The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-09-08

all at one time and go back to the
1 court of appeals, to win again, but
only to suffer procrastination and de-
| lay? Speed, Think how there was a
/ situation lending every element for
ten or fifteen years litigation and we
pushed it along from court to court.
! Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City,
| Omaha, ST. Paul, st. Louis, and Mus
kogee, to a conclusion in two years.
Do you suppose all this did not take
much money as well as long weary
hours of drudgery-the most weari-
some any body of lawyers ever under
| took? 1 have been paid $1,000 on ac-
count, for my part in these services
and for my expenses which were
| $1,735. Will any mem Der of this bar
association, will any layman who does
me the justice to consider this matter
say that my fee is exorbitant? Will
any lawyer say my services are yet
| adequately compensated? ?"
These fees which have caused the
governor and some lawyers so much
concern, Dawson says are not dragged
from the pockets of the poor, meek
eyed gas consumers at increased rates.
! THAT is a gross fallacy," says Daw-
son answering the charge that the gas
consumer must pay the fees That
is not true. No public utilities COM
mission, either state or interstate, no
court, either state or federal, would
ever sanction rates for gas based upon
the cost for recovering the property.
-. No charges for attorneys fees to
ficers was wrongfuly surrendered to
another court can be lawfully added
into the price which the public has to
pay. That cost of illegal conduct must
be borne by the wrongdoer."
Chance for Appeal.
If the fees in the case have been
too high, an appeal may be had when
the matter is finally presented in
Judge Flannelly's court. If, in his
judgment he considers his own fee too
H. -
himself appeal to a higher court and
ask for more money for his services
But he denies most emphatically that
the business of the gas company was
transacted in dark corners or that his
office received excessive or unusual
fees.
Through the fight made under the
direction of Judge Flannelly the state
was saved a big increase in gas rates,
Dawson believes.
Might Have Been More.
He says: 81 believe the people of
Kansas and Missouri would have been
paying SO cents or 60 cents per
thousand cubic foot for gas long ago
if Judge F'lannelly had not conceived
the idea of making the fight to re-
cover the property and control of the
corporation-or rather the three cor
porations, the Kansas Natural, the
pipe limo company and the Marnett
Mining company-the last being. the
big Oklahoma company which collects
the gas in that state.''
Criticism of fees in the case, Daw-
son believes, was induced by a repre-
sentative of a Kansas City newspaper
and action was taken by Governor
Capper without investigation.
THAT paper" says Dawson in re-
ferring to the manner in which the
governor took up the Kansas City |
publications battle, has in recent |
years pursued a policy of deriding
lawyers, judges, courts, constitutions
and esta blished modes of legal pro- |
cedure. Anything that lends plauSl- |
bility to this peculiar propaganda is |
seized upon with avidity and chewed |
and speweG across all the wide re- |
gion where the paper circulates'
Only One Side.
Though the influence of the Star, |
the matter was laid before Governor |
Capper in a most unfavorable and |
prejudicial light and not uhnaturally
the governor, forgetting that the Star |
cares nothing for him, and forgetting |
his duties to investigate and hear |
both sides before he committed or ex-
pressed himself as a public official, |
was induced to make the speeches |
and utterances which have done me |
so much harm. Even the
lightest expression of a governor is |
news which the papers are glad to
quote and Governor Capper has many |
and they have not only |
the matter while [ was far away from |
home, uniformed of the charges and |
had no opportunity to make either a |
defense, correction or explanation.
Is Ii "a Square Deal?
1.-The governor mas not in this case
lived up to his oft avowed code of
giving every man a square deal.
THE governor has often shown
plenty of courage in advocating things
that are popular. He has yet to be |
tried as to his courage to acknowledge |
an error or to apologize for grievous
wrong. l am charitable enough to be- |
lieve he did not seek through malice |
to injure me. That he did it without
an investigation, or a hearing to both |
sides. and that he did it without know |
ledge of what he was talking about is |
self evident.
''Lawyrs fees are constantly dis |
cussed by the Kansas City Star as
thing of evil. Maybe so. But in our |
time and according to our light, they |
are not only lawful, but as honorable |
as printers fees and doctors fees, or as
the wages of a workingman-
When receivers manage property |
at the same expense at which it was |
by its president, general |
manager and board of directors, they |
are not ordinarily subjected to criti- |
cism- When, as in the gas case, they /
it at greatly reduced expense |
and give much better service, the re- |
ceivers always deserve and sometimes /
receive the gratitude of the stockhold-
ers and the esteem of the public"