Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-05-26
WARREN TELLS JUDGES
tcontinued from flrst PAGE,

u, :
ture of fugitive republican poll
tician, is violation of the federal
statutes.
call the attention of the court to
the testimony introduced by the gov
eminent, showing that submitted a.
draft of the alleged defomatory en-
velope to the postmaster at Girard
and asked his opinion as to it's mail
ability. The postmaster, the repre-
sentative of the government, in
formed me that in his judgement
there was nothing in the postal laws
that would prevent the mailing of
this reward offer, as hundreds of sim
liar cards and envelopes were mailed
in the course of year at the Girard
postoffice. This certainly establishes
my good faith. No man with crom-
inal intent would voluntarily submit
the evidense of his contemplated
to the agent of the institution against
which the crime was directed.
In. this connection I wish. to call
the courts attention to the tatement
made from the bench by the trial
judge that when this matter was
first submitted to him, he himself
was in doubt as to whether the mail
ing of this enveloe was violation
of the federal statutes. If the law is
so indefinite that even the trial judge
is unable to determine whether
crime has been committed, Until after
he had consulted higher authority"
how is the layman to determine
what is lawfulSa and what is not?
In the lower courts decision on our
demurrer, Judge Pollock stated that
the language was not scurrilous and
Threatening, as charged in the indict-
ment, but that it was defamatory, in
asmuch as it was calculated to i'm
press the reader thereof with the
thought that Ex-Governor W. S. Tay-
lor was wanted in Kentucky by the
authorities of that state for some al
legged crime. Under. this decision
every offer of reward for a man
charged with crime, mailed by pri-
vate individual or civil officer, is
violation the federal statute under
against me. In order to prevent this
construction and its far-reaching con-
sequences, Judge Pollock, in his final
summing up of the case; decided that
| it was not defamatOry nor scurrilOus,
but threatening. Tt is hard for the
reasoning and I sincerely tru : that
this courts opinion will be written
in such clear and unmistakable terms
that there will be no question as to
this law in the future.
1t will be argued by council for The
government that KIDNAPPING is crime
and, therefor, an offer of a reward
to kidnap Ex-Governor Taylor is a
threat against that gentleman. will
ask the council for the government to
cite the federal law constituting kid
mapping a crime He cannot do .nis.
On the other hand, the United States
supreme court, in an exhaustive
opinion, handed down in the case Of
the three working-men who had been
kidnapped in Colorado ano taken to
Idaho, plainly stated that it is no
violation of the federal statutes to
forcibly abduct man and take him
from one state to another. In its
opinion the supreme court says:
Looking first at what was alleged
to have occurred in Colorado touch
ing the arrest of the petitioner and
his deportation from that state, we
do not perceive that anything done
there, however hastily or inconsider-
lately done, can be adjudged to be in
violation of the constitution or the
laws of the United States. Even if
it be true that the arrest and depor-
1tstion of Pestibone, Meyer and Hay
wood from Colorado was by fraud
land connivance, to which the gover-
nor of Colorado was party, this
does not make out a case of violation
of the rights of the appellants under
the constitution and laws of the
United States.'' -
Under this decision l do not see
what weight this court can give to
1.-THE argument of the governments
counsel, that to offer a reward to DO
what the supreme court has explicitly
declared is not crime, is in violation
of the law.
What did, in fact, was to offer a
reward to any one who would capture
or forcibly abduct, if you please, a
man under indictment for murder
and return him to the Kentucky au-
thorities To kidnap means not only
forcible abduction, but hiding from
friends and the proper authorities.
Under this view how can it be main