The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-01-29
APPEALS TO PUBLIC
IN TRACTION FIGHT
Financial Support Asked in Plan
to Show Up Alleged Misdasds.
"CRIME AGAINST 100000"

Chairman King Makes Sharp Attack
on Eminent Lawyers Who, He
Says, Are Seeking to Delay the
Prosecution.
New York City.-Williarl T. King.
chairman OF the committee formed
recently for the purpose of compelling
restitution Of sums diverted from the
Metropolitan Street Railway and its
allied corporations, and Furnishing the
individuals found to be responsible,
gave out an interview in which he
told something of the difficulties that
his committee had experienced in OBJ
tanning counsel owing to the extensive
connections of the traction interests.
Last October, Mr.. King said, he
went to a lawyer Of distinction in
criminal practice and tried to retain
him. The lawyer asked first retain
Ing fee of $4,000, but said that be-
fore having anything to do with the
undertaking he must consult with
some of his friends. A few days later
Mr.. King received this letter from
him:
"I have discussed the matter you
broached to me with a lawyer for
whose opinion I have the highest re-
spect, and who is older and more eX-
perienced than myself, and he views
the situation as I feared he would
that is to say, he believes that there
is a possibility that my association IN
other litigations with attorneys now
representing the interests that you
propose to attack might embarrass
me seriously in rendering to you and
your associates the services to which
you would be entitled if I accepted
your proposition.
Under these circumstances, al
though I have accepted no retainer
from the other side,I believe it would
be wiser and safer to decline to take
yours
Mr.. King declared in his interview
that no member of the committee
would receive any remuneration for
his services of any kind, and that the
committee looked upon its task not
from the view point of protecting the
stockholders of the Metropolitan
Street Railway alone. but those OF
every other corporation handling
public utility.
"It is high time" said Mr.. King,
"that a halt be called in the methods
used by these high financiers for the
wrecking of great corporations for
their personal benefit, for otherwise
no institution in the country will be
safe from their rapacity and greed.
Their work was exposed in the life in
surance companies and even the saw
ings banks are not entirely safe from
1t, for it was only a few. years ago
that a bill was passed legalizing in
vestments by savings banks in secu-
rites that needed very close scrutiny.
"It is now squarely up to the pub
lie to lend not only their moral but
their financial support to this COM
mittee in their effort to carry their
work to successful issue. The loot
ing and wrecking Of the Metropolitan
Street Railway is a crime against
100000 of people in this city. They
have not only deprived thousands OF
the holders Of the stock and bonds OF
their means of living by rendering
worthless these securities, but by al
lowing the physical condition of the
road, and particularly of the rolling
stock, to deteriorate, they endanger
the health and the very lives OF our
citizens who depend upon these roads
for their transportation.
:. t'It must not be forgotten that a
great majority of the people who use
the cars are working people, many Of
them earning a mere pittance, and
\
change of clothing, and these people
are compelled to wait in the streets in
stormy weather on account Of the in
adequate number of cars. The statis-
tics of the Health Department telling
of the ravages of grip, pneumonia
and consumption, tell the tale, to say
nothing of the effect upon the morals
of the people of the overcrowding in
which thousands Of women are en-
during insults daily which are be.
yond their power to prevent or even
to resent.
"The men that this committee seeks
to reach and punish are aided by
some of the greatest lawyers, shining
lights of the bar, but hardly less cul
pable than the men they seek to
Shield and keep out Of Jail. These
legal luminaries take advantage OF
every technicality of the law to delay
and defeat the ends Of justice, in
some instances refusing to testify be.
fore grand juries because of their
confidential relations with their
clients, and some of these 'confiden'
tial relations the committee will en-.
deavor to make public.
''If the tactics Of these eminent
lawyers are within the law, then the
sooner the laws are repealed and otn-
ers substituted whereby the guilty
can be punished for their misdoings,
the better, and until this is done con.
fidence can never be restored in our
financial integrity"