The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-05-07
The Grand jury Report in WasbingtoY


| WASHINGTON, May 6.-The report of the
New Orleans grand jury upon the killing
OF the Italians was fruitful theme for dis
cusslon among people at the department of
state to-day. 1t may be said the finding of
tne grand jury excited no surprise, for
| some such conclusion of the case was ex-
pected. The attempt to palliate the in
traction OF the law by offsetting the alleged
attempts at jury fixing, is deprecated by
ene legal department. but there is a well
uenned opinion that on the whole the out
come OF the case will be beneficial in its eff
iects upon turbulent foreign elements in
the United States, inasmuch. as it will
make clear to them the fact they cannot
rely upon treaties to escape responsibility
10 Inc great republic for their unlawful
acts. -
Inc report of the grand jury will, it is
expected, reach Secretary Blaine in the
course OF time and make quite figure in
1ne ofnclal correspondence between
tne United States and Italy. There
Is reason to believe in some details
IL differs from the report made to the de-
partment of justice by District ATTORNEY
Grant, and notably in the matter of the
nationality of the Victims The grand
Jury'S report found eight of them were
naturallzed American citizens and that
one had declared his intentions to become
naturallzed. District-AttorIfey Grant be-
neved he found one of the victims was of
Italian nationality, but was an escaped con-
Wet, and that anothers nationality was an
oouotful as to make it unsafe to hazard an
opinion, so at any rate the Italian complaint
Will be narrowed down to at least two per-
sons. Although the United States has no
naturalization treaty with Italy, the last
named nation invariably through comfy
recognized our naturaliZed citizens as free
from amenability to their native govern
ment. When the case of these two
S!cIlns is considered the question immedi-
ately arises, Were the treaty stipulations
with Italy broken? This question is likely
TO ngure In the correspondence between the
TWO governments as soon as the italian
government is ready to fall reasonably into
the usual diplomatic method of treating a
SUBJECT respecting which they took issue
with another nation. Unless it appears
clearly that the treaty has been violated.
the Italian case falls to the ground and
leading diplomatic minds of the state de-
partment maintain this fact cannot be made
10 appear. In Secretary Blaine's absence
tnere mas been no forward move in the cor
respondence
1t is learned that Porter, our minister at
Rome, had applied to the department of
state Tor leave of absence before the New
Orleans affair happened. He has been con-
s tsan on duty since March, 1889, more
than two years. Moreover, the sickly
season is approaching in Rome so it is en-
tirely probable his request will be granted
as indeed would already have been the case
mad not the trouble reached such an acute
phase
Attorney General Miller SAID he had read
the report OF the grand jury but declined
absolutely to express any opinion regarding
1t or to discuss it in any of its features.
Secretary Foster when asked his opinion
on the report, said he really had not had
Time TO read 1t and therefore was not in a
position to express an opinion on it.