the way of
hostiities against the Chilean Govern
ment, were not III violation of any statute
of the United States; III short, that it is
only in the Interest of a Government
recognized de jHre or a beligerent, that
the neutrality statute of the United States
can be violated. Without discussing the
proposition that such transaction is legit-
innate commerce, / venture the SuggeS-
tion that. in the case of serious injury
20 commercial or other interests of a ma
tions with which we are at peace, by ships
fitted out in our harbors, the plea Of such
non-recognition is a very insufficient
answer. If the construction given to
these statutes by a trial court shall be
sustained on appeal, the statute should,
think, be amended"
Mr.. Miller reports tlve suits COM
menced under the Act of August Z, 1888,
requiring all telegraph lines subsidized
by the Government by and through their
own respective corporate officers and en-
ployes to maintain and operate for rail-
road, Governmental, commercial and all
other purposes, such telegraph lines, and
requiring the Attorney General by
proper proceedings to prevent any un-
lawful interference with the rights and
equities of the United States in relation
to such telegraph lines.
On this subject the Attorney General
says: I'm the suits of the United States
against the Central Pacific Railroad Com
pany and the Western Union Telegraph
Company, and the Southern Pacific Rail
road Company and the Western Union
Telegraph Company, both pending in the
northern district of California upon de-
murrerS and motions to dismiss for want
of proper jurisdiction, it is being claimed
on behalf of the Western Union Tele-
graph Company and other corporations
necessary parties defendant, having char
ters from other States than California,
that they cannot be sued in the United
States Circuit Court or in any District
Court other than that from which they
derive their respective charters; in other
words, they are not inhabitants of any
district except the district in the State by
WHICH lu6y were IOuCnl1S tne
question of jurisdiction raised by these
corporations, non-residents of California
the result of such contention is that a
corporation like the Western Union
Telegraph Company, a New York cor
poration, which is doing business in
every State and district in the
Union, which has right in the Federal
courts of the various districts and if sued
in the State courts they move such suits
for litigation in the Federal courts, can
not be sued in the Federal courts in any
State outside Of New York. 1t is not be-
lieved such is the law, at least where the
Government is plaintiff. Certainly il was
not the intention of Congress in enacting
the judiciary law of 1855 to thus make the
corporations a privileged class. L recon-
mend that Section l of the Act of August
Is. 1888 (25, Statute 543D, be amended by
inserting proviSo after the word 'inhab-
liant in the following sentence, namely:
And no civil suit shall be brought before
either of said courts against any person
by any original process or proceeding in
any other district than that whereof he is
an inhabitant; provided, any foreign cor
poration may be sued in any district
where it may be found, the process to be
served as in like cases in the State where
said suit or action is brought Such an
amendment would restore the law TO
what it was for century prior 20 the Act
of March 3, 1887, and would impose on