The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-14
Meeting Was Called to Take
Action on Dawson.
NO RIGHTS IN THE PREMISES
Discovered That Gas Fees Are
Not Their Business.
The Whole Matter Was Laid on
the Table.

| John Dawson, judge of the Kansas
supreme court and former attorney
general of the state, was neither
''whitewash a. nor condemned on the
recent charge made by Governor Ar
thur Capper that he had accepted
| from the receivers of the gas company
of an illegal fee of sS,325 at the meet
ing of the Shawnee County Bar asso-
citation held this morning at the court
house. The bar laid the matter ION
| the table, for the present.
The lawyers failed to rush in
where angels fear to tread and ad-
| journed their hearing of the case un-
! til the second Saturday in September
when Judge Dawson and Judge Flan-
nelly will be asked to appear and eX-
! plain their troubles. For a time the
meeting was nothing more than a talk
| fest with the question of keeping the
dignity of the law profession inviol-
| able as the paramount issue. 1t was
suggested that a committee be ap-
! pointed to investigate but this did not
please the lawyers. Then an effort
was made to adjourn without taking
any official action and this motion was
defeated 26 to IA. Finally Major A.
NJ. Harvey hit upon the solution of the
problem of keeping the lawyers from
committing themselves at this time
and the meeting was adjourned until
September.
No Right to Inquire.
This bar has no right to inquire
into this matter or receive testimony
from. Robert Stone or any other law
yer but when man on the public
bench is assailed by the people in
street car conversations it is time that
any lawyer with a backbone should
seek an investigation" declared Cap
tain j. G. Waters, president of the
Shawnee County Bar association. "Y ou
can't tarnish q good man by a report
that is untrue. These gentlemen who
have been assailed owe it to them
selves to let the sunlight in on this
question.
eff John Dawson is an innocent
man he owes It to himself and to the
other members of the bench who sit
with him to clear himself. 1t is up to
you gentlemen to do it although it may
humble a state supreme court and a
United States court"
Captain Waters's hint that inn
parchment or disbarment proceedings
might result from this investigation
met with approval from some of the
members of the association but with
others it did not sit well. Immediate
ly after Waters's speech the motion
for adjournment was made and de-
feated. T. D. Humphreys declared
that the receivers fees were "a stencil
in the public nOstrils.'-
In his speech before the lawyers
Robert Stone came to the defense of
Judge Dawson and cautioned the bar
association not to take any official ac-
ton until full information could be
obtained
Hard to Determine.
mo lawyer ought to receive pay for
unearned services said Mr. Stone,
but it is hard to determine the work
of a lawyer by the amount of days he
puts in. 1t should rarner be reckOned
by the amount of good done. The
question is whether or not the amount
of money and the interests involved
would justify the fee.
THE litigation in this case involved
a million and a half dollars and a
result of the lawyers work this money
was turned over to the people. Up to this
time we have had rs cent gas and if
the federal receivers mad continued to
operate we probably would be paying
from 40 to SO cents for gas. The liti-
cation extended over period of three
courts in Tulsa, Denver, Salt Lake
pendence. There were frequent hear
ings in more than one court at the
same time and the case was carried
from the district court to the United
States court of appeals on two differ
ent occasions. All of this resulted in
the saving of a large sum of money for
the people of Kansas
The state board of bar examiners is
the board of legal ethics which has the
power to try disbarment proceedings,
and is the place for the Dawson
trouble to be heard, according to sew
eral of the lawyers. The jurisdiction
of the Shawnee county bar in matters
of this kind was seriously questioned
by +. S. Quinton, who wanted the
meeting closed without any action.