Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-10-26
JUDGE MARTIN sPEAKsOUT
Ex- Chief Justice David Martin
Gives His Opinion ON the
Austin Republican Let.
ter About the Stock
Yards Cases.
THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER.


A reporter for the Advocate and
News asked Judge David Martin it he
had noticed that an attack had been
made on Attorney General Boyle's
work in the stock yards case. lie
said that he had.
"Have you ever been misled," he
continued, "by an attractive headline
and commencement, into reading most
of patent medicine advertisement
before discovering its true character
and throw ing aside the newspaper in
disgust? Such was my first impression
on reading the long article of Mr..
Austin on the stock yards case. 1t
starts eff as legal criticism, only to
end In political diatribe against an
able and flicient public officer, who is
candidate for reelection upon a
ticket evidently not of the critics
choice"
What is your opinion about its
merits?"
ga mere lawyer is hardly jus suitable
in taking public notice of political
effusion, although written in the guise
of legal criticism, and 1 have so far
treated it as part of the campaign
clsptrap of the day; but as have been
associated with the Attorney General
in this litigation, and Mr.. Austin 5
article has been extensively published, :,
it may be duty to the Attorney Gen
eral and to myself to speak out when
asked about the merits of the article.
and 1 will do so brie tiy.
"The criticism embraces three points
and three only:
''First-That the Attorney General
ought not to have agreed at St. Paul
for the purpose of expediting the
cases that the suits brought by two
stockholders were not collusive for the
purpose of comforting jurisdiction upon
the federal courts.
second-That the Attorney Gen.
eral ought not to have desisted from
the enforcement Of the stock yards law
from October 9TH until the hearing be-
fore Judges Thayer and Foster, which
was set for October Is, 1897.
"Third-That the Attorney General
ought to have lad the case decided by
the Supreme court of the United
States before this time.''
"The first point touches only the
competency of the complaining stock
holders as suitors. We suggested this
point on the first preliminary hearing,
but did not regard it of much Import
ance. 1 think the stock yards COM
pany should have been the complain
ant, although a Kansas corporation; !;
for as federal questions were involved,
the jurisdiction of the court did not
depend upon diverse citizenship. If
the stockholders had no right to test
the validity of the law, certainly the
stock yards company had. If the
court had sustained the point, which
Mr.. Austin deems SO important, one
of two things, resulting in nothing
better than delay, would have taken
place, namely, the stockholders bills
would have been dismissed, and one
action for all would have been brought
by the stock yards company; or the
court would have permitted the amend
ment of the bills by the substitution of
the stock yards company as complain
ant. The stipulation on this point
was entered into at st. Paul after all
the evidence had been taken, and after
the decision of the case In our favor
by Judge Foster on the masters re-
port. A dismissal of the stockholders
SAiAo eeo ohno 1ituC WOilU nave StIllcQ
nothing except that they were not the
proper parties to bring the suit, and
all the labor done, expense incurred
and advantage gained by the state
would have been lost. The failure of
the suit by the stockholders would
have been no bar to a suit by the stock
yards company. It was interested to
the extent of about $500, 900 per an
nun in having the law declared in.
valid, and nobody could reasonably
except that it would abandon its un-
doubted right to challenge its validity.
"The second point is of no more
merit than the first. On October 4.
Judge Foster decided the case in our
favor on the preliminary hearing for
an Injunction, and dissolved the tem-
porary restraining orders granted at
the beginning of the suits; but for
reasons over which neither the Attor-
ney General nor myself had any con-
troll, the decree was net entered un til
October 8. In the meantime (and
think on October A the Attorney Gen.
eral was served with notice by the
numerous lawyers of the opposite party
that they would apply to Judge Sam