Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1906-06-23
FORCES CRIME
STRAIGHT HOME
SENTENCE PRONOUNCED ON DE
PENDANTS IN REBATE CASES
NO WORDS Are MINCED
Every Man and Concern Who Paid
Rebates Is Guilty of Crime Under
Elkins Statute.

Kansas City. June ~ A. 5. Van
Nalkenburgh, United States district
attorney for the Western district Of
Missouri. who has directed the suits
for the government in the seven re
bate eases that were concluded here
today when Judge Smith Mcpherson
pronounced the sentence upon the de-
fenGants. said, after the court had
adjourned. 81 am entirely satisfied
with the judgments. The government
has been fighting for great pnnclple
in the establishment of which the eX-
tent of punishment, although hereN-
sarily incidental, is, after all. second
ary. Judge Mcpherson has establish
ed these trials with excellent judg-
ment While eXpediting the eases to
the approval of the most captlonN' he
has given much time and thought to
weighty questions involved. The re-
suits are of enormous benefit to society.
So far As the rulings of trial court
NAV be etfectual. the following propo-
sitions have been established;
"That conspiracy statutes apply
10 the combined efforts of individuals
seeking to devise any indirect methods
10 evade the interstate commerce law
THAT congress has jurisdiction oN-
,rr our foreign commerce aS conducted
within the limits of our own territory
and has enacted laws which provide
remedy against faNor,tlsm and UNJUST
discrimination.
..Thot thp export aS well aS the
,nther tariffs must be filed with the
interstate commerce commission ana
maintained. Neither shippers nor car
riers can by contract themselves rem
der the provisions of the law lnoPer-
ative g.,
Judpe Mcpherson, in dealing wlth
Thomas and Taggart. was very posi-
tive in his statement that they had Sc
cured and paid rebates to various
merchants. and he scored vigorously
hoth defendants and those merchants
Mcpherson Sald: g.,
nThe rebates were invariably paid
m currency. generally III large Dills,
and in one instance two bills OF Sl.OoO
each The money was carried III en-
yelopes. unmarked and not addressed
and delivered. They were carried by
messenger boys, colored men, ana III
all eases by strangers. No questions
we're asked, but the money was pald
nv the defendants. and II was railroad
money, and that money was rebates
and the defendants IN paying II III
tended il AS rebates, and every man
connected with paying it, and his con
,.,rn as we'll. committed a crime under
the Elkins statnte of 1908. Ana they
knew il was a crime, because theN AT
temnted to conceal I. In every IN
stance the transaction was kept from
the hooks. or else put on the books
with fictitious entry. Ana II was
Kent from the books, or fictitious en-
,ry made. not bv the clerk, who would
have been instantly dismissed for do
mo such work. but ii was done by the
managing officer.
Kansas CITY. June ~. The appear
anrc in the federal court here inns
morning ol the representatives oi l"nf
meat packers, one railway ana Two
individual defendants, recently con-
,,icted of violating the Elklns iaw'
marked the end Of the rebate cases
To he tried at this term Of court. One
.other ease. that Of the Chicago 4 Al
ION and two of lis officials. has been
reset for trial in September.
The indictments upon which the
yoriou. defendants were tried. were
returned in Kansas City by the grand
ury ON December l3. 1908. The eases
have been handled for the govern
ment by A. $. NanNalkenburgh, the
district attorney and his assistant
Leslie lyons, while the defendants
have been represented by some oi the
ablest counsel in the West. OF the
eleven eases brought them. the gov
ernment has secured seven convic-
tions. one defendant was acquitted.
and three eases were dismissed.
George l.. Thomas. of New York, a
freight broker, and his chief clerk, l..
y. Taggart. whose eases were the first
10 be tried, were convicted of securing
rebates from railways on shipments
from New York to st. Louis and
Kansas City merchants. At their tri-
al, several prominent merchants. who
admitted having signed contracts with
Thomas. tes.ifi to receiving at var
ious times Sums of money from mys-
terious sources. Many thousands of
dollars were thus received. and some
of the witnesses admitted the likeli-