The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-29
IW|CKERSHAM WAS
IN DOUBT ABOUT THE
! TELEPHONE STATUS
Wanted the Interstate Com
merce Commission to Pass
the Question
M'REYNOLDS AVERSE
TO ANY PUBLICITY
Prefers to do His Work and Then
Make Announcements Through
the Papers After 1t Is
Accomplished
by HOLLAND

New York. December 2S.-(Special) }
George w. Wickershani, who was At
torhey General in the administration of
President Taft. is quoted as having said
on the spur Of the moment, Immediately
after he heard that the department of
Justice at Washington and President Vail
Of the American Telegraph and Tele-
phone company had IN cooperation
agreed upon plan which will make it
unnecessary for the government to pro-
ceed jrdicially against that company for
tho purpose of dissolving 1t, that he,
when Attorney General, had turned the
entire proposition over to the interstate
commerce commission. He might have
added that it was due to his appeal to the
commission to take the burden of decid-
fng whether or not the telegraph and
telephone company was organized and
was operating in defiance of the Sherman
law that the investigation is now being
carried ON by the commission. Whether
the agreement between Attorney General
McReynoIds and President Vail will make
further investigation by the commission
unnecessary is not yet disclosed.
persuaded to turn the consideration of
this matter-over to the interstate COM
merce commission because he had Sc
rious doubts, first, whether there was
zny violation of the Sherman law when
& the telephone company acquired domniat-
ing interest in the telegraph company;
ard, second, because he had grave doubts
of the economic propriety of judicial at
tack upon the telegraph and telephone
company.
Something of this feeling is understood
10 be Characteristic of some of those
who, when Mr.. Wickersham was Attor-
ney General, represented the government
In the proceedings brought by the departs
ment of justice for the dissolution of the
International Harvester company. There
! Is TO-DAY serious doubt on the part of
lawyers who represented the government
in the early proceedings whether the
courts would hold that this company was
organized in violation of the Sherman
law. But In that case it was thought the
better part to lay all the facts before the
court so that there could be judicial in
; depreciation of the issue.
Why II would not be equally wise to
attempt to- secure from the court inter-
probation of the Sherman law as applied
10 the organization of the telegraph and
telephone company is not clearly under
stood in this city, excepting that a new
and highly satisfactory disposition has
been disclosed by the department of JUS
tce whereby 1t will be possible hereafter
for those who conduct big business, or
who have organized 1t, to. learn from
the law officers of the government
] whether they are within or without the
Z law.
The Attorney Generals Attitude
Attorney General McReynolds Is free
from disposition Characteristic of some
men of public life to play his part before
the public. to get his name into the news
papers, or, as the saying is. to appeal to
4 tie galleries. Only in an Indirect way
has there come information respecting his
attitude toward the New Haven railroad
situation. He has said nothing about
1t for publication. nor will he say any,
that the department of justice, on the one
hand. and on the other Howard Elliott,
executive chief of the New Haven sys-
TEN, have in cooperation reached an
:greement whereby. If 1t be carried out,
the New Haven company will be spared
litigation for it will voluntarily dissolve.
so to speak, and rid itself of those pres
ent features of the system which the At
torney General believes to be violations of
the law.
1t is impossible to escape the inference