The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-07-12
DENIES CONDUCT
WAS IMPROPER
Judge Archibald Requests Public
to Suspend Judgment.

Washington, July 10.-Counsel for
Judge Robert w. Archibald of the
commerce court, against whom ar.
ticles of impeachment have been re.
ported in the house, issued state
ment asking that public opinion in the
Archibald case be suspended until the
accused jurist has had an opportunity
to present his defense to the senate.
which sitting as court, will try the
charges against him.
The statement made public by his
counsel. the first public reply from
the judge and indicating the tenor of
the defense in the expected trial in
part follows:
Judge Archbald's counsel state that
he emphatioally denies that in any of
the transactions referred to in the re-
port of the judiciary committee of
which are embraced in the articles of
impeachment which the committee
has submitted to the house, he used
or attempted to use his influence as
a judge improperly.
Conscious of his own integrity. it
never occurred to him in any of the
transactions referred to that others
might suspect that he was acting 9TH
erwise than uprightly.
When the original charges against
him were presented to the president
and the attorney general he was CIV
en- no notice and no hearing. In the
proceedings before the house judiciary
committee he was permitted to cross
examine witnesses, but it was eX-
plicitely stated by the chairman that
the proceeding was a hearing and not
a trial. In the hearing before the
committee the principal charges which
had led the president and the attor.
ney general to take action, were
chosen to be utterly unfounded. When
the evidence was closed what charges
the committee might make could not
be known to Judge Archibald or his
counsel until they were presented to
the house.
Asks That Opinion Be Suspended.
Judge Archibald, therefore, will
have no opportunity to present his de-
tense until he is summoned before the
senate, and until he has had hear
Ing there he asks that public opinion
in his case may be suspended"
The statement takes up in detail the
principal charges upon which the
judiciary committees hearings were
held, and continues:
"By the evidence before the judi
ciary committee of the house every
one of these charges was so complete
ly disproved that no reference is made
to any of them in the report of the
committee or in the articles of i'm
parchment
"The committee, however, has rec
commended the impeachment of Judge
Archibald on thirteen other charges,
only two of which relate to the per.
Torrance by him of any judicial act
and in neither of the two excepted
cases is it charged that he acted cor
ruptly.
1.-The principal charge by the COM
mittee relates to Judge Archbald's
connection with the attempted pur-
chase from the Hillside Coal and Iron
company Ca subsidiary of the Erie
Railroad company of it's interest in
the Katydid culm dump. That Judge
Archibald was interested in the pro-
posed purchase is not denied. 1t is
not claimed by the committee and we
assume it will not be claimed by any
one, that the mere fact that federal
Judge is interested in the attempted
purchase of property from one who is
or may be litigant in his court, is a
criminal offense or is even in itself,
evidence of corrupt mind. In it's re-
port the sole ground upon which the
committee relies in reaching it's con-
clusion that in this particlur case
Judge Archibald acted corruptly is the
evidence as to the value of the Katy
did culm dump. The committee as
sumes that the interest of the Hillside
company in the dump was worth a
great deal more than Judge Archibald
and his associates were to pay for it,
The statement then quoted the test
mony of Captain May, manager of the
Erie railroads coal properties, and
that of other witnesses to show that
Judge Archbald's profit in the Katy
did culm bank had he been able to
sell it, would have been comparatively
small about $4,000, and that portion
of that would have belonged to Will.
Jams, his partner in the deal
G0MPERS' APPR0VAI GIVEN