The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-20
|WILFLEY IS
 CONDEMNED Committee Reports on
 China Judge. MAN ROOSEVELT UPHELD Guilty of Incorporate Use of
 Power. consressmen Say rmpeaehment Prs- ceedinss Cannot Re Brought But the Judicial omeer sheula
 Be Checked.

Washington. March Is.--Impeach- ment proceedings will not be institut- ed in the United States Senate against Lebbeus R. wilhey. Judge of the uni- ted States Court for China as result of the charges of misbehavior in of- flee brought against him by Lorine An- drews and other American lawyers resident in Shanghai.
 The report of the special committee. consisting of Representatives Moon of PennsyIvania Webb of North Caroltna and Diekoma of Michigan. appointed by Speaker Cannon to determine whether the charges were based upon facts sufficient to warrant in1peach- ment of Judge wiihey today subnitfed it's report to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
 verdict holding Judge wileny guiit- less of the had motives necessary to q legal cause for impeachment. but dnd- ing him guilty--thoush more by forcs- ful inference than by direct accuna~ tion--of high-handedness and harsh- ness and some serious mistakes in the conduct of his court
 mittee followed the introduction in the House by Mir. Waldo of New York of memorial comprising twenty-nine dis tinct charges made by Mir. Andrews and his colleagues.
 In the report of the committee sm exhaustive review written by CnaiF- man Moon and concurred in by ME. Webb and Mir. Diekoma. each of khs9e charges and the real facts relating thereto as brought out by the teatf- mony taken, are judicialiy discunsa6 and disposed of and the Conclusions reached are as follows:
 ''The conclusion of tue committee des A lAa Hea.sN 3Nsm ssa@. animation of petitioner and from other construction Of the pracedent1 of ifn- peachment trials in tha United Eknte&. is that the actual facts charged in Inc said memorial. even though eetahiiahs ed by competent legal evidence would not justify conviction of Judge Wlfr ney upon charges ef inapeachnent be- fora the United States senata and would not therefore. warrant . pKes+ antation by the House og Representa- tives of such articles of impeachmenf.
 But notwithstanding this. finding the Investigation of the case has made clear to us that the anomalcns charae- ter of this court. the extraordinary power given by law to the judge. the fact that 1t is separated several miies from an appellate tribunal. with broad ocean intervening between, pre- senting obstacles that burden the con- stitutionai right of review with ex- pense. delay and hazard unknown to any other court, justify the people of the United States in demanding of thia judge a temperate exercise of hia great power.
 Tt Is obviously true that an agwra- gation of entirely legal acts may da- velop Into a system of tyranny and op- pressions; and that an inequItabla exr ercise- of Judicial discretion may cnne vert the machinery of justice into an engine of despotic ana autocratic pows CT. This may be accomplished with out the tatnt of Individual corruption and with a laudable purpose of purify ing a community and of inaugurating civic reform.
 .'Terror to evildoers, if purchased at the price of Judicial fairness and over strained legal authority. Is achieved nt too great an expense for 1t defeats It's own high aim and warps the very fa- bric of law itself.
 The temptation of an honest judge to bend once the law to his authority to do a great right. do little wrong is fraught with such danger to our whole system of remedial justice that 1t must merit the condemnation of ev- cry mind.
 such acts of legal oppression and of abuse of judicial discretion lie nt the Foundation of the charges. They are made before the House of Repreaen- tALfVe4 ln Bue ApEAA RtN9CAtU@1 bF AAW and custom and are presented az & question of high privilege upon the solemn responsibility of member of the House.
 "charges so presented against this court have a peculiar and dangerous signincance. In this case they are dis- missed as failing short of inipsachehle offences by what we believe to be sound principles of legal construckion ana Tudwa VYiiney fa thereby 6nnfed every opportunity for defense. He can file no answer and make no denial nor explain to the House the legality or necessity for his action.
 'sThese charges. therefore. stand un- tu coptrovsrted and if his Judicial Acts in ths future are marked by the rig orous and infIsxible harshness imputed 10 him, they will hang aa portentious cloud over this new court, impairinK tba usefulness of Judge Wilhey, i'm pedinE the administration of iustice and challenging the integrity of Amer