The Libby herald. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1911-1913, 1913-02-28
NOT YET IN JAIL
Present System of Justice Is
Unjust. Favors the Rich
And Is Not Impartial
(By Clyde II. Tavenner)

SAAoA6NS AAS odlllC klllu VI JuSLlC0
that is meted out to poor men, was
meted out to the rich, when FEEDER
al Judge Hollister of Ohio recently
sentenced twenty-nine officials of
the Cash Register trust to sem
tences in Jail, sustaining the view
long taken by democrats that
guilt is eisonal, " and making
the first official response to the will
OF the people that was expressed in
the election of Woodrow Wilson.
Now that sufficient time has
elapsed for members of congress to
consider the effect of the judgment
of the Ohio court, the concensus of
opinion among law makers at the
national capitol is that the Jail
sentences will do more to cause
millionaire trust magnates to re-
spect the Sherman antitrust law,
than anything that has occurred
since trusts and monopolies have
come into existence.
1t has been demonstrated that
Jail sentences is the only thing
trust magnates have any respect
for. They are willing to build up
giant monopolies in the necessaries
of life if their only punishment, in
the remote event of their prosecu-
tion and conviction, is to be dis
Selutieor,' the details of which the
supreme court will allow their at
torneys to attend, to the end that
their stocks will double in value.
Trust magnates care no hing about
fines. Fines are considered simply
on business basis. The trust
heads have no objection to occas-
ionally paying IS, 900 or $4,000
fine, having made millions in col
nered markets and in monopolics
OF the necessaries of life.
But magnates are afraid of cell,
and if they can be convinced that
if they violate the antitrust law
they will 60 to Jail, like the poor
go to Jail when they violate a law,
no one doubts but that the Sherman
law would be obeyed and the prob
lem of illegal trusts solved.
The Sherman law provides for
Jail sentences for trust magnates,
just as other laws provide for Jail
sentences for other kinds of rob-
berry, but for twenty years and
more the federal courts have not
been impressed by the fact. This
is why SO many persons have come
to be suspicious of the courts, and
to sincerely believe that the poor
do not receive the same kind of
justice that is meted out to the
rich; it explains, too, the recent re-
markable growth of socialism, aud
the agitation for the recall of
judges,
In this connection it is important
to note that although the twenty
nine cash register heads were found
guilty and were sentenced to Jail,
they are not in Jail, at present,
and are not likely to be for two
years, or perhaps even longer.
The case will be fought through
the supreme court, and as a gener-
al rule two years is consumed.
1t is said that the men under sem
tence expect to escape Jail, and will
pour out their millions iu an effort
to find some loophope of techni-
cality by which to escape the igno-
miny of being branded convict.
If the judgment of the court is
actually carried out, it is obvious
that it will do more toward caus-
ing illegal trust magnates to re-
spect the law, and at the same
time more to strengthen the wan
ing confidence of the masses in the
federal courts, than anything that