The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-22
ONE OF Their OWN
Kansas Trust Busters Hold a
Conference Today.
John Dawson Delivers tn" Key
note" Address.
WHY THEY ARE HERE.
Study Needs and Wants of the
State.
WHY THEY ARE HERE.
County Attorneys Will Receive
Necessary Instructions.

Let us commune together as do the
counsel for the lawless ree-booting
combinations which violate the laws of
the state. Let uss compel obedience to
law by each and every one of the biggest
trusts that ever gambled in the products
of human employ. The time has come
when the law officers of the state must
as profoundly study its needs, want,
cares, rights, interests, prerogatives
remedies and sovereignty as do the wiz
ard jurists who employ their time ana
talents to circumvcnt its law and fiout
its government"
The above extract from the paper of
John S. Dawson. assistant attorney
general of Kansas, is the Keynote" of
The conference of the county attorneys
of Kansas which is in progress today
behind closed doors IN the supreme court
room.
The morning session commenced ut 10
o'clock, and about so county attorneys
were in attendance. Later in the day
the attendance was materially increased
by late arrivals.
The object of the conference is, in n
general way. &c instruct ;he county al
torneys in the extent of their covers in
the enforcement of the antitrust and
prcnibitory liquor laws of the state.
Most of the time o. the session is being
devoted to n general discussion of the
which the county attorneys have au-
thority to employ.
The States Prerogative Writs.
One of the papers presented to
the conference was written by John
Dawson. on the subject of The States
Frerogative Writs." In this paper Mr..
Dawson discussed the remedies which
ere opened to law officers under the old
common law of England, which is in
corpOrated as a part of the statutes of
L o-, far - f- a mil aa1a 10 AIr~
Dawson said in part:
1.-The great prerogative writs usual bic
. at the instance of the states attorney
20 Kansas are quo warranto, mandamus,
hAbeas corpus, injunction and the in
quisitorial subpoena. Habeas corpus
needs no considera ton here for by Eng
lish statutes and Kansas statutes that
writ has been so much broadened and
improved since common law times, issu-
able as it is at the instance of a private
relator that the cases are rare where
the law officers of the state need con-
cerE themselves with ii. Indeed, fancy
that because these latter days have seen
personal liberty so much broadened
through modern notifications of the
writ of habeas corpus, that that fact
has given us a complacent eoneeit that
the wisdom of the old law could assist
us but little in the problems of TWEEN
tieth century government.
This is a great mistake The student
of government. and every law officer of
striking parallel between the struggles
of the Plantagenets and Tudors for
kingly supremacy over the feudal
barons. the multitude of misnamed re-
ligious orders and unwarranted usurpa-
tions of local corporate entities, with the
corporate barons. and commercial COM
binations with which modern state SOW
ereignties are called upon to deal
while Plantagenet and Tudor strug-
gled for kingly ACKNOWLEDGMENT. they
achieved a principle of government
highly applicable to modern conditions
although the sceptre has passed from
their hands to the sovereign body of our
citizenship at large. And the preroga-
tive writs remain, although they issue
in the name of kingless commemorative
Of which the Tudor lawyers never heard.
The lawless baron of England, the
maporial lord, the myrid of ecclesiastical
orders-au of whom, more or less, set
government at defiance, We're the out
growth of the laxity or insufficiency of
the government of that time. And our
law-defying, franchise-usurping free
hooters are the outgrowth of the laxity
or insufficiency of the government of
our time.
Vast Power of County Attorneys.
Perhaps it is carrying Goals to
Newcastle for me to say to this body