The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-01

Steel corporation have been held in abey- ance, and other intended proceedings have not been initiated.
 Nominations Confirmed
 Chief Justice White has now been sworn as the successor of MT. Fuller. The Senate has confirmed the nomina- tions of Justices Lamar and Van Devan- ter to the remaining two vacancies and these latter appointees will take the oath of office when the supreme court resumes it's sessions next Tuesday, Jan uary 3. At the head of the call of cases for argument on that date stand two private cases in which the federal gov- ernment Is not party One is the case of Stuart Lindsey against the Natural Carbonic Gas company. the o1ler is the petition of the Dr. Miles Mfdical conn pany against John D. Park E Co, both of which were reassigned to bs heard Jan J uary 8. Argument in these cases viii occupy several days so that the first of the big government cases Will not be reached until the latter pat of next week. After that one big tgovernment case after another will be afgued under the direction of Attorney General Wick ersham, Solicitor General Lebmann and their corps of trusty trust busters until the supreme court has the whole raft of them under advisement.
 Points To Be Settled
 In these cases these are the points the Taft administration Is seeking to have settled:
 The legality of its method of endeav- bring to smash the oil and tobocco trusts involving the first decision of the court upon that part of the Sherman law which authorizes the judicial dissolution of trusts.
 Important questions of the jurisdiction of the lower courts over certain kinds of cases growing out of the enforcement of the pure food law, also the correctness of the construction placed on some fea- lures of that law by the lower courts
 Constitutionality of the new corporation law
 Enforcement of the commodities clause of the Hepburn interstate commerce law.
 The power of the federal government under the pure food law over the label ing of drugs.
 The status of the employers liability law and of the so-called 2S-hour law.
 The first of the federal cases involving any of these points to be heard is the so- called Hipolite egg case, which involves the jurisdiction of the lower courts, in the enforcement of the pure food law. If this case goes against Uncle Sam he will be greatly restricted in the scope of his executive operations in connec- ton with the seizure and condemnation of food products declared by government agents to be impure.
 Commodities Cases
 Immediately on top of this case the de- partment of justice will be called upon to argue three cases coming Up from the Eastern district of Pennsylvania involving the application of the so-called commo- dities clause of the Hepburn act. This is the clause which sought to prohibit the transportation by any common car- rier in interstate commerce of products in the mining or manufacture of which the railroad might be interested. the law authorizing carriers. of course, to carry coal and like products when intended for it's own use, but not when owned by oth- CT corporations. The court more than a year ago handed down a decision in the commodities clause cases, and remanded the matter to the lower courts with cer- tain directions, in accordance with which decisions have been handed down in the federal courts in Pennsylvania These cases now come up as a sort of judicial aftermath for the judgment of the higher court on these decisions of the lower tribunals Very important questions are involved for the government In the mat ter.
 Ay Favorable Decision Wanted
 The next case to be argued before the supreme court in which the department of justice is trying to get favorable decision is the so-called Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern railroad case against the government involving the enforcement of the 2s-hour law, which prohibits the hauling of livestock longer than 2S hours at a stretch by any interstate carrier without stopping to give the animals food and water There has been considerable conflict between carriers and shippers in southwestern territory and the cattle country since the enactment of this statute over is enforcement. questions of quarantine, and the line of demarkation between federal and state authority over various phases of the uestion.
 The suit for the dissolution of the To- bacco trust is expected to be reached about January on rehearing and will be the first of the big rearguments on the calendar. Immediately after t the