The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-21
BATTLE is ON.
Telegraph Companies Will
Fight In the Open.
Injunction Suit Puts a Stop to
Individual Actions.
NO MI o R IL G. A. s T. s
Can Be Filed Until the Law Has
Raon Tocfo6
Importance of the Fight Over
Telegraph Rates.

Judge HaZen VIII near Lne dppIlCdlAOh
of the Western Union Telegraph COM
pany for an injunction against all par
ties seeking to prosecute it under the
law passed by the special session MAX
ing a reduction in the rates on business
between Kansas points, next Monday
morning. In the meantime he has
granted a restraining order which stops
the hearing of the suits already filed.
The application for an injunction is
directed against Josiah Jordan, L.
Blackman, 7. E. Armstrong, ]. B.
Kassebaum and Lee Jones, the plain
tiffs in the 342 suits which had been
filed against the company up to noon
yesterday: E. D. McKeeVer and w. s.
McClintock, the attorneys who are
prosecuting the case, and Thomas T.
Wright, justice of the peace of Soldier
brought. The petition also asks leave
to make all other parties who may at
tempt to bring similar suits against
the telegraph company, defendants IN
the injunction action without any fur
Their order, and Judge Hazen granted
this in his restraining order. This shuts
off every lawyer in the state of Kan
sas, temporarily at least, from bringing
a suit to enforce the provisions of the
law.
The attorneys who are opposing the
company managed to file 200 additional
suits, however, before the order of the
court was in force on both of them.
The restraining order was served on Mr..
McKeever soon after it was made, but
when Deputy Sheriff Hollis Williams
reached the office of the other attorney
to serve the papers on him, he was not
to be found. Later it was discovered
that he had gone over to Justice
Wright's office, across from Garfield
park, and had filed another batch of
200 suits again the company, with Chas.
Lindsay as plaintiff This makes total
of 542 suit now filed against the West
ern Union, which, if the law is sus-
tanned. will cost it $4,000 damages. be
sides large amount of costs. The at
ton, Smith & Histed, of Topeka, and
L. c. Krauthoff, of Kansas City.
The claim for an injunction is based
upon the allegation that the rates fixed
by the legislature are cOnfiscatOry, and
hence unconstitutional. The petition al
leges that the average cost of sending
a telegram in the United States is a lit
tie over "a cents, and that it receives an
average of 30 cents for each message
sent 1t claims that it is operating sew
eral hundred of the telegraph offices in
Kansas, numbering nearly a thousand,
at a loss, and that the average cost of
kilograms between Kansas points is
considerably more than "a cents each
In order to prove these points the books
of the company may be forced into
court.
There is the usual allegation of
combination in the multiplicity of suits,
and that the kilograms which were Of
faith.
1t is not at all improbable that this
suit will develop into one of the most
important ever brought in the courts of
the state. 1t will involve not only the
telegraph law, but other statutes as
well. 1t is quite probable that the anti
trust law will become involved among
others, as the allegation will doubtless
be made that the Western Union is a
trust. The Bush corporation law will
also cut some figure in the contest, as it
may be contended that the telegraph
company is not conforming with the
provisions of that law, in common with
many others of the big corporations do
ing business in Kansas.
1T is my impression said Judge S.
H. Allen, late associate justice of the
supreme court, that this injunction
suit is brought for the purpose of gain
ing time. If a temporary injunction
can be obtained the telegraph company
can shut off all suits against it until
the permanent injunction is decided,
and if that goes against it, it can carry
the case through all the state courts
and to the United States supreme court,
which would consume several years.
In the meantime some legislature might
be prevailed upon to repeal the law"
Public opinion is not as strong for the
Western Union as it would have been
had the telegraph companies paid their
share of the war tax, did the railroad
companies, instead of forcing it's GUS
70