Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-07-10
ORDERS TO APPEAL
Sent to San Francisco in the
Stanford Estate Suit.
WILL GO TO THE SUPREME COURT,

nut Good Lawyers Think Uncle Sam Has
Bad Case in Law, Whatever 1t May
BE in Justice-urief Statement OF How
Four Big Fortunes Were Madc-An.
sssAer Talk with John w. Foster About
CHINA and Japan.
WASHINGTON, July 0.-Attorney. Gen.
cral Harmon telegraphed Special Attor-
ney Mckissick at San Francisco directing
him to take an appeal ia the Stanford
kl5Uo,0)0 suit at once. The privilege Of
amending the govern ment bill granted
by tie judge will not be taken advantage
OF, but an appeal will be taken to the
United States circuit court Of appeals for
the Pacific coast district. The decision OF
Judge Ross, Of the circuit court in Cali
fornin, that the law is not strong enough
to support the equity OF the governments
claim is looked upon by many people as
settling this matter forever.
Sentimental Opposition to the Suit.
Although it will be appealed to tho
United States supreme court thers is q
general feeling that the decision of Judge
Ross will stand. Outside of California
there never was much sympathy for Uncle
Sam in this suit. While many think
that Leland Ssanford's immense fortune
was accumulated by some what questiona.
BILE means there Is sentimental feeling
against the destruction of the great uni.
versity established in memory OF his only
son, as would be the case il =. the govern
ment wins its suit. While no such con.
siderations as these would influence the
supreme court, IL IL the belief of some Of
the best lawyers that the governments
suit Is founded more on equity than law.
How the Fortunes Were Accumulated.
While there is no doubt that as n mat.
ter OF justice this estate should bear its
share in satisfying the claims OF the
United States against tho Central Pacific
railroad. the belief is that rs n matter of
law. this claim would not stand. There
is also another consideration. The stock
Of the Central Pacific railroad was owned
by four men, Stanford, Hopkins, Hunt
ington and Crocker. Their large for.
tunes were accumulated in n very simple
manner. The government furnished the
money to complete the road, taking n
second mortGag, upon 1t. These men
formed construction companies under
various names andSlot contracts rs man
ngcrs OF the roads to themselves as con-
trrctors Mt enormous figures.
-Four Men Pocketcd the SwaE.
By this means the construction of the
limo was made to cost about double what
it should have cost. the enormous profits
made by the construction companies went
into the pockets of Stanford, Hopkins,
Huntington and Croker. Tho books Of
these concerns were destroyed long ago,
but the facts all came out in an investi-
cation made by the Pacific railway com-
mission. Huntington is still alive, and
rs there has not actually b,en n default
To the government by the Central Pacific
his fortune can not yet be disturbed. The
suit against the Stanford estate was made
ns u test case and in order To prevent the
distribution of the property, making it
impossible to follow up the government
claims.
Could Not Collect from the Others.
The Crocker estate has long ago been
distributed among various heirs, Us has
the property left by the late Mark Hop.
kins. Mrs Hopkins remarked and the
estate was divided up among heirs living
in various sections or the country, some
o: whom have probably spent their share.
1t would thus be manifestly impossible to
enter suits against these two estates with
uny probability of success