Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-01-28
TWO FOUND GUILTY
OF Paying rebates
NEW YORK FREIGHT BROKER
AND HIS CLERK FINED BY
JUDGE MCPHERSON.
JAIL SENTENCES
ARE NOT IMPOSED
Jurist Takes Occasion to Score Firms
That Accepted the Favorable
Railroads Not So Much
to Blame"

Kansas City, Mo-, Jan. 27.-George
York city, and L. 3. Taggart, his clerk,
pleaded guilty in the United States
district court here Saturday to the
charge of conspiring to pay rebates to
shippers. Judge Smith Mcpherson
then fined Thomas $1,000 and Tag
CART $4,000, emitting Jail sentences
previously assessed. Both defendants
were in court and after sentence was
passed checks covering the fines were
rendered and accepted by the judge.
Thus ends the case against these
men. 1t was one of the most impor-
tant rebate cases ever tried in this
country and the Jail sentence, which
was omitted, was the first sentence
of Imprisonment ever passed for sim
liar offense.
The fines assessed against the pack
ing companies Were affirmed April 20,
last, by the circuit court Of appeals at
st. Paul. The Burlington case, which
also was appealed, is still pending.
When the case of Thomas and Tag
CART was called before Judge McPher-
son, Judge o. M. Spencer of st. Jo-
seph, Mo-, general solicitor of the Bur-
lington road, appeared for the de-
| PENDANTS. Judge Spencer entered
plea of guilty on behalf of Thomas
and Taggart. and addressed the court
briefly, reviewing the case. "These de-
! fendants," he said, were tried, con-
1 VT
year ago on charge of conspiracy to
pay rebates The cases were APP
| pealed, and although reversed. by the
court of appeals, there is little in that
courts opinion to encourage the hope
| of successful defense on retrial,
and hence the defendants, under adj
vice of counsel, have concluded to
plead guilty and trust to the wisdom
rand fairness of this honorable court,
in the light of all the circumstances
| surrounding the case, to impose only
such punishment as is commensurate
| with the offense committed. Without
| any desire to re-argue the case, it
would seem proper to recall some Of
the facts. The agreement on which
| form of written contract renewed
annually, the first of these contracts
being made in 1902, long prior to the
existence of any law on the subject
of rebates. 1t necessarily follows,
therefore, that no conspiracy was
| contemplated in the beginning. IL
the agreement ever ripened into the
| crime of conspiracy it was because of
! the new law making rebates crime
which was not SO at the time the
agreement was made. Hence, have
always felt the injustice of charging
the defendants with the crime of con-
spiracy, but in these times when it
| only seems necessary to charge in or
der to convict of any crime against
the government, we find it best to bow
to the inevitable. 1t is true, your
honor imposed a Jail sentence at the
former trial, and if mere restraint Of
liberty had been the only question in
volyed, these defendants would have
preferred the confinement of a few
| months in Jail to the mental torture
of suspense for nearly two years. If
they in fact were guilty of conspiracy,
they necessarily had co-conspirators
They have been made to atone for the
sins Of the many and the punishment
already borne by them has vindicated
the law in that it has caused the uni
versal compliance herewith. The
government does not, or should not,
desire to persecute. The result hav-
ing been accomplished, the punish
ment should cease. A plea Of guilty
is always followed by tn lowest fine
If the crime is not aggravated by the
facts. We ask the leniency of this
honorable court"
Judge Mcpherson took occasion to
say that he believed the firms that
| accepted the rebates We're as guilty as
the defendants and the railroads, and
that he had never been able to under
stany why they had not been indicted
by the grand jury. He would have
liked, he said, to have had the mem
bers of these firms before i'm, with
power to pass sentence t3eol them.
The railroads" declared Judge Nc
Pherson, ARE bounded to death with
rebate seekers. They are not entire
ly to blame for all the rebatina that
has been done"
Pontiac, I'LL, Hotel Burns.
Pontiac, H., Jan. 27.-At $3.50 Sat