The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-01-07
COMPLETE RECORD
Attorney General Wants This Before
Taking Action.

Attorney General Wants This Before
Taking Action.
From, The Journal Bureau, Room 4s, Posi-
building, WUsht1a0ton. IL
Washington, Jan. 7.-Attorney General
Knox declined to discuss the Judge Noyes
decision when seen by me to-day. He
said that he would take mo action until.
he had received copies sof the decision
at San Francisco. He has directed the
district attorney there to mail copies and
does not expect to get them until early
next week. He also refuped to discuss
the sentences imposed DJbeNoyes, Wood,
and Frost. The attorney .ESneral already
has the record, in lua inS b restimotIy taken
before the commi ssionerstan and arguments
submitted at the trial, but has not taken
them up, preferring to wait until he has
everything connected with the proceed
1ngs- from first to last at hand ~
In the absence Of this complete record,
Attorney General Knox will not call
President Roosevelt's attention to the
case. He takes the stand, 1t is UNDER
stood, that there is no use Of proceeding
in an official way until every fact is at
hand on which to advise the president.
Mr.. Roosevelt himself will not want to
act until he has the testimony of both
sides and opinion of the San Francisco
court of appeals.
with officials to-day it is settled that
Judge Moves will not return to Alaska.
It is said the department takes the stand
that if Moves was at the head of con-
spiracy, as has been charged, he GER
tainly cannot go back and if he is the
victim of one it has been so successful
that he has been discredited at Nome and
cannot longer be Of use to the govern
ment there.
Representative Lacey of Iowa, one of
the most bitter anti-Noyes men in Wash
ington, said of the probable action by the
president, that there is but one thing for
him to do,-remove Noyes instantly be-
cause of the conviction by the San Fran
cisco court. Lacey is elated. He thinks
that Noyes will be removed and that
Judge Wickerham, now heading the court
at Nome, will be assigned to that division
permanently and that new judge will be
When asked if he had candidate for the
prospective vacancy, Mr. Lacey said he
had not. He would not send any friend OF
his to Nome or any other place in Alaska
because of the rotten conditions there.
Judge Noyes' friends here are highly
indignant over the action of the circuit
court, and are pointing out inconsistencies
in the sentences imposed as compared with
the alleged misdeeds. Said one of these
gentlemen to-day:
The court could not find anything on which
to base finding that would justify Jail
sentence, but in order toAcarry out the pro-
gram and justify their structures upon Noyes
and the administration, fined him 81 900. This
is, in my opinion q following out Of the poE
Icy of Noyes' enemies to drive him from the
bench In order to sustain their action in the
Mckenzie case, they were forced to sentence
Frost and Wood to Imprisonment. That is
the only reason we can find for their action
in the cases of these two men. The most
glazing inconsistency In the conclusion in
theseecases was the exoneration of Thomas J.
Geary, attorney for Mckenzie He was the
man who advised Mckenzie that the circuit
court of appeals had no jurisdiction. If he
had advised Mckenzie to turn over the gold
dust in compliance with the courts order. 1t
would have been done Immediately and there
! would have been no further proceedings in
the case He was allowed to go scot free,
and Mckenzie and others were fined or SEN
fenced to imprisonment by the court. It is
the most outrageous proceeding that has oc-
Cured in the annals Of jurisprudence in this
| country.
Judge Noyes' friends will not take any
further action here until alllega1 measures
to secure reversal of the courts decision
have been exhausted. tits almost certain
that an appeal will be taken to the SUI
preme court and it will probably be a
month or more after the appeal is f1Ied be-
fore the court will act.
w w Tornano