The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-04-17
COMMON SENSE
COURT RULES
ARE NEEDED
Collapse of Government Oil
Prosecution Show Weak.
ness of Code
BY HARRY B. HUNT
NEA Service Writer

Washington April 17.-When the
processes of the law become so in.
volved that the government itself
cannot follow them it would seem te
the layman that the time had come
for some simplified and common:
sense rules. of procedure.
Contempt for the law, about which
public authorities complain SO bit.
terly, is helped, not hindered, by the
spectacle of such denouements as
came in the governments prosecution
of criminal indictments against Fall
Sinclair and Doheny in connection
with the great oil scandal"
The indictments were quashed by
Chief Justice Mccoy of the District
Supreme Court not because of any
question of fact in the evidence sub
mitted to the grand jury, but be-
cause of the presence at the grand
jury hearings of representative of
the Department of Justice.
The only possible conclusion is
that the Department of Justice it.
self cannot tell, under the involved
and intricate technicalities that have
come to surround grand jury proce-
dure. when it should and when it
should not take a hand in presenting
evidence for prosecution. Any other
conclusion would mean that the de-
partment deliberately acted in a way
to jeopardize the validity of the in.
.dictments; that the department. was
directly seeking to thwart to not
obtain justice.
Anyhow, Assistant Attorney Gener-
al Oliver Pagan was present as an
assistant to the special counsel ap-
pointed by President Coolidge to
prosecute the oil cases, ad Mccoy
holds he ought not have been there
The indictments are voided on this
ground alone.
In the meantime-a full year hav-
ing passed since the indictment
were returned-the statute of limi-
tations has expired on the charges
of bribery on which two of the in
dictments were based. If, on appeal,
the action of Justice Mccoy is sus-
tained, the government, will, by the
action of one of it's assistant attor-
ney generals, have lost the right to
press these bribery charges further.
The whole cause of justice, there
fore, rests not on the fact, of bribery
or lack Of it, but on q technically
which bars the way to any trial on
the real facts. And in this case the
government itself set up the techni-
cality which thwarted its own prose-
cution.
Speaking of bribery-Democrats
suggest that actually, though not
morally or legally. some such in
fluence was responsible for Dorches-
ter county, Maryland, going Repu-
blican for the first. time in its his
tory last November.
As the story goes, the presidential
yacht Mayflower, on one of Cool
idge's weekend trips last fall, put in
at Cambridge, Nd, IN lower Chesa-
peake bay one Sunday morning. The
and made their way to church to at
tend services. Wien the collection
plate was passed, Coolidge put into
it a crisp new S. bill.
The church authorities, proud Of
the visit by the presidential party,
seeking some tangible token by
be perpetuated, pounced upon that
S.. Instead of being turned into the
treasury it was properly labeled,
framed, and hung in the vestry room.
There it was inspected by not only
all Of Cambridge, but by hundreds
of visitors from the back country
who visited the county seat prior
to election. The Coolidge contribu-
tion became a lodestone that drew
Democrats and Republicans alike.
Many who came skeptical and scof-
fling, went away in reverence.
Yes, it was true, they spread the
word. Five whole dollars, right out
of the presidential pocket!
The result. according to the De-
mocratic alibi experts, was the
carrying of Dorchester county at
a personal cost to the president of
one IS bill!