Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-10-13
BUSY Term FOR
SUPREME COURT
Seven Hundred and Eighty
one Cases Are on the Dock
ct for Coming Session
TRIBUNAL HAS HANDS FULL

Many Important Questions Of
Widely Different Natures Will
Be Decided at This Term
Washington, D. c., Oct. AFTER
a four months vacation the Supreme
Court of the United States will con-
vene Monday for the term of 1911
II. The docket is crowded with
781 cases, as compared with 696
cases a year ago at this time. No
case of anything like equal impor-
lance with the Standard Oil and To-
bacco dissolution suits is on the
docket, but there are a number of
important and interesting matters
that will come before the court for
adjudication.
The court is expected to take up
first of all the numerous cases in
volving the activity of State rail-
road commissions. There are more
than fifty cases of this kind to be
decided. AS all of them are cor
related, it is probable the court
will hear them as nearly together as
possible. There are thirty-six rate
cases from Missouri alone, three
from Minnesota, including that de-
cided by Judge Sanborn, which agi-
tated the governors conference at
Spring Lake recently, and several
from Oklahoma and Kentucky. The
opinions of the supreme tribunal in
these cases probably will fix de-
fnitely the constitutional limits of
State railroad commissions and cir
cumscribe the powers they may ex-
ercise in the way of fixing the rates
of common carriers in intrastate
traffic.
Several important cases have come
over from the Interstate Commerce
Commission. The Government ques-
lions the right of railroads to make
concessions to elevators, holding
that it is rebating. The st. Louis
Terminal Company, owning two
bridges over the Mississippi River,
is being brought to the bar on the
question of its being a monopoly in
restraint of trade. Another issue
that will be fought out early in the
term is whether the stockyards in
the large cities are common carriers
within the meaning of the inter-
state commerce lawsA case against
the Baltimore and Ohio South
western road is expected to lead to a
decision as to whether a railroad
may transport sheep through a
State into another State when the
State through which the sheep pass
is under quarantine.
The battle for the. initiative and
referendum, the foundation stone of
the Oregon primary system, will be
fought before the court early in
November. In view Of the fact that
numerous States already have fol-
lowed the example of Oregon in ad-
opting the initiative and referendum
and others are preparing to do SO,
the decision in this case will have
far-reaching consequences. The mat
ter comes to the supreme court as
an appeal in suit brought by the
Pacific States Telephone and Tele-
graph company against the State of
Oregon to test the constitutionality
of the initiative and referendum
law.
Among the most important cases
on the docket are several that were
held over from last term. Included
in the list are the cases involving the
validity of the indictment of Char
les F. Munday and others, growing
out of the so-called Stracey coal
landclafms in Alaska, and of the in
dictment of aJmes A. Patten and
others on charges of violating the
Sherman antitrust law in Corner
ing" the cotton market. The re-
view of the trial of Frederick A.
Hyde and others on charges of land
frauds on the Pacific coats will con-
stitute still another important case.
The court also will hear arguments
in the Oklahoma land fraud cases,
which are four in number and are
typical of 301 suits brought by the
Government to invalidate $4,000 or
more conveyances by Indians, of
titles to real estate, which the Gov
eminent claims were fraudulent con-
veyances.
Labor has one important case
from Louisiana in which an en-
ployer is being prosecuted for per-
hitting laborer to work more than
eight hours in one day. Also of i'm
pOrtance to the labor world is the
case brought to test the constitution
atty of the federal employers IL
ability act of 1908.
The court has been asked to
interpret treaty between the Unit !
ed States and Italy. The case in
question involves the right of an
Italian consul to take charge of the
estate of an Italian subject dying in
this country-California
to local laws.
Not the least of the problems be-
fore the supreme court is the neces-
sity of relieving the congestion which