Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-31
Graft and Rebate Cases Fill the Court Calendars.

the Roosevelt challenge to the Stand
 ard Oil company and to all law defy
 ing trusts has gathered impetus ir l 1907, when the whole pack of state
 and federal law officers has been ir full cry after the game. The year will
 long be remembered for the vicious
 bite which the oil trust got from one federal judge-namely, the $29, ,240 0OC
 fine imposed AUG. 3 by Judge Landis
 at Chicago as the maximum penalty
 for accepting a large number of re-
 bates from the Alton. But this was
 only one of large number of criminal
 prosecutions laid against the Rockefel' Ter aggregation. Indictments contain
 ing thousands of counts were brought
 in Ohio, Missouri, Texas, Tennessee,
 Minnesota, New York and elsewhere
 until the total maximum of fines possi-
 ply exceeded the probable income of
 the trusts. The principal action of the
 government for the dissolution of the , Standard Oil Company of New Jersey,
 which was begun at St. Louis NOV. 15,
 1906, still remains to be fought out, but
 in his examination of witnesses at New
 York in September Governments Coun-
 sel Kellogg virtually pilloried the oil
 trust before the people by compelling
 its officials to reveal the various proc
 esses through which it has monop-
 olized the oil industry. Missouri and Texas finally barred all Standard con- cerns.
 Other actions against so called trusts
 were numerous, and rebate fines were imposed in several cases.
 The following are the supreme court decisions of general interest: Dismissal of the Kansas petition against diver sion of Colorado river by the state of Colorado, involving the principle that congress cannot limit the action of courts after creating them; the eight hour federal workday law sustained; rate fixing section of the federal law sustained.
 Along with the building of new San Francisco there has been cleansing of its official and political rottenness. First, under pressure of cu- initiative evidence, came the flight and confession of Abraham Ruef, manager of the corrupt city machine, in May. His confession duplicating Mayor Schmitz in the acceptance of bribes made possible the verdict of guilty rendered by jury against the mayor MAY 13 and his sentence JULY to five years imprisonment. It also made possible the indictments against sev- eral millionaire bribe givers and the conviction of one of them, Glass, who received five year sentence.
 Pennsylvania saw the work of the capitol investigators bear fruit.
 Gradually District Attorney Jerome of New York has got insurance evi- dence before the grand jury, and in- dictments have begun to issue against officials, one of whom, Walter R. Gil- lette, former vice president of the Mu- tual, was convicted of perjury and sentenced to six months.
 When in July Judge Pritchard is. sued his federal order against the exc cution of the North Carolina rate law, thus saving from the chain gang off cials of the Southern convicted in state court of having sold tickets for more than the legal rate, Governor Glenn arose in his might to back up the state court. Finally the Southern gave in for the sake of peace and made a spe- clal agreement with Glenn, Finlay re- vising his petition so as to let the cases take their course rapidly to the supreme court for final test of the law. Much the same situation existed in Alabama, where Governor Conner was equally resolute when the law was op- posed with injunctions granted by Fed eral Judge Jones on one pretext or an- other. The Minnesota rate law also was held up by Federal Judge Loch- ren's injunction fin September. The Pennsylvania railroad, after raising communication rates when the two cent law went into effect SEPT. 1, began a test case through the state courts.
 It is not within the purpose of this history to recount the long list of crimes and criminal trials of the year which were chiefly of interest in the localities where they occurred. But the murder conspiracy charges brought by the state of Idaho against the off, cials of the Western Federation of Miners in connection with the death of former Governor Steunenberg was an event of national, even information al, importance. Secretary Haywood, as the strong man of the federation, was the first to be placed on trial MAY 8 after the whole country had been stir red up by the preliminary efforts of labor and the Socialist pa- pers to raise funds for his defense and tO get their view of the matter before The public-namely, that the whole case was a conspiracy of the mine owners to crush the federation. The publication of the Roosevelt letter chasing the accused men along with Hartman as undesirable citizens" had famed the controversy into in- tense heat. The result was seen to de- pend mainly on the ability of the state to corrObOrste the Orchard confession. Here opinions differed. but in the end the jury voted No after considering a vast amount of testimony on both sides and hearing the lengthy pleas of DarrOw and Richardson for the de fense and of Borah and HawIey for the state. for they brought in the ac- quittal verdict JULY 9, and Hay wood walked forth a free and. as his friends believed. vindicated man. In- deed, he was talked of as the coming Moses to lead the Socialist hosts out of the wilderness. Ills enemies said the 5Tf-- -aa Frsf-nfdasas1 frs, sho -a--