Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-04-30
GOOD LAW AND GOOD SENSE.

-HE UNITED STATES Supreme
Court has rendered a decision said
by railroad attorneys to be of emo
mentous importance and alarming In
this specific case the court held that,
ga creditor of corporation not par
ty to its reorganization, may hold its
successor for the debt" This decision
has one really bad feature, and that is,
that those who so ardently insist that
the world Is soon to come to an end,
will find in this further argument in
favor of the correctness of their views.
There was a time, now somewhat re-
mote, when good, hard common sense,
was Synonymous with good law; but
this gave way to erudite distinctions
''twixt tweedledum and tweedle-dee"
to hair-splitting niceties of distinction,
to learned discussions of the intricacies
of language, to the practice of inter
preting plain language, with legal prem
ises and judicial conclusions that start.
ed with "white is white" and evolved,
through the changing processes and de-
grees Of Interpretation, to "white is
gray" "white is brown" and sapient-
ly concluded "white is black" The
judges were "learned" just in proper
tion to their ability to apply the thumb
screw and the rack to the English Ian
guage and torturing it to confessing to
anything the inquisitors might demand
of it.
1t is pleasing and encouraging to see
the legal luminaries back-tracking them
selves, and once more getting the law.
or rather their Interpretation of the law,
on foundation where the average lay
man, with fair fund Of common sense,
can understand it, without the aid Of
an attorney.
The decision referred to was handed
down in suit brought by man named
Boyd, against the Northern Pacific
railroad. Boyd had Judgment against
the Coeur d'Alene Railroad company
for $125,00O. The Northern Pacific
company bought the road, and Boyd
brought suit against it to recover the
amount Of his judgment, which was re-
corded lien on the property when the
Northern Pacific purchased the road.
To the layman, this looks like very
simple case, that, decided upon its mer-
its, could have but one answer, and
that, that the purchasing road was
bound and that the Occur d 'Alene road
could not evade payment of its debts
by turning its property over on a So
called sale to its daddy, which the
Northern Pacific was. Yet this case
was decided by only one vote, the court
standing to 4,
The dispatch from Washington an.
nouncing the decision says
"Corporation lawyers who heard the
decision declared it was direct blow
at the practice Of recognizing corpo
ratons to get rid Of onerous contracts
or Escape !aymcnt of unsecured credit
ors. It's effect, they thought, would be
far.reaching."
Here is an open, free admission of the
custom of corporations doing under
handed work to beat unsecured credit
ors, which IL seems the courts have
heretofore eOnnived at. When debt,
got onerous," the companies found il
moro convenient to re'organize, swindl'
their creditors, and this by the verl
simple process Of changing the name o.
tho corporation while its ownership re
manned unchanged. In private life, /
this were permitted, all John Smitl
would have TO do to settle all his debts
and release his property from all lia
bilities would be TO change his name
and travel under an alias. II is 30 man
ifestly absurd that one wonders hoV
four of the nine wise old guys who dis
tort language in the interest Of the in
forests down in Washington, had tn
nerve to stand up for IL as being goo