Omaha daily bee., 1893-06-07
ITS PROBABLE EFFECTS.
Judge Doane's Views on the Decision and
the Standard 1t Sets Up.

Judge Doancs Views on the Decision and
the Standard 1t Sets Up.
Judge Doane of Omaha, one of the attor-
neys who represented the state and the man
ayers, when seen yesterday said that he
had read the opinion of Judges Post and
Norval, and that he was surprised to
learn that the two gentlemen had arrived
at such q conclusion. Continuing his
remarks he added: "The standard of public
morality, which has been established by the
majority opinion of the supreme court, is
such as to leave the treasury practically at
the mercy of dishonest officials.
IF all that is required of public officer
to shield him from the danger of removal
from Office Is that he shall go upon the
witness stand and swear that all that he
did was done in good faith, then the public
has no safeguard against the dishonest acts
of such officials which are not capable OF
being proven as corrupt.
THE law creating the Board of Public
Lands and Buildings defined the duties of
the members of that board with great pre-
cision and detail, and if it imposed any obli-
CATION upon the officers composing that
board it was that they should be
held to strict accountability for
the performance of those duties. 1t would
be a very easy matter for the members of
that board to excuse themselves of the
greatest violations of the duties imposed
upon them by law if they can be permitted
to shield themselves behind the plea of good
faith, which it would be next
to impossible to prove in almost any case.
But how the plea of good faith can be re-
ceived to pallate or excuse the adstracting
Of money from fund appropriated for a
specific purpose and applying it to differ
enU purpose. OF purely personal nature, is
something which l am unable to compre-
hend.
Il fear that the result of this majority
opinion will be damaging in the extreme to
the state and demoralizing to public officials,
for 1t seems to me to be establishing a very
low standard of Official conduct"
John l.. Webster's Comment.
Hon. John l.. Webster one Of the attor-
neys on the side of the impeached officials,
was seen soon after the news of the de-
ciSiOn reached Omaha.
"Just about as l expected" was his re-
sponse to the reporters question as TO what
he thought of the decision.
"Would you care TO state what it was that
led you to think tho decision would be what
it is?"
81 have very decided opinion upon the
matter, but l do not know that it
would be prudent for mo to state
''But will say this. ! never tried II case in
my life in which had n more conscientious
or clear conviction of the rights of my
client than in this case. At all times during
the trial of the case it seemed to me that
there was no principle of law that
could possibly sustain conviction or
justify disagreement on the part of
any member of the court. 1t was Il matter
of common comment upon the streets and
in the hotels from the very commencement
of the trial that Judge Maxwell would be
and was unfrendly TO the defendants. / do
not say that this was true in fact, | only
state what was common report. The prose-
cution in this case was political prosecu-
tion.o