New Britain herald., 1928-11-21
THE STEWART ACQuilTAL

THE STEWART ACQuiITAL
 Four years of court proceedings growing out of the F'all-Doheny- Sinclair oil lease scandals have re- suited in victories for the government in civil lawsuits and defeats in criminal cases.
 Latest of the victories over the government is that of Colonel Robert w. Stewart, chairman of the Stand- ard Oil Co. of Indiana. The colonel was charged with perjury before the Public Lands Committee of the Senate last February ? and 3 and April 24. Last June he was acquitted of a charge of contempt of the Senate for failing to answer ques- tions. Now he is acquitted of perjury: in February he denied before the committee any knowledge of the distribution of the bonds of the Con- tinental Trading Co.,. of Canada: in April he admitted having received 3759,50O of the bonds and having kept them in a safe. Both acquttals were dons by District of Columbia juriea
 It is one thing to force the return of property declared illegally pro- cured; it is quite another to punish for criminality.
 The latest acquittal of Colonel Stewart is victory for technicali- ties. Judge Bailey of the District Supreme Court instructed the jury that if there was no physical quorum of the committee present then it was not "competent tribunal" There were Is members of the committee. and only eight needed to be phys cally present to form quorum; but some of the eight were not actually present, according to the evidence, permitting themselves to be regis tered as present through telephonic communications. This. it appears, E one of the loose ways in which c.c- gressional committees do business, a fact of which the Stewart defense instantly took advantage.
 This way of holding committee meetings is of long standing. The meetings frequently are long drawn out: committees sit for days, if not weeks. It is perhaps unreasonable to expect physical quorum to be pres cnt all the time; if that were de- manded then most committees would rarely have a quorum present. and the business of the government would suffer We rather think Sen ator Norris is correct in his obssr- >ation regarding the Stewart verdict when he said
 Under the instructions given the jury it could have rendered no other verdict. I think the judges interpre- tation of law is wrong. If if is right. 9o per cent Of all state and national legislation would be nullified. All the legislatures in the civilized world operate without physical quorums Unless there was a fight on the judge himself he probably was not confirmed by quorum and there fore under the interpretation he is not a judge. Such decisions haN, made our jurisprudence the laughing stock of the civilized world"
 The checker board record of tho cases directly and indirectly growing out of the oil scandals now registers as follows:
 Government defeats: Edward l. Doheny and Albert E. Fall for con. spiracy; Harry F. Sinclair for con- spiracy, Robert ". Stewart for con- tempt and for perjury. tln the Fall. Sinclair case there was at first c mistrial due 10 jury shadowing: late, Sinclair was tried alone and acuuit. ted. Fall has not been tried on the conspiracy charge alone because O. illness)
 Government victories: Agaius Harry F. Sinclair on charges Of con tempt of the Senate: and acains Sinclair and others on charges o contempt Of court arising from th, jury -shadoWing nlistriai. CThcs, cases are pending in d higher cour on appeaD.
 Announcement recently made tha bribery charges against Fall ant