The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-07
REPORT OF HARMON,
Congress Enlightened by
the New Attorney
General.
PERALTA-REAVIS CASE.
It Was the Greatest Fraud Ever
Attempted Against the
Government.
AS TO THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS
Recommends That One Court in
Washington Be Given Entire
Jurisdiction.
AS TO THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS.

AodINO1 YIN, u. VI, Dec. o. ue re-
port of Judson Harmon, AttorneyGen-
eral was laid before Congress to-day
Harmon gives brief sum mary of the cele-
brated Peralta-Reavis case, decided re.
Gently in favor of the United States, and
characteriZes it as remarkable.
cit was probably the greatest fraud ever
attempted against the Government in its
own courts and its decision removes a
cloud from the thousands of titles held by
actual Settlers" says the report.
The Acknowledgement asks Congress for
directions in the Bell telephone litigation.
He discusses the Pacific railroads relations
to the Government and says that Counsel
Hoadley has protected the Government S
large interests in the Union Pacific. He
asks Tor law Immediately giving one
court in Washington jurisdiction for all
properties and parties in interest in Pacific
railroads. He advises that a prison for
Government prisoners be erected in some
Southern State.
THE present situation of litigation con-
corning the Union Pacific Railway and its
branches" says Harmon, appears in the
report of Hon. George Hoadley, special
counsel for the United States. He has
thus far succeeded in the difficult task of
protecting the large interests of the Gov
eminent without subjecting them to risks
which would be involved in its formal APP
pearance in court. He has also been able
to defeat all the efforts to dismember the
system by appointment OF separate re-
ceivers for its different parts. The situation
has been maintained as it was when the
last Congress adjourned, so far as legal
proceedings are concerned, but large
amounts of subsidy bonds are about to fall
due of those issued to the Central Pacific,
as well as of those issued to the Union Pa
cifc, and no assurance can be given that
the present situation will be long main
tanned.
Action should be promptly taken
toward working out some solution of the
problem presented by the Government S
relation to these properties. AS it may
become advisable or necessary for the
Government to institute legal proceedings
against one or both of the companies
named, / beg to call attention TO the neces-
sity of law giving some proper court in
the District of Columbia jurisdiction of
the entire property and of all parties in
interest. What has been hereinbefore said
as to the general necessity of giving one
court full jurisdiction in such cases applies
with especial force here. Such provision
was included in a bill prepared by At
torney General Olney at the request of the
last Congress. 1t should now be put in
the form of a separate act, so as to be made
independent of any particular plan OF re-
organization. Until the passage of such
an act any attempt of the Government to
protect its rights by litigation will be
greatly hampered."
Concerning the Stanford case, he says:
"Since my last report, wherein this claim
was fully described, suit has been brought
thereon in the Circuit Court of the United
States for the Northern District of Califor-
MIA. The side of the Government was
ably represented by Hon. L. d. McKisick
as special counsel, but judgment was rem
dered against the Government on a de-
murrer to the bill. which judgment has
been affirmed by the Circuit Court of APP
peals. The case has been appealed to the
Supreme Court of the United States and
set for argument in January next.
1.-The cases in charge of Joseph H. Call,
originating in Southern California, and
involving the attempted recovery by the
Government of the title to some 100000
acres of land claimed by the Southern Pa
cihc Railroad Company, have made prog
ress since the last report, but are not yet
finally determined. The rulings of the
courts have thus far been favorable to the
Government.
1.-The cases between the United States
and the Union Pacific Railway and West
ern Union Telegraph Company, mentioned
in last report as awaiting a decision by the
Supreme Court. have just been decided in
favor of the United States, the decisions of
the lower courts being reversed. The
opinions have not yet been printed, and l
am not able, therefore, to give details but
the general result is that the contracts
whereby the railroad company transferred
to the telegraph company the telegraph
business on the line of the former have
been held void and set aside. It'll believed
that the result will be to enhance the value
of the Governments security for its sub
sidy bonds"
Concerning the Pacific Coast smuggling
cases portland, Or.), he says:
"All the leaders of this conspiracy have
now been convicted and the combination
referred to has been entirely broken up.
The Haytien Republic has been conis-
Gated and sold by the Government, and
the Wilmington only escaped like fate
by its destruction by fire, and the moral
effect of all this has been highly beneficial
to the public.
Frank B. Lewis special attorney for
the Mission Indians of California, reports
what has been done in matters under his
charge during the past year. from which it
appears that the services of counsel are
still needed by those Indians.