The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-07
LAST STRAW rs BROKEN.
Copies HaWked About Among
the Correspondents at
the Capital.
PROCEEDINGS NEXT.
Some One May Suffer by the Pre-
mature Report in the Income
Tax Case.

WASHINGTON, D. c., April 6.-The
publication of the Supreme Court decision
in the income tax case by the Chicago
Tribune this morning is the talk of Wash
ington tonight The Justices will, of
course, not have anything to say either in
affirmation or denial of the correctness of
the publication, but it is known that they
had meeting to-day and were very angry.
Some time ago decisions of the court on
the Bates refrigerator case and the Oak
land waterfront case were anticipated by
the press, and Washington and other
Eastern newspapers have been caustic in
their criticism of the Justices for allowing
information of so important character to
leak out.
Again, on March % and April the
CALL and one or two papers in the East
printed dispatches to the effect that the
court was evenly divided in the tax case,
four being in favor of the income tax and
four against it, and that Justice Field was
one of the dissenters. These reports were
afterward taken up by other papers, and it
has been rumored for several days that the
Justices were in a mood to cite several
newspaper correspondents for contempt.
1t is expected tonight that the publica-
ton of the text of the income tax decision
in Chicago this morning will be the straw
to break the camel's back, and that the
court, goaded to anger by newspaper criti-
cism, will endeayor to stop these leaks by
instituting proceedings for contempt. 1t
was reported tonight that Chief Justice
Fuller said: II will wait until this morn
ing's Chicago Tribune reaches Washing
ton, and if its publication of the decision
is correct in verbiage or substance some
one will be punished. This prying into
our deliberations must be stopped"
1t is understood that R. E. Patterson,
correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, pur-
chased a proof sheet of the decision. They
have been hawked around Washington
newspaper Offices for several days. They
were offered to correspondents of the New
York Herald, New York Times and st.
Louis Globe-Democrat and other papers,
but their correspondents were doubtful of
their genuineness and refused to purchase
them, especially as $1,000 was the price
asked. The Supreme Court decisions are
not printed at the Government Printing
office, but are set up by private establish
ments, the proprietor being in the conf
dence of the Justices and trusted man.
He sets the type himself and runs off the
proof sheets, instead of allowing his COM
positors and pressmen to do it. The sup
position is that his sheets were stolen by
one of his employees and sold by third
party.
Several years ago copy of Supreme
Court decision was obtained in this way
10
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.
Since the publication of President Ar
thurs annual message in advance of de-
livery by Chicago paper, the Govern
ment has taken great care that no Presi-
dents message should get out again. 1t
is delivered by the President to Foreman
Bryan, and he gives it out in such small
''takes" that no part handled by any one
compositor would give an idea of the pur-
port of the general tenor of the whole mes
sage or of any part of it. The form is
made up by Foreman Bryan himself, and
he also runs the copies off on the press,
after which they are locked up in the safe
and the form is 'pied."
But the Supreme Court did not dare
trust its decisions to the care of the Public
ITllJeT. LII Is IuOlSllt 1lldb tlic COuIt may
change the verbiage of it's decision, al
though, of course, the decision itself will
not be modified in any way as the result
of this premature publication. 1t is re-
ported tonight that correspondents of
Chicago, San Francisco and New York
papers will be cited for contempt for an
ticipating the decisions, but as yet none of
them have received notice of any such
action by the court