The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-17
JUDGE JONES COMES BACK AT
COMER'S MOSTRECENT OK


OF Keeling which is now debarred me.
/ The matter ended by his disavowing any
| intention of iinputing wrong to me- and
4 avowing that what he wrote was simply
! to convey the Idea that I was governed
unconsciously by the influence Of environ
ment.' I dismissed the incident from my
J mind, and never afterwards cherished
hard thought about it; but I now know
| my language ranked in the governors
| bosom ever afterwards.
! 1.-The facts regarding Judge lapsley's
| appointment were we'll known. There
| were number of candidates, and some
bitterness evinoed among the aspirants.
| Committees visited me and I asked them
! to have a bar meeting ana recommend a
| judge. They met, all the candidates with
| drawing, and bar and candidates alike
| unanimously recommended James w.
| Lapsley, who had not been mentioned
before, and who was not a candidate.
| "a purer and better man never nvsd In
| Alabama. That the Louisville and Nash
Vile railroad had anything 10 do with
| his appointment was news to Judge Laps
| ley, as 1t was to me. Judge Lapsley
never had any relation with the Louisville
| and Nashville railroad; and for that rat
| ter no officer of that road while was
| governor ever recommended anyone for
| appointment to me.
l
| committee which urged certain legisla-
| ton, which Governor Conner opposed.
| stigmatizing the committee as improperly
| intermeddling with private affairs He
| also became somewhat incensed against
| me, though I was not responsible for the
| talk. because of some comparison which
| was made in the press and by speakers
| regarding our respective conduct during
| strikes and disorder in the mineral re-
| gion. All these things inflamed Lis re-
| sentiment. He simply awaited an oppor-
| tunity to attack me.
| Scheming To Destroy the Judge.
| when the rate cases were filed In the
| circuit court here, and before l had made
any order whatever, except to notify the
I commission of the application for re-
| strainng order, though I did not learn
| II for some time afterwards, the governor
| Immediately declared to confidential
| friends that he intended to get another
| judge He determined in advance that
| l should be pursued as q partisan Judge
regardless of what I might do in the
| cases, whether my acts were right or
| wrong. He was quick to make suit in
| an equity court about property right the
| occasion of private and public war upon
| the court and the character of the judge,
| and to attack them by all the political
| forces at his command, at a time when
| public sentiment was much inffamed,
| and justly in some respects, against the
| railroads, in order to destroy the judge
and agg3andize himself To that end.
| and with ferocity which would reflect
| upon a savage the governor has gone
| up and down the state denouncing me as
destroyer of the rights of my own peo
| pie, and lawlessly interfering with their
| local affairs hectoring and brow-beat-
| ing the states officials, and usurping or
| obscuring its Just rights and powers;
| and adding to all this that the motive
90 tnrx aNlya
| legged personal or political obligations,
| which he said was due to one of the liti-
| giants because OF past business connections
| in former years. Relentless In his pursuit
| of vengeance, he inveighed even against
the constitution of the fathers, .ecause
1t provided courts which, In certain cases,
| all persons might freely enter to cefend
| their liberty and property against wrong
! threatened under color of state law, and
rocked little that he. like the judge. was
| bound by his oath to support tho consti-
tuition, and that 1t declared that the
| judges shall be bound thereby, anything
| in the constitution or laws of any state
| to the contrary notwithstanding
| ut was in this frame of mind that he
! plunged the state in 1907 into an era of
passion and excitement about mere law
| suit regarding a property right, which
| was without parallel In its history. There
| have been other warm contentious as to
i
states, but never before has a governor
| ever adopted such means as were at
| tempted in Alabama to undermine
| prevent the orderly workings of the con-
sttution and laws of the state and United
| States, and to browbeat and intimidate
| courts and litigants. The governor of
| North Carolina did not denounce the fed
| eral court or assail the character Of the
| judges, or hack at him on the hastings.
"In the beginning of the litigation, Gov
| ernor Conner was chagrlned because the
| eminent lawyers who represented the
| commission admitted in open court that
| the bills, If proved, entitled the complain
| ants to relief; that the suits were not
| suits against the state and that under
| the evidence as it was when the prelim-
| mary Injunction was asked, the court had
| no alternative but to grant 1t. He bided
! his time, and when In the same identical
| suit the allegations which were not va
| ried one iota, except to state the threats
| of arrest of operatives by certain named
| officers, under his advice, and the asking
| of an injunction to prevent 1t, the COVER
| nor guided the attitude of the new de-
| PENDANTS, and declared such an injunction
| would be a mortal blow at the liberties
| and rights of the state. and bald usur-
| patton, for which the court should be re-
sisted and denounced. The rates then
| involved the legislature shortly afterward
| increased, and the first rates were never
1 enforced for single day against anyone.
| States Own Laws Branded Unworthy.
Fooled in counteracting that injunction,
| which was necessary to preserve the ju-
| risdiction of the court. and turned upon
| other questions than the reasonableness
| or unreasonableness of the rates, the
| governor practically abandoned that
phase of the question, which was of most
! concern, although 1t delayed the trial for
| over a year, and bent all his energies to
finding way to drive or get the suitors
| out of the federal court by beating around
| the constitution. To that END he procured
| the passage of a series of remarkable
statutes to carry out his programme,
which no court under institutions
could fail to pronounce transgressions
against the fundamental law. He In
sisted that the states dignity was In
volved in allowing these cases to be tried
| in the federal court at all, and set the
unseemly example for the head of great
state, whose sole end ought to be the
advancement of justice. of bounding suit
ors out of court of country without
a hearing because they preferred ono
court to another, regardless of the merits
Of their contention. The duty had been