The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-29
BONAPARTE's VIEWS. !.
Attorney General Issues Long Stat
 ment on Pritchard's Performs mance,

Attorney General Issues Long state-
 ment on Pritchard's Performance.
 Lennox. Mass, July 28.-Attorney General Bonaparte. who is staying at hotel here, gave out a statement to- night on the railway rate situation in North Carolina.
 Dispatches from Raleigh last night announced that the State of North Car olina had won its fight to have the 1-4 cents passenger rate law ob- served by all the railroads in the State pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. Attorney General Bonaparte, in his statement says:
 ''On July IS the attention of the At torney General was called to a report ed purpose on the part of certain State officials in North Carolina to disregard writs of habeas corpus issued by Hon J. c. Pritchard Circuit Judge of the Circuit Court, on behalf of some agents or employees of the Southern Railway who had been indicted for violation of the recent act of the Legislature of North Carolina fixing the maximum rates of fare for railway passengers.
 'On July 20, Assistant Attorney Gen eral Edward Sanford was ordered to proceed to North Carolina and report what action. if any. on the part of this Department was necessary to procure due respect for the process of the Fed eral Court in the State. In case of emergency he was authorized to take appropriate action without reference.
 No attempt was in fact made to evade or resist the service of the said writs or to obstruct forcibly any pro- cess of the United States Court. MT. Sanford was assured that no such pur- pose was entertained. It was there fore unnecessary for the Department to take any further action to guard against such contingency.
 MT. Sanford found, however, that there was a serious danger of a pro- longed conflict of jurisdiction between the Federal and the State tribunals. Such incidents have been declared by the supreme court of the United States and are regarded by the bench and bar as extremely unfortunate, tending to impair the dignity of the judicial office and to diminish public respect for the courts.
 Tt has been the consistent policy of the department to aid in averting in so far as it might have an opportunity to do so, complications of this char acter and in accordance with this pol icy MT. Sanford suggested to the par ties concerned a reasonable arrange ment intended to secure an eXpedious terminations of the questions at issue by the supreme court of the United States without impairing the ultimate rights of any party to the litigation.
 Tt proved impracticaole to conclude such an arrangement while he was in North arolina. and he lert there Friday afternoon and came to Lennox to re- port personally the situation to the at- torney genera.
 The department earns through the newspapers that an arrangement was affected between the railroad and the State of North Caroina. As to the character of this arrangement or the attendant circumstances and the mer- it's of the controversy 1t neither en- tertains nor expresses any opinion. such matters being entirey without It's province.
 "The suggestions which have apear- ed in the press to the effect that re- quest for military assistance and other extraordinary measures of that charac- ter are entirey groundless."