Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1909-12-23
POSITION Is AN
ASTOUNDINGl|ONE
Judge Williams No Right to Dictate Terms
Of His Return to West Virginia, Says
Richmond Times-Dispaich--Re-
SIStlng RsuuisliiOE
SlStlng a RsuuisliiOE.

C<tbt Us AOlaOWS.
If the Roanoke dispatches published
yesterday afternoon may be taken as
authoritative, Judge Williams complete
ly misses the point of the disagreeable
situation in which he now finds himself
The question confronting him and the
people of the State, is not whether be
will be assured a fair and impartial trial
or not. 1t is simply whether he will
voluntarily return to Mcdowell county,
w. Va, for trial or will be carried
thither under the escort of West Vir-
ginia officer of the court.
Judge Williams is credited with TAX
ing the ground that he will return for
trial, provided that justice and bodily
safety are guaranteed him. From sew
eral different points of view the position
is an astonishing one. From the attor-
ney-general-elect of the commonwealth
of Virginia. it carries an extraordinary
reflection upon the judiciary of sister
State. II implies very strongly that
the court at Mcdowell is, or may be,
subject to private influence or political
malice. But this discourtesy is only an
Incidental feature of his very singular
position. In Virginia Judge Williams
is attornsy-general-elect. But in West
Virginia he is merely practicing attor-
ney who has gotten mixed up in a per-
sonal alteration, and in consequence
. has been caught up by the machinery of
the law. No more than Smith or Brown
or Jones has he right to sit in Wythe-
vile and attempt to dictate the terms
of his trial. Indeed the very fact that
he is neither Smith, Brown nor Jones.
but the chosen legal representative of a
people, makes it az the more incumbent
upon him to show a punctilous respect
for the forms of law. Judge Williams
is not doing this in the least. On the
contrary, if his position is correctly un-
derstood, his purpose is to show open
defiance of these forms. Setting an ex-
ample Of diguified and orderly submis-
mission to the lawful workings of JUS
tice is the last thing in the world that
ne could now be described as doing.
Judge Williams long ago promised
the West Virginia authorities that he
would return for trial at the proper
time. There have been no develop
ments, and probably there could be no
developments, which would absolve him
from his promise. Nor can Judge Will
liams possibly escape trial, no matter
how much be might desire it, no matter
to what unexpected lengths he is willing
to go to gain his desire. The wheels of
justice, in which he Individually is
caught, have started grinding and there
is no stopping them. The requisition
papers, which were issued last week
and which may be in at any hour, will
almost certainly be honored. There Is
no way in which honoring them can be
properly avoided. The matter is purely
formal, governed strictly by statute.
and the statute makes no exceptions
whatever for fears of impartiality or
suspicious of political malice. AS mat
ters now stand, therefore, requisition
papers for the person of our attorney
general-elsct will be out in the course
of few days. And what will happen
then? Judge Williams indicates that
if he is not assured of safety of life and
limb and just trial, he viii resist ex-
tradition. Stripped of legal phraseol-
ogy, what does this mean? When the
West Virginia sheriff or other officer
appears at his home in Wytheville.
what does Judge Williams propose to
do? 1t it imaginable that he, personal
ly, means to resist the sheriff, person
ally?
eff Judge Williams had quietly re-
turned for trial at the first indication
that he was wanted, he would have tax
en- with him the sympathy Of the State.
Already his curious attitude has result
ed in a very noticeable chilling of this
sympathy toward his case 1t is to be
feared that effects have been even less
favorable in West Virginia, where his
position is as well calculated to arouse
ill-feeling and prejudice his case as any
position we'll could be- Even now, if he
quietly returns to submit to trial, as by
every consideration he should do, he cen
rely upon his friends and the press of
the State to watch every move in his
trial with hawk-like vision and to re-
sent any appearance of injustice with
Vigor which would make him the centre
of cause celebre, a possible martyr
and popular hero. But if he waits to
submit so the indignity of "requisition, /"
and, worse yet, if he ''resists extradi-
ton" in a personal and physical sense
for in the final analysis, it must come
down to that-his situation will be much
less fortunate. In such case, it is safe
to say that he would find that he has
forfeited a large part of the regard of
people who only the other day honored
him with distinguished trust"
My correspondents want grist and