The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-25
Unusual Interest Is Shown .4..a. ms se"nrenle Court Suit tion later in
 ment
kIcOLL's STRONG DEFENSE
New York Attorney Claims That the Prosecution of the Case Belongs to Period When Present
 Laws Are Obsolete

Washington, October 24.-The final at tempt of the federal government to up- hold the validity of the indictment in the New York federal courts of the Press Publishing company on a charge of libel, growing out of the publication of an ar ticle In the New York World on the pur- | chase of the Panama canal was made this | afternoon in an oral argument before the supreme court of the United States. The governments efforts were opposed by ar guments for the Press Publishing com pany designed to sustain the action of the lower federal court in quashing the indictment.
 | The proceedings were attended with unusual interest and peculiar impressive ness. Sweeping principles of law were said to be involved. Libelous state ments, it was alleged, had been published concerning the highest officials of the land. James C. McReynolds. special as sistant to the Attorney General, and De- lancy Nicol. opposing counsel, have long been prominent in the public eye. | Begun By Roosevelt
 The article in question was printed in the heat of the presidential campaign of 190S It charged that Charles F. Taft, Douglas Robinson and William Nelson Cromwell, with J. Pierpont Morgan and others, obtained control of the Panama canal route for $SO0O,OOO and through their intimacy with Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States, and Will liam H. Taft, then Secretary of War, had sold the property to the United States at profit of ss6,O0o. 900. Much attention had been paid to the case by President Roose- velt during his administration, even be- ing made subject of discussion in a special message to Congress-.
 Tn closing. MT. Nicoll said:
 "As matter of fact, the prosecution was premature born before It's time, be- longing to a new dispensation when the l federal government had taken to itself all power and authority and the states been reduced to mere geographical districts, when the federal tribunals shall no longer decide cases in accordance with prece- dents and the law. but according to the need of the time as interpreted to them by some great steward of the public | welfare"
 Suit Is Out of Date
 Just before coming to his peroraton Mr. Nicoll had presented to the court, in | dramatic fashion, an argument to show that the whole history and life of the country condemn the construction of the act of Congress asserted by the govern ment.
 He dwelt first upon the unpopularity of the sedition act of 179S, designed to punish the publication of articles with intent to stir up sedition. Then he came T h. ,-t1 H. kI,~ room in which he was speaking. James Buchanan, later to be President of the United States. in the trial of Judge Peck before the United States Senate had argued that the founders of the consti- tuition had been afraid to give the fed eral government any authority over the subject of libels.
 MT. McReynods took up President Roosevelts special message to Congress in regard to the alleged libel. He desig- mated it as "curious reading" For the next few minutes his voice rang through the little court room as he read DOT ton of the message, holding it to be a high national duty to bring to justice him, who wantonly and wickedlyand with out one shadow of justification, seeks to blacken the character of reputable pri- vate citizens and to convict the govern ment of his own country in the eyes of the civilized world of wrong doing of the basest and foulest kind.
 In his concluding arguments Mir Mo- Reynolds told the court that the gov ernment was concerned in protecting the people residing in federal Jurisdiction. In rebuttal to the argument that the prosecution should have been brought where the alleged libel was printed, or in other words. in state courts, he con tended that the offense of libel was not limited to the mere act of printing but included acts of making it public. One of these occurred. he claims, in federal territory. He entered into coloquy with Justices Holmes, White and Day as to what the law of New York state Is as to libels. The entire argument on both sides was limited to two hours. The court then took Nthe case under ad- visement. An opinion on the case may not be rendered for several weeks.