Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-11-04
TELLS JUDGE
HE HAS NO POWER
CONTINUED from First Page.l

[COntinued from First Pare.1
sachusetts. Orders raising the ban
on various counties for Saturday or
early next week will be issued soon.
The situation in both coal fields is
reported improving. At Pittsburgh
agents of the department are taking
evidence against violaters of the
closing order adm suits will be
brought.
DIR. Rogers Statement
DR.. Rogers statement says, in
substance:
The Attorney Generals Depart
emnt has advised me hat the re-
ported action of Judge Lands en-
Joining the commissioner of health
and the railroads from maintaining
a quarantine injunction against the
CITY of Lancaster, amounting in eff
feet TO a mandatory Injunction to
run the trains into Lancaster and
accept passengers to and from that
point, is an unwarranted assump-
ton of judicial authority, without
legal effect, and which both the
railroads and myself might properly
disregard, for the reason that the
court of common pleas of Dauphin
county is the only court having jul
risdiction to enjoin the heads of
state departments with reference to
the PRONUNCIATION and enforcement
of their official orders. as it would
be intolerable for such officials to
be compelled to appear in different
and widely-separated counties of
the commonwealth and be subjected
to different and possibly conflicting
orders with reference to the same
matter; and, in this particular case,
FOR the further reason hat the city
solicito, in preparing the bill, failed
TO comply with the equity rules of
the Supreme Court by endorsing on,
or having contained in, the bill in
equity any notice to the defendants
to appear and answer.
TT is the more irregular anr UNI
j~ustiffable because it was issued
without notice or hearing. although
the parties knew that representatives
of the Department of Health as we'll
as of the Attorney Generals Depart
ment were in Lancaster at the time,
and especially so because it was
granted with full knowledge of the
fact that its legality could not be
questioned or decided either in the
court of common pleas of Lancas-
ter county or in an appellate court.
because before such a hearing could
be had the time for lifting the ban
closing the saloons in the City of
Lancaster (neXt Tuesday noon
would have expired and the ques-
ton would have become a moot one
not renewable in the courts.
Il action is in line with the |
reported previous conduct of the
parties involved, which was tata-
mount to counsel and encouragement
to the liquor dealers of Lancaster to
violate the established law, an amaz- |
ing thing to come from those whose
especial duty as we'll as sworn obli-
cation 1t is to enforce the laws of the
commonwealth.
"Were it not for the fact that the |
health conditions in the City of
Lancaster are improving to such an
extent that the ban may be safely
lifted on Tuesday, l would request
the Governor to declare the city
under martial law and enforce the
phycical closing of the few (~flfteen
out of seventy-fiVe) defiant saloon
keepers, a power which unques-
tionably exists.
I'm view of the improved condi-
tons, l have decided not [ resort
u lHlS uTdSllC course merely TO en-
force compliance with the law by
closing the saloons for one day, and
l leave the responsibility for the vio-
lation of the law by those few def
ant liquor men, with it's attendant
disrespect and contempt for law
and authority, where it belongs, on
the shoulders of those who coun-
seled or encouraged such violations
well as the municipal authorities
who refused to aid the department
in the enforcement of it's orders.
II hereby give warning, however,
that this step must not be taken as
a precedent by other municipalities.
which following the example Of the
City of Lancaster, have threatened
to disobey the regulations and or
ders of this department issued pur-
suant to law, but the health condi-
tions of which have not improved
to the same extent as now exist in
and where conditions are
that the ban imposed by this
department annot safely be lifted,
the order will be enforced by every
at the control of the com
.onwealth."