The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-27
Sugar Refining Company Wins
a Victory in Court.
Escapes Prosecution Under Stat.
ute of Limitation.
1T WAITED TOO LONG.
Government Relied Upon Es-
tablishing Continuing Offense.
Prosecutors Are Given a Hint
for Future Use.

l Washington, Oct 27.-The govern
ment has received a setback IN its prose
cution of the sugar trust through an
opinion handed down by Justice Holt or
the United States circuit court. Gustav
E. kisse1 and Thomas B. Harmed, who
were among those indicted along with
the American Sugar Refining company
fer criminal conspiracy under the fed
eral antitrust laws, will escape under
the provisions of the statute of ltmita-
tons, according to The courts decision
The opinion is a far reaching one, ae-
ccrdinG to the government attorneys
and, if Upheld, is likely to prove a
STUN bling block to the government in
many cases brought under the law pro-
| hibiting conspiracy in res traint of trade
| The Indictments were brought in con-
nection with the closing of the Pennsyl-
Iania Sugar Refining company'S indie
Pc ndent plant in 1903. Kissel ana Harmed
pleaded that the plant was closed down
and the entire transaction for which
they were indicted was completed be-
| fore January 4, 1903. Therefore, they
said, the Indictment. filed more than
| five years later. was barred under the
statute of limitations. which sets a limit
of three years for prosecution of crimes
rot capital" The government attorney
or the other hand pleaded the crime
charged against Kissel and Harmed was
continuing offense." and that as long
as the conspiracy continued and the
| Liant of the Pennsylvania company re-
manned closed through the action of the
American Sugar Refining company, the
three year period of the statute of limit
atoms should not begin to run.
The Courts Opinion.
| Justice Hollis opinion overruling the
| contentious of the government attorneys
is in part as follows:
Statutes of limitation are beneficial
/ statutes.
The interests of the community and
| justice to persons charged with crime
require that offenses be promptly
prosecuted. Statutes of limitation
should be given a plain and sensible
| construction. Their effect should nat
| be frittered away b. strained inter
| probation, based on subtle and refined
reasoning. The government has waited
before bringing this prosecution for
| five years and a half after the alleged
offense was complete, and, in my opin-
| ion, the statute of limitation is a bar
! to this Indictment"
In the course of his opinion Justice
Holt administered a few words of CEN
sure to public prosecutors for seeking
| indictments for Conspiracy to commit
crime rather than for the crime
| itself.
| The opinion appears likely to over
throw the governments entire criminal
| case under the antitrust law against
| the American Sugar Refining company
I
| here that the same argument. used by
Kissel and Harmed apparently would
/ apply with equal force to the indict-
ments against the other defendants and
| that similar action probably would be
| taken shortly in their behalf. The in
dictment returned in this case was OF
the blanket variety and this would
seem to indicate that any action which
applied to the cases of Kissel and
Harmed would be equally applicable to
| the others.
In addition to the men cleared by the
decision there were included in the
same indictment the following:
| The American Sugar Refining COM
| dent; Arthur Bonner, treasurer, and
John E. Parsons, George H. Frazier,
John Mayor and Charles H. Senff, d.
rectors. Harmed and Kissel, however,
J were the only ones who filed de-
| murrerS. re-
None of the officers of the company
would make any statement regarding
the decision or its probable effect on
the cases against them.
May Change Their Pleas.
New York, Oct. 27-United States
District Attorney Wise, as well as
counsel for the American Sugar Re
timing company and its directors who
were indicted by the. federal grand
lstraint of trade, declined today to dis
cJss the status of the case as it might
be affected by the decision of Judge
/ Holt yesterday in dismissing the in
dictments against Gustav E. Kissel and
Thomas B. Harmed.
1t is understood, however, that the
remaining defendants will change their
T cas- of mot guilty" and plead the
statute of limitations, as Kissel and
Harmed did with the prospects of the
indictments being dismissed.
New York Money Market.