The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-01-11

President Taft was once a United
States judge, m that if he could now
be impeached and disqualified from
holding office because of acts commit
ted while a Wearer Of the judicial err
mine, the graVest of consequences
might ensue. They also point out that
he was at one time solicitor general of
the United States; at another time
governor general of the Philippines,
and 1t yet another time secretary of
war, and that if impeachment reaches
to other offices Than the one at the
time held, then no man can be sure of
his position.
mother line of argument in support
of this contention is that if impeach-
ment reached back to offices formerly
held, then a man who nae done wrong
a score of years before While acting
as United States district attorney, and
who had since served with credit as
district judge, circuit Judge, and JUS
tlce of the supreme court, might be
driven out of his position py his lapsas
of 20 years before.
The impeachment managers do not
deny the general proposition that i'm
parchment proceedings may be upheld
only for the office of which the i'm
peached man is the incumbent. But
they assert that in such matters a cir
cult judgeship and a district %judgeship
are practically one and the same so
far as Impeachment proceedings are.
concerned. Circuit judges are ire
quently called upon to act as district
judges, and district judges with even
more frequcntcy assume the duties and
responsibilities of circuit judges. The
circuit judge may commit Improbable
oifenscs while exercising the functions
of a district judge, and the district
judge may commit Improbable Of
lenses while acting as circuit judge.
This, according to the impeachment
managers, establishes the identity of
the tWo-positions for impeachment
purposes.
But the case against Archibald does
not rest upon this argument. The first
six articles relate to offenses commit
ted while a circuit judge. The first
charge against him since becoming a
circuit judge refers to his acquisition
of part ownership in the Katydid culm
dump, which was indirectly owned by
the Erie railroad, a litigant before the
court.
The second charge against him Is
that he undertook to induce the Della
ware, LackaWanna, and Western rail-
road, a litigant before his court, to buy
tWo-thlrds of the stock of the Marian
Coal company, which wned a culm
dump at Taylor, Pennsylvania.
The third charge is that he unlaw-
fully used his Influence to compel the
Lehigh Valley Coal company, owned
by the Lehigh Valley Railroad COM
pany. to lease to him and his associ-
ates a culm dump neal Shenandoah,
the while he was circuit judge and the
Lehigh Valley Railroad a litigant be-
fore the commerce court.
n fourth charge relates to a case
of the Louisville and Nashville rail-
road pending before the commerce
court. 1t charges that before the de-
cislon of the case and after he evil
dence was all in he secretly, wrongly.
n un~lawfully," held correspondence
with the attorney for the railroad COM
pany relative to the case.
The fifth charge is that he en-
deavored to use his influence to in
duee the Pennsylvania and Reading
railroad to lease a culm bank to Fred
erlck Warnke and received promis-