The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1910-03-03

after the young man moved West;
but a short time followed when We
learned that. M. J. Gordon was chief
Justice of Washington.
I will now read the history of a
crime as printed some time since, to
show the rise and fall of this phe-
nominal intellect when moulded in
the hands of the constituencies, heart.
less, soulless railroad corporation:
The Courts and James J. HiII's Rail.
road. @
The supreme court of the state of
Washington just about a year ago
heard and decided a damage suit
(Harris vs. the Great Northern Rail-
way Company They decided 1t
against the company. The railroad
company paid the amount Of the judg.
|ment-about $1,4O0. They didn't
mind that much money, but they went
to work to guard against ever again
losing a similar suit. Their Spo'
kane attorney, M. ]. Gordon, careful.
ly prepared another opinion, chang
ing the law as previously laid down
by the court. This opinion he sent
ON to the head Office OF tht Great
Northern company lin Minneapolis.
There it was carefully read by the
chiel counsel of the railroad, w. r.
Begg, and by him approved as an
opinion, if once inserted in the law
books, would safeguard the railroad
against ever again losing a damage
suit like the Harris one. Begg. the
chief counsel, having approved the
opinion, sent it back to Gordon, the
local Great Northern attorney in
Spokane. Gordon then carried the op'
inion to his close friend, Judge Milo
A. Root, who has written the first
opinion in the Harris case, and got
Judge Root to substitute the opinion
which the railroad attorney had pre-
pared Judge Root subsequently adj
mitted this, and all the facts are es'
tablished by correspondence and evil
dence in the possession of the State
Bar association. We presume that
even these lawyers who critlcise US
bitterly for undermining popular faith
in the canctity of the courts will moi
fail to feel some horror at this trans
action. The opinion prepared by the
railroad attorney was so worded as tt
protect the corporation from future
losses in similar damage suits. 1t was
filed huriedly, SO that it might govern
the trial court in Spokane lin another
damage suit against thel railroad
about to he tried. Gordon, the loca
! attorney for the Great Northern, who
was the prime mover in this trans
/ action, was himself years ago chic
Justice of the state Of washington
and resigned that office to accept thu
railroad attorneyship. While he helt
the office of chief justice, he handed
down a long series of opinions Whic]
astonlshed lawyers by their corporate
leaning. One of these set aside
clearly expressed statute and deprived
any one but the widow and children
of a man killed by the negligence 0
| Iu0 Idll4 Ocuo VI SAO lA6AC w quo Az
damages for his death. This mad
it impossible, for example, for a mo
Their to sue for damages for the deaf
of her son. 1t made it possible TO
the railroads by carefully employin
only unmarried men to avoid an
pecuniary responsibility for the safet
of the lives of those who worked TO
them. .-.
The sequel to this Gordon story
as follows:
About two years ago the Great MOI
thern railroad commenced suit agains
this same man who had succeeded S
we'll in the past in doing their dirt
work; they claimed that he had en-
bezzled $4,000 from the company
when they learned that he was loade
for them with proof that this $4,000
was only part of the graft none
THAT he had turned over to judges 70
them they dropped the case like no