The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-02
whitaker WRIGHT HELD
SUPREME COURT DECIDES HE Is ELL
CHILE TO BE ExTRADITED.
Jurisdiction of Federal Commissioner
Imperfalist Hawaiian Decision.

WASHINGTON. June 1.-The United
States Supreme Court to-day refused to
grant writ of habeas corpus in the case
of Whitaker Wright, who is in custody in
New York awaiting extradition on charges
of fraud made in England. The opinion az
firms the decision of the United States Cir
cult Court for the Southern district of New
York, which held that the crime alleged
against Wright is an extraditable offense
under the terms of the treaty between the
United States and Great Britain. Wright
is in the custody of Marshal Henkel, under
a warrant of commitment issued by United
States Commissioner Exlander. of New
York, before whom the complaint was made
by the British consul general at New York
That complaint charged Wright with hav-
ing committed fraud in England while act
ing director of an English corporation
An unsuccessful attempt was made to Sc
cure his discharge by the commissioner and
later by the court or the ground that the
offense charged was not one made GRIM
inal by the laws of both countries as re-
CURED by the treaty" Chief Justice Fuller,
in delivering the opinion of the court. said
that 1t is true that both by the general
principles Of international law and our
extradition the offense must be made GRIM
inal by the laws of both countries. The Of
Tense charged in this case, however, he
held, is made criminal by a British statute
and also by the penal code of the State of
New York. in which State Wright was APP
pretended, the statute in both cases being
essentially the same. He concluded, there
fore, that the United States commissioner
who held Wright for extradition had juris-
diction.
Xxx
u IL
graph Company. practically the Western
Union Telegraph Company, VS.. the city of
Philadelphia, involving the taxation of
telegraph companies wires and poles by
the city government was decided to-day in
favor of the telegraph company Tho
lower courts decision was reversed on the
ground that the court took from the jury
the power of saying what would have been
a reasonable tax. Justice Brewer said
that there was no question as TO the right
of the municipality to legislate for a tax
of this character. but that it did not fol-
low from this fact that municipality is
not subject to any restraint in such
charges. we do not say" he said. that
a city has not by virtue of its police pow
ers authority directly to compel the re-
moval of wires from poles to conduits, but
ii may be questionable whether city can
seek the same results by an excessive and
unreasonable charge on overhead wires"
XXX
The court granted the motion made by
Solicitor General Hoyt two weeks ago to
advance the case of the Northern Securities
Company. The court fixed Dec. IA next as
the date for argument.
The court held il to be competent for the
government of the United States under the
war revenue law to collect an inheritance
tax on a bequest to municipal corporation.
The decision was rendered in the case of
Snyder VS.. Vettman, an internal revenue
collector in Ohio, who collected a tax OF
So, 600 on a bequest of $4,000 made to the
city of Springfield, o., for park improve
ment purposes. The court upheld this
official action, holding that it was the sue
cession that was taxed and not the
municipality.
The court decided the two cases
brought by Houghton. Miffiin & Co, pub
fishers. against other publishers, involving
the charge of infringement of copyright in
the publication of Oliver Wendell Holiness
1.-THE Professor, at the Breakfast Table"
and of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stoves The
Minister'S Wooing." Houghton & Miffin
were the assignees of the authors in both
cases. Both works were originally published
serially without being copyrighted. and for
this reason the court held that no relief
could be granted. An interesting feature OF
the case was that a son of Dr. Holmes
was one of the justices who passed upon the
case involving the copyright OF his father S
works.
xxx
The Supreme Court adjourned for the
term to-day. after delivering some forty
opinions.
The court, in an opinion by Justice Brown
to-day, decided the case of the territory of
Hawaii VS.. Osaki Mankichi, a Japanese
who was convicted Of mansiaughter and
sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in
Hawaii under the laws of the old Hawaiian
Republic, adversely to the claim of the
prisoner that his conviction was Illegal and
invalid. This claim had been sustained
by the Circuit Court for the territory of
Hawaii whose decision was ordered re-
versed and the case remanded with in
structions to dismiss the petition. AS the
case was brought to this court by the ter
rtory of Hawaii, the decision was favora-
BILE to 1t and against the contentious of
Mankichi. In his dissenting opinion, Jus
tice Harlan said taht under the majority s
opinion, Congress could keep in force the
Hawaiian laws relating to criminal matters
even though in direct conflict with the pro-
visions Of our own Constitution. This he
said assumed the possession of powers Of
Congress quite omnipotent that of
the English Parliament. In his judgment
Congress had no power to withhold the
fundamental guarantees of life and liberty
from any people over whom We exercised
sovereignty.
1.-The opinion of the court" he continued
would mean that the United States may
acquire territory by cession. conquest or
treaty, and that Congress may exercise
sovereign dominion over il, outside of and
in violation of the Constitution, and under
regulations that could not be applied to
the organized territories of the United
States and their inhabitants. 1t would
mean that, under the influence and guild
ance of commercialism and the supposed
necessities of trade, this country had left
the old ways of the fathers, as defined by
the written Constitution. and entered a
new way, In following which the American
people will lose sight of or become indif-
ferent to these principles which had been
supposed to be essential TO real liberty.
retrace their steps. If the principles now
announced should become firmly estab-
lished, the time may not be far distant
when. under the exactions of trade ard
commerce, and to crafty an ambition TO
become the greatest political power in all
the earth, the United States will acquire
territories in every direction. which are in
habited by human beings, over which terri
tories, to be called dependencies we will
exercise absolute dominion, and whose in
habitants will be regarded as subjects to
be controlled as Congress may see fit, not
as the Constitution requires, nor as the
people governed may wish. Thus will be
engrafted on our republican institutions
dominated by the supreme law OF a written
Constitution. colonial system entirely for