The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-02-27
TALKS ABOUT THE
AAGERLA CASE
Smith Brookhart Brings Question OF
States Rights to Attention Of
the Attorney
General.
IT HAS BEEN DECIDED
Case Taken From County to the Fed.
ersl Court IN Petition Brought
BY Mr.. Haser-

The following taken from an inter
view in the Register and Leader OF
Des Moines, gives the opinion of
Smith Brookhart, who has brough up
the states rights question involved in
the Hagerla petition brought here and
at Ottumwa and finally referred back
to the United States court:
| The state of Iowa is likely to lose
rights worth a hundred million dol
lars unless it interviews in a suit now
pending in the federal court in which
citizen of Keokuk is disputing the
right of the Mississippi River Power
company to use the waters of the Mis-
sissippi without franchise from the
state. That is the declaration OF
Smith W. Brookhart OF Washington,
Iowa, who has interested himself in
! the situation and has called 1t to the
attention of the governor and the at
torney general.
| The object of the suit brought by
the Keokuk citizen is to recover for
alleged damage to his property. Ii
the question at issue should be adj
Indicated without Intervention on the
part of the state it is pointed out by
Colonel Brookhart that the state
would thereby be barred from insti-
tuting original proceedings to protect
whatever rights it may have had.
1t is the contention OF Colonel
Brookhart that federal control OF riv-
ers extends only to matters affecting
navigation. All other rights, he
holds, belong to the bordering states,
under repeated rulings OF the United
States supreme court.
His claim in brief is that Iowa and
Illinois rightfully own whatever OF
value there is in the dam over and
above the actual investment Of the
company, which latter he estimates at
SS0,000,000, on the ground that the
excess consists OF natural resources
belonging to the states. OF this ex-
cess he claims by far the larger
share for Iowa, because of natural
conditions at the site of the dam.
Hears From cosson.
1 Attorney 81. L. McCoid, of the firm
of Hughes and McCoid, who have
been Hagerla's lawyers stated this
afternoon that he had received let
| ter from Attorney General Cosson to
the effect that he would intervene on
behalf of the state in the quo war
ranto proceedings
l ia
] by Hagerla at OttumWa and from
there sent to the United States court
will come up before Judge McPher-
son in the March term of court and
it is presumed that Cosson will ap-
pear at that time.
Attorneys also say that they will
seek change of venue from Judge
| Mcpherson under the new rules per-
hitting it and that the case will then
probably go to Judge Reid of the
northern district of Iowa.
The Local View.
The point raised by Brookhart is
generally regarded here as settled in
the suits of Hagerla in the United
States courts.
Keokul lawyers point out that
while the state has jurisdiction over
the river bottom. the courts have held
that such ownership as it has is in
trust for citizens who own the bank
and desire to build out into the rive.
piers, boat docks, dams, fishing plat
1 forms and the like. They say that
Colonel Brookhart's scare is based up
on superficial reading of the court
decisions, and there need be no hope
of anybody in Iowa getting the APP
/ pointment as superintendent of the
big power plant on the payroll Of the
state Of Iowa.