The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-23
the fInss asaln.t an of bad c0rpor..

the fines against all of said corpora tions at the same sum.
 In speaking of the Thomas and Tag gart cases, Ju-ge McPhersoi said. that evidence had been adduced to show that ton Brothers, yholesafe shoe and lea ther dealers, had received large snnis If money from various railways through the defendants.
 Al nearly as can be gathered from the evidence. the defendants. after de- ducting for heir own services from money received from roads, paid to sew eral mercantile concerns within four years. as rebates. the enormous sum of $s2,459.l1, 4 d the evidence fa.-ly shows there were other rebates paid by them.
 T ssssume these concerns will be pro- ceeded agains. for receiving lese un- lawful rebates which cal be done either by indictment or information as the last vestige of the plea of immu- nfty for corporations has been wiped out by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United State of March l2. ls.o, in the case of Hale V, Henkie'
 The appearance on the federal court here this morning for sentence of the representatives of four meat packing companies. one railway and two indi- Vidual defendants, recently convicted Of violating the Elkins law, marks .he end of the rebate cases to be tried at this term of court. One other case, that of the Chicago and Alton and two in September.
 The indictments or which she va rious defendants were tried were re- turned in Kansas City by the grand Jury December IS, 1905.
 George l. Thomas, of New York City, a freight broker and his chief clerk. l. B. Taggart, whose case was the first to be tried. were convicted of securing rebates from railways on shipments from New York to St. Louis ana Kansas City dry goods concerns At their trial several prominent mer- chants who admitted having signed contracts with Thomas, testified to receiving at various times sums of money from mysterious sources. Many thousands of dollars were thus re- ceived and some of the witnesses ad- mitted the likelihood of its having come from Thomas. The penalty pro- vided Is fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $I0,0e0 or Imprisonment in the penitentiary for not more than two years, or both fine. and imprison- ment.
 Charge Against Crosby.
 George H. Crosby former assistant freight traffic manager of the Chicago, Burlington and Qunicy Railroad. who was charged with conspiring with Thomas and Taggart to pay concSs- sions, was discharged by Judge Mo- Pherson. The court sustained a de- murrer presented by Judge O. M. Spencer of St. Joseph, general solicitor of the railway. who contended that no evidence has been presented to connect Crosby with the alleged con spiracy.
 The Armour Packing Company, Swift and Company, Cudahy and Cosn- pany and the Nelson, Morris Packing Company were tried jointly and con- victed on the charge of accepting con- sessions from the Burlington Railroad in connection with connecting lines on packing house products for export via New York.
 The Burlington Railroad Company was convicted on four counts of grant ing concessions to the packing cotn- pafies of Armour, Swift. Cudahy and Nelson Morris. The penalty provided in the case of the packers and the Burlington involves a fine of from S1,- 900 to &2o,000 on each count, but not imprisonment
 and St. Paul and the Chicago and Al- ton Railroad Companies, charged with offering concessions, and D. H. Kres- ky, a freight broker. of Kansas City, charged with conspiring to secure con- sessions from these railways. were dis missed on the suggestion of District Attorney Van valkenburgh. who sta- ted that he believed that the railroads in this case had been imposed upen. As the case against Kresky was pred- icated upon that against the railways, 1t was useless to try him
 In the case of the Chicago and AL ton Company and J. N. Faithorn, it's former vice president. and F. A. Wann, it's former assistant traffic manager, charged with having given concessions to the Schwartzchild and Sulzoerger Packing Company. the defendants set up a plea of immunity on the ground that some of their employees had tes> tifed before federal grand jury at Chicago concerning the same transac- tions for which they later were indiot- ed at Kansas City Judge McPner- son sustained the governments de- murrer to this plea, but continued the cases over till next fall, when the similar cases at Chicago probably will have been disposed of The Alton case Is distinct from that in which Kresky was concerned.