The Prescott daily news., 1913-08-21
DECLARED THAT MENT PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS
 WILL RESULT.
IURIST IS 6o YEARS OF AGE
Department of Justice Investigator Reports on Disposition of Bank ruptcy Cases--Clamed Son-in-
 Law Received Favors.

Washington. Aug. 21.-Serious charges, involving alleged gross mis. conduct in office, prepared by the de- partment of justice against Judge Emory Speer, United States judge in Georgia, were laid before the house judiciary committee when that com mittee assembled in secret session to hear the departments report of it's in yestigation.
 The charges are said to be of such a serious nature that they will result in the house committee instituting inn peachment proceedings immediately, although the full nature of the report was withheld pending its presentation to the committee, which has power to dispose of it by letting it pass or by trs"iHe articles of impeachment for presentation to the house.
 Judge Speer has been under fire for years. Several weeks ago the depart ment of justice was furnished with series of specific charges against the jurist, and 8 special investigator was sent to Georgia immediately to look into the matter
 Judge Speer, in a recent public speech, denounced what he character ized as the espionage of federal agents upon judges, and Senator Borah re- gently charged in the senate that fed, eral agents had harrassed judges by Investigations to influence their ac- tion in cases in which the government was interested.
 As a result of this investigation, At torney General McReynolds found that there was enough foundation in the allegations to lay them before the judiciary committee forthwith. The procedure in this case has been the same as that followed in the early proceedings against Judge Robert w. Archibald of the United States com merce court, who was impeached and removed from office at the last ses- sion of congress.
 It became known that President V 'sCu and Attorney-General Mickey holds have conferred at length over the investigation of Judge Speer's of flee and that the president, after be- ing advised of the contents of the re port of the Investigating agents, was cogniZant of the intention of the attor- ney-general to submit the findings to the house judiciary committee for ac- tion
 Charges Against Judge.
 The charges against Judge Speer are numerous and of various classes. They cover a number of years. The most serious single set of charges re- fer to the manner in which bank ruptcy cases have been disposed of The investigator found that Judge Speer had appointed his son-in-law, an attorney named Hayward, eXecutor in many of these cases, and that Hay ward had dissipated estates and charged unfair fees for his services.
 The report of the investigator shows that Hayward was given preference in cases of this sort and that he has become relatively wealthy through handling this class of litigation.
 There are numerous allegations in- volving officers of the court who, the investigator found. received unduly high fees from litigants through their friendship with Judge Speer.
 Georgian 65 Years Old.
 The report alleges also that Judge Speer showed undue preference to clients of his son-in-law and that the combination thwarted justice in nu- merous cases. The report will at- tempt to prove that Judge Speer is temperamentally unfit to perform the duties of his office.
 Judge Speer was appointed to the [ bench in 1885, after having served i several terms in the house of repre- seiltatives, where he was member of the ways and means committee. He was elected to the house as Demo crat and was reelected as an inde- pendent. He finally weht over to the Republican party and voted with the ] staud-patters for high tariff. He pre- sided in the famous Gaynor-Greene trial. where the government cOntrac-