The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-05-09

a dispatch from Osceola, Mo, says that
two OF the commissioners of that county
were arrested by United States marshal,
on Tuesday. TO answer before the United
States Court at Kansas City ION a charge
of contempt for not levying a tax to pay
interest on bonds issued in 1870 in aid Of
railroad that never was built" The third
commissioner escaped while the other two
were being arrested. The occurrence has
no general interest except for ITS connec-
tor with one of the longest and most stub
born pieces OF litigation on record. Osceola
is the county seat of st. Clair county,
Missouri. and for more than a quarter of
a century the people of that county.
through their commissioners, nave defied
the efforts OF the United States courts 10
make them pay the interest on bonds which
the courts have repeatedly pronounced
valid. The suit dates back to a period
shortly after the war. when Missouri was
rapidly filling UP with immigration and
the people had mania for voting subsidies
10 railroads. 1t was found very easy TO vote
subsidies and issue bonds but hard to pay
them. The result was that between 1870
and 1850 many counties, cities and towns
in Missouri defaulted in payment of their
bonds or in the payment of interest. AS the
bonds had passed into the hands of inno-
cent purchasers. an immense amount of
litigation ensued. ard almost every form
of question came up in the state and fed
eral courts. The Missouri Legislature of
1879 passed resolutions protesting against
the exercise of federal Jurisdiction in such
cases and demanding the repeal of all laws
providing for the removal of causes from
state TO United States courts 1t also passed
a law making it a penal offense for any
county officer to levy or collect a tax or
pay any part of the principal or interest of
bonds which had been held valid by the
United States courts and invalid by the
state courts. This state of things gave rise
to number of local contests. In one coun-
ty the commissioners, in obedience TO an
order from the United States Court, levied
a special tax to pay the judgments against
the county their railroad bonds. The
people refused TO pay the tax, and the col
lector levied upon and seized some sixty
or eighty horses and advertised them for
sale. On the day of sale the people focked
to the country town, but, by universal
agreement. no person bid on any horse ex-
cept the owner. and each man got his own
animals back at 5 TO 10 cents head The
proceeds of the sale did not amount TO
enough TO pay the collectors fees. Nearly
all Of these cases have been settled long
ago either by payment or compromise,
but the st. Clair county case remains I'M
settled AT different times the County Com
missioners have fled to the woods, hidden
in the bush, absented themselves
from home for weeks, or have
been arrested and sent TO Jail or brought
before the United States Court for con-
tempt, all in vain effort to make them
levy a tax to pay the interest on the coun-
ty bonds. The commissioners who were
arrested on Tuesday will be put in Jail and
their farms will be carried on at the coun-
tvs expense while they remain there. The
interest in arrears amounts now to nearly
half the assessed valuation of the county,
without a prospect that any part of it will
ever be paid. 1t is a case in which the fed
eral judiciary machinery seems to fail.