The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-27
MUST GO TO TRIAL

l few months ago State Revenue Agent Stokes V. Robertson filed suit against Swift & Co.,, Armour & Co. and all the other big packers doing business in this
 state for fines and penalties of s25,010 l 900 accruing against them during tho
 past six years on account of violations I of the antitrust laws and combining on prices for the restraint of trade. The att | torneys for the packers filed a petition l demanding removal of the case to the 1 federal court on the ground that it was
 a suit of one individual of one state | against individuals of other states and
 that they had been doing business under war laws.
 l On this petition Chancellor V. J. l Stricker holds:
 l "On the principal questions of removal | on the grounds of diversity of citizenship:
 and the suit arising under. or being based
 upon the constitution and laws of the United States. we hold:
 | "2. That though a federal question is
 pleaded it can be defensive only, and is 1 ir no wise the basis of the suit. The Lever act and the war laws must be relied upon if at all, as matters of jus
 tification. and not of Jurisdiction. The complaint is not of violation of those
 laws or regulations, but of certain plain
 and pre-existing satutes of the state of
 Mississippi. It is clear that if as re- suit of the Lever act or other acts, the 1 defendants did not do. or had to do those things with which they are charged in
 the bill then such acts are pleadable in confession and avoidance, or otherwise defensive to the charge. The fact that l the federal government has constitutional
 or statutory equivalents in principle or practice to subject matters similar to | those of the states. does not necessarily | under such subject matters exclusively jurisdictional to federal tribunals. If l such were the situation there would be
 but little left for the state courts to func-
 tion upon. We would have practically
 but one system of courts, and they would
 be national courts with national juris-
 prudence. A federal question of certain prescribed import cOnfers appellate juris-
 diction upon the supreme court of the United States, according to the judicial | code of that forum. and where suit Is
 based wholly or materially upon a fed l eral law, without which law there would
 be no suit the cause is removable to the
 forum of the law itself. which is the fed- eral courts. But the case at bar is upon
 a Mississippi statute. actual and potential,
 and would be maintainable as such
 whether there be or be not federal legis-. \ lation of the kind pleaded. No construc- | tion of any law other than that of this state is necessary to a trial of this
 cause, except as such law might be in-
 voked to disprove. justify or avoid the
 acts complained of
 REM ARK ABLE FAMILY RECORD ] On the west side of Jackson. in what /, is known as the Georgetown subdivision, | lives Nelson Thomas, an old-time negro, V ho states that he is the father of twen- ty-five children. That record is sufficient
 to have excited the interest of the late Theodore Roosevelt but that is not the
 most remarkable incident in the history
 of this negro family. as there were twelve
 sets of twins--all girls-in rapid success l sion. The thirteenth and last time the
 stork visited this humble home he left only one, and that boy, now 2 years l of age and living in Memphis.
 In 1867, or two years after de war as Nelson expressed it, heA was married ] to Alice Lee, a buxom country girl who lived on an adjoining plantation near Ray
 niond, this county She had belonged to Colonel Hawkins Nelson belonged to "Cud" Thomas. both of whose memory
 he still holds dear In due course of time twin girls were born to this colored fam 1 fly and that happened every few months thereafter until there was twelve sets of the twin girls, all of whom lived to be grown, married and moved away from the home nest. Two of the girls made their home in Jackson. the other twenty two went north and west, and none of them have been heard from in twenty years or more. says the old man. uncle Nelse' Is now three score and ten. but hale and hearty, and works every day m the year. he says. During the winter TOT several years he has worked at one of the big oil mills. and when that closes dcwn for tho summer he cuts grass.
 makes gardens and does any other job or- fered by his white folks." Eleven years
 sso his wife went to her reward. nrd tho
 old man Is patiently awaiting the sum-
 rons to join her on the other side or the