Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-05-05

george hunkel, canulQate lor JuuBS vi
the Supreme Court on the nonpartisan
ticket:
Honorable George Kunkel, Presi-
dent Judge of the several courts of
Dauphin county, and candidate for
nomination for the office of Justice of
the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,
is man in the prime of physical and
intellectual vigor. For him the shad-
ows still are falling toward the west.
He served two terms as District At
torney of Dauphin county and two
terms as member of the House of
Representative of Pennsylvania, from
the city of Harrisburg, prior to
1903. He had thus experience as
a minister of the law and as a maker
of law before he was called upon to
administer the law judicially. In
1903. he was the Republican candidate
for Additional Law Judge of Dauphin
county. The contest that was waged
from his nomination until the polls
closed on election day was admittedly
one of the bitterest and most stub
bornly fought political battles ever wit
messed in Dauphin county. But it is
remembered by those engaged in it,
on the one side or the other, that with
all its acrimony, with all its heated in
temperance of speech, no word was
heard in derrogation of the ability or
personal integrity of the Republican
candidate. Mr.. Kunkel had always
been Republican of the type known
as regular" The opposition to him
was based on the assumption that
on the bench he would be controlled
by influences which, by many, had
long since come to be regarded as sin
lister in Dauphin county The judicial
contest in Dauphin county in 1908,
was but the premonition of the po-
litical storm that later rent in twain
the Republican party in Pennsylvania.
There were three candidates in the
field; Republican, Anti Machine and
Democratic. Mr.. Kunkel was elected
by a majority of asa, in a county
usually Republican by a majority of
5000 or over, and became Additional
Law Judge of Dauphin county. On
the death of President Judge Weiss,
in 1905 he became President Judge of
the most important judicial district of
Pennsylvania, a judicial district in
which are tried all tax cases to which
the Commonwealth is party, in
which are involved all of the varied,
intricate and important questions af-
fecting the States revenues, and also
the great majority of all cases begun
or defended by the Commonwealth.
In 1908 Judge Kunkel presided in
what are commonly known as the
Capitol Graft Cases." The indict-
ment charged conspiracy to defraud
the Commonwealth in the furnishing
OF the new State Capitol building. "A
conspiracy is a confederation to effect
an unlawful object by lawful means,
or by unlawful means a lawful object;
and is a misdemeanor at common
law" Conspiracies are, comparatively
speaking, not common. The conspiracy
involved in the Capitol Graft Cases,
both in the means employed for the
accomplishment of it's purpose and
in the persons concerned in it,
is unique in the history of the
criminal law. If case had been spe-
cially prepared to test the legal knowl-
edge, the impartiality, the accuracy
of decision under unusual, if not un-
precedented conditions, it could
scarcely have equaled the strange con-
glomeration of facts and circumstances
which these cases presented.
AS a defendant at the bar of the
court was the dreaming boy artist
from whose fertile brain had material
lied a splendid building. There, as
co-defendants, were men high in the
official life of the State, against whom,
through years of public service, no
word of reproach had before been SER
iously spoken There too was ALWAYS
the elusive apparition of men behind
these men, more culpable than they,
but beyond the reach of justice. 1t
was a case in which a man of more
than ordinary intellectual poise might
have easily and unconsciously inclined
from the judicial perpendicular.
There too were the gladiators of the
Pennsylvania bar; cunning of legal
fence, masters of every thrust and
parry known to legal encounter,
skilled by years of practice to make
much of little and little of much as
the eXigencieS of a case demanded,
subtle in making seemingly real that
which was plausible only, bland of
speech and persuasive of manner,
when blandness and persuasion
seemed best fitted to warp judicial
judgment, positive and defiant when
occasion suggested, confident each in
the justice of the cause in which he
was enlisted, alert, resourceful. relent-
less of purpose both as to court and
opposing counsel.
a severance was granted as to one
defendant and the trial proceeded as
to those remaining. The trial began
January 81, 1908, and a verdict of
guilty was recorded March 13, 1908.
The testimony taken covered 993 pages
of the paper book which went up with
the appeals. The charge of the court
and the answers to points presented
covered forty pages. There We're ia
exhibits on the part of the Common
wealth and thirty on the part of the
defendants.
There was the usual motion for
new trial and again every plea and
every legal art which years of ex-
perience could suggest were used TO
secure another hearing before a jury.
The motion was refused and the case
went for review to the Superior Court.
There were more than one hundred
assignments of error to the rulings
of the court below. The main opinion
Of the Superior Court covers thirty-six
pages of the State reports, and con-
cludes with the statement, 1.-THE case,
as disclosed by the record, was by the
learned judge of the court below ably
and impartially tried and we find no
reason for disturbing the judgment"
The case was then taken to the Su-
preme Court and the judgment of the
court below again affirmed. After a
trial lasting more than six weeks,
with a multiplicity of rulings on un-
usual and intricate legal propositions,
the leisurely and searching scrutiny of
the appellate courts, aided by the mi
croscopic scrutiny of able and zeal
Gus lawyers, was unable to discover a
single error on the part of the presid-
ing judge. The defendant, as to whom
severance was granted was subse-
quently tried and convicted and judg-
ment affirmed by both appellate
courts.
During the term which Judge Kun
kel has served as judge in Dauphin
county. forty-five appeals have been
l. e. L