The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-18
WILL NOW INSTITUTE
 CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
MAYOR WEAVER TO ACT WITHIN
 4 FEW DAYS.

Root that He Can Exercise His Power
 In View of the District Attorneys Re-
 fusnI-NIen Prominent in Philadelphia
 Political Circles to be Proceeded Against.
 Philadelphia. July 17.-As a result of 'advices received rom Elihu Root spec iaI counsel for Mayor Weaver it is probable that the mayor will within a few days institute criminal prosecution against certain persons who are prom inent in political circles. Mr. Root ad- yises the mayor that in the fact of the refusal of District Attorney John c. Bell to take the initiative in bringing fur 1 ther prosecutions the mayor should ex- | ercise his right to go before magis- trate and carry the prosecutions as far as the law will permit him.
 l This opinion was sent to Mayor Weaver and was the result of confer ence held in New York last Friday. Those who participated in the confer ence besides Mir. Root and the mayor were Former United States Attorney i General Wayne MeVeagh. who is spec ial counsel for the committee of nine of this city, Former Judges James Gay Jordan, private consel for Mayor Weav- CT. and Julien T. Davies and Joseph s. Auerbach. of counsel for the committee ! of seventy.
 The purpose of the conference was to decide whether the mayor should take I1n itNft ftn trY,e i the district attorney having refused to do so. Mayor Weaver and Judge Cor don last week requested that the dis trict, attorney in drawing up indict- ments against Councilmen Frank H. Caven and John W. Hill former chief of the bureau of Alteration, should bring f the charge of conspiracy with certain other persons to defraud the city. Councilman Caven is under bail for vio- lating his councilmanic oath in being in- terested in city contracts, and former Chife Hillis, under bonds to answer charges of forgery and Justification of records in connection with contracts for the construction of the city's filtration plants. s* l At the hearing given both men before magistrates the name of the contract ing firm of D. J. McNichol & Co, which is constructing the greater part of the i filtration system, was frequently brought in by witnesses. The members 1 of this firm are former Insurance Con1- missioner Israel w Durham, the leader of the local republican organization; State Senator James P. MeNichol and his brother, Daniel J. McNichol. <,
 The district attorney, in refusing to add the charge of conspiracy to the fn- dictment drawn up against Cayen and Hill and to institute criminal proceed ings against certain other persons" said that such charges, based on the evidence taken at the Caven and Hill hearings. could not under the law be made. He suggested that the mayor
 take the initiative F.
 Mayor Weaver and Judge Gordon in- sisted that 1t was the district attorneys duty to begin prosecutions, they declar- ing that the evidence in his hands war ranted him in so doing. MT. Bell per- sisted in his refusal, and the New York conference followed.
 In the midst of the controversy be- tween District Attorney Bell and the mayors counsel MT. Bell to-day sus- tained broken leg through the falling of an elevator in an office building. Whether this accident will delay the trials of Caven and Hill is not known. Under a law passed by the last legisla- ture criminal proceedings can be con- ducted by special district attorney in- stead of the district attorney himself or his assistants. The state attorney-gen- eral is authorized to appoint special district attorney upon the request of one of the presiding judges of the coun- ty courts.