Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1908-08-21
SHARP CRITICISM OF
JUDGES
Attorney General HadIey of
Missouri Inclined to Believe
Federal Appellate Court Is
Blinded by Prejudice.

lBy Morning journal Special Leased Wire ]
Denver Aug. 20.-"The judge who
'annot see the Standard Oil of New
Jersey in the Standard Oil company of
Indiana and who cannot see through
both of these legal fictions to the real
owners and the real offenders, John
d. Rockefeller, H. II. Rogers. John
D. Archibold, and others, is rather
blinded by prejudice or an unfortunate
disposition to obscure the merits of a
controversy by stained and irrelevant
techniealitles. declared Attorney Cen
eral Herbert S. Hadley of Missouri to-
day in his address before the second
annual convention of the National AS
sociation of Attorneys General. OF
which he is the president.
The statement was made in the
course of the review of the reversal
by the United States circuit court of
appeals of the twenty-nine million dol
lars fine which was assessed against
the Standard Oil company of Indiana
by Judge Lands of the district court
ITO assert that men may, by the or
ganization of a puppet corporation es-
cape the proper measure of punish
ment for their wrongdoing, said Mr..
Hadley, 'is to give to the legal fiction
of the corporation, greater rights,
privileges and immunities than those
which belong to natural persons. This
case should serve as an impressive ar
gument as to the necessity of the
national and state governments enact
ing a law to the effect that no judg-
ment in a criminal or civil case should
be reversed unless the court could af-
firmatively say upon the entire record
that the judgment was for the wrong
party and that but for the error com
planned of, a different Judgment would
have been rendered"
"The results secured, or rather the
lack of results secured" President
Hadley further said, furnish an added
demonstrative of the ineffectiveness OF
the present methods of litigation for
the suppression of punishment OF
trusts and monopolies."
"The new question of states rights
was the subject of a paper read by
Thomas w. Martin, assistant attorney
srfaeral 81 Alahlp2a Al the Hitowoon
session.
MIR. Martin discussed the rights of
states in controversies with railroads
and the decision Of the United States
supreme court in the case of Edward
+. Young. March 23, 1908, against the
state of Minnesota He contended that
the supreme court went further in
the decision of the great constitution
al question there decided than it had
ever gone before and he believed that
it would ir time recede from this po-
sition. This opinion he said, might
prevent the state from being repre-
sented in its own courts by its own
chief law officer upon issues involving
the constitutional validity of the
states enactments.
This would give the federal court
jurisdiction to enjoln a states attor-
ney from enacting any state law.
The discussion Of the paper was led
by w. r. Mullen, attorney general of
Wyoming, who suggested that a legis-
lative reference commission of
competent men be appointed in each
state to examine the draft of all pro-
posed bills and pass upon their consti-
titionality
Charles West, attorney general of
Alabama. spoke on experiments in
government" Discussing the consti-
tuition of oklahoma, he showed that
every feature of that document is in
the constitution or statutory law Of
some other state or nation.
The banking guarantee. he said,
was originally known as the "Balti-
more law" and the so-called drastic
antitrust law was merely the Sher-
man antitrust law with very
slight modification.
Just before adjournment, United
States Senator Robert l.. owen of
Oklahoma, who was present, made a
brief and eloquent address. telling how
the Oklahoma constitution was writ
ten.