The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-11-23
SURRENDER THEMSELVES BE.
FORE COURT AND ASK WRIT
OF HABEAS CORPUS.
TO TEST SHERMAN LAW
Object Is To Carry Fight to United
States Supreme Court-Claim
- That Body Has Already
Nullified Statute.

Chicago, III. - The indicted Chi
cago meat packers, by precipitating a
federal court decision on the constitu'
tionality Of the Sherman antitrust
law, when they surrendered them
selves into custody and asked for a
writ of habeas corpus, merely took
steps necessary to carry the fight be,
fore the United States supreme court
without the cost or delay Of a trial.
Government attorneys, taken una,
wares, were cut off from much Of the
result of their long investigation into
the meat packing industry, by the sud
den move of the packers. Instead of a
promise to be supported by evidence
carefully brought together, the fight,
for a time at least, must be conducted
purely as an argument of law.
The fight thus becomes, not a ques-
ton of first issue as to the guilt or in
nocence of the packers, but a plain at
tack on the validity of the Sherman
act, according to attorneys for the
packers. They explain their position,
briefly, in this wise:
THE supreme court in the Tobacco
and Oil cases, converted the Sherman
law into an Illegal enactment, since the
court, by placing each individual or
corporation on a standard Of it's own,
built upon it's peculiar individual acts,
took away from all individuals the pos
sibility Of knowing how their acts
were to be viewed by a jury, and in
the light of reason, that this obscur-
ity Of definition of what constituted
crime was contrary to the eighth
amendment of the federal constitu-
ton"
In short, the petition, say the attor-
neys, charges the supreme court inter
probation with multiplying the Sherman
law, in spite of the courts action in
ordering the dissolution of the Ameri-
can Tobacco company and the Stand
ard Oil company. Only an adverse de-
cision to the packers contention by
the United States supreme court will
give the government attorneys an OPP
portunity to use the material they have
bdlltI Gu lOI the DIOSSCuJlOh.
The move made by the packers was
a complete surprise to the government
and consisted in the surrender of the
packers to the United States marshals
and an immediate appeal to United
States Circuit Judge c. G. Kohlsaat
for a writ of habeas corpus,
Violations of the fifth, sixth and
eighth amendments to the United
States constitution, ambiguity and it's
alleged failure either to create an Of
Tense against the government or so to
define what it set up as an offense in
a manner that would enable the citi-
zen to know when he erred and when
not, were charged against the Sher-
man law as interpreted by the nUited
States supreme court in the Standard
Oil and Tobacco cases.
The packers were released on bonds
of 100000 each.
OF the ten packers indicted, all but
]. Ogden Armour were temporarily in
custody while the petition was being
heard. The nine were:
Louis F. Swift, president Swift G.
Co.; Edward f. Swift, vice president of
Swift & Co.; Charles II. Swift, direc-
tor Of Swift & Co.; Edward Tilden,
president National Packing Co.; Ar
thur Meeker, general manager Of Ar.
mour & Co.; Edward Morris, president
of Morris & Co.; Francis Fowler, di-
rector of Swift & Co.; Thomas j. Con-
nors, director of Armour & Co; Louis
II. Hayman. manager of Morris &
Co.