HOW A RAILROAD CORRUPTED A COURT

...Harris had undoubtedly been paid in order that neither he nor his attorney would pay too much attention to the opinion that was to be rendered in his case to lay down the low for all future cases...

...Gordon went to the State capital and saw Root, and it was agreed that Gordon should prepare the opinion to suit himself...

...Judge Gordon has been indicted on several charges, among them embezzlement and perjury, but no indictment has yet been returned in connection with the charges growing out of Judge Root's resignation...

...I suppose the one witness of all others whose testimony one would take on this subject is the Supreme Court of the United States...

...Paul...

...Gordon appeared for the railroad company...

...At this time, the judgment against the railroad had been paid to Harris and satisfied...

...Cannot go until the important case of C. N. Frazer vs...

...The principle of law announced says the bar committee in its report...

...Our courts have a power not given to other courts, of taking the laws passed by our legislatures and by judicial contruction reforming them to wholly diffrent intents and purposes...

...Not to have done so meant the same result...

...Day by day, an array of attorneys, admittedly representing Gordon, and affirmed by many reputable members of the Spokane bar to be actually in the employ of the Great Northern Railway Company, appeared in court to participate in the selection and impanelling of the grand jury...

...Enough instances are known in California, in Colorado and in other Western States to give us alarm...

...At the instigation of these attorneys, Judge William A. Huneke, to whom the grand jury is to report, several times called that body before him for the purpose of instructing them in accordance with the suggestions of these attorneys...

...This committee was handicapped by reason of its lack of authority to force the attendance of witnesses or the production of evidence...

...The opinion verbatim as prepared by Gordon was filed on June 25th, 1908, as the.opinion of the Supreme Court of Washington...

...Judge Root Resigns Under Fire TpREQUENTLY during the political campaign of last year * rumor in Washington associated the name of Judge Milo A. Root of the Supreme Court with judicial corruption on the part of the Great Northern Railway Company...

...One lawyer went so far as to make against him open charges of corruption in a series of campaign speeches...

...The prosecutor, Fred C. Pugh, has been ordered to jail in contempt proceedings for allowing his deputy to take short-hand notes of the testimony given in the grand jury room...

...Company is tried, which is set for the 16th inst...

...GORDON was formerly a judge on the Superior bench of Washington...

...Paul about the 18th to 25th...

...Root had, likewise, through his written court opinions become popularly known as a corporation judge...

...I hate to bother you, as I know your position, but if they can be jogged up a little, it would wonderfully help the situation...

...was decidedly more rable to the railroad company then that containe in the opinion of the courts" Louis W. Hill, son of James J. Hill, and President of the Great Northern Railway Company, was in the State of Washington at the time the investigating committee was in session...

...The plaintiff won in the lower court, and the railroad company had appealed to the Supreme Court...

...This letter was dated August 1st, 1908...

...The dissenting opinion of the court said that the language of the statute was so plain that it could not be mistaken...

...Sincerely yours, Gordon...

...He resigned that office in 1901 to become chief counsel of the Great Northern Railway at Spokane...

...To have done so enables us in a measure to make the law easier for the future...

...The very fountains of the law are thus poisoned...

...Among these were two decisions by a divided court, one requiring any person suing for personal injuries to submit to a physical examination at the behest of the railroad, and the other denying to any one except the wife or child of any man killed through the negligence of another the right to sue for damages for his death...

...On May 18th, Judge Root answered Gordon, telling him the opinion had not been filed, and asking for an opportunity to see Gordon...

...He was asked to surrender these notes, but refused, and charged Judge Huneke with twice destroying other notes of testimony taken before the same grand jury...

...I expect to be in St...

...Gordon went back to Spokane and prepared the opinion...

...In 1896, he was promoted # to the Supreme bench of that State, becoming the author, in his judicial capacity, of numerous decisions favorable to railroad interests...

...He appeared before it by request, and frankly agreed to do everything in his power to assist the work of investigation, a promise which he afterwards violated, putting every possible obstacle in the way of the law officers of Spokane county, and avoiding transportation over his own railroad on his way to the coast, in order, it is alleged, that he might evade legal process...

...Hill's declared purpose...

...The latter case was in direct antagonism to a law of the State which gave such right of suit to the heirs and personal representatives of deceased persons...

...J. B. Bridges, the president of the State Bar Association, appointed a committee of five lawyers of high standing, who, at their own expense, held meetings and conducted inquiries at Spokane, Seattle, and other cities in the State...

...We are really, in the last analysis a governmnent of courts.When a judicial decision is given in any one case, not only does that particular State court follow it for all time, except in those rare instances where the court reverses itself for good cause, but the legal doctrine laid down is sent broadcast as a poissible precedent to every other State of the Union...

...The committee found that it was suggestive of some financial transaction...

...I had hoped to submit it to you personally before requesting action, but it has been impossible for me to get away during the past two months...

...From associate justice, Judge Gordon succeeded to the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court...

...The charges of corruption, however, had become so general and so notorious that shortly after the election, other members of the Supreme Court, for their own protection, demanded an investigation...

...It is still in session...

...News of Scandal Suppressed THERE is one significant fact connected with the whole proceeding...

...Grand Jury Called ON the suggestion of the investigating committee of the bar association, a grand jury was called in Spokane in March last...

...I had prepared, and herewith hand you a memo, of opinion which it seems to me states the law, and will be of utmost value to us in future cases of like import...

...Five weeks before the date of this letter there was a final decision handed down by the Supreme Court of Washington in the case known as W. H. Harris against the Great Northern Railway Company...

...The decisions of the courts, not the acts of the legislature, become the established rule upon which men trade and act, and when a law passed by one legislature is adopted by another, the law carries with it the construction placed upon it by the Supreme Court of the State which first passed it, by which other courts are bound...

...j am anxious about our friends...

...This decision shut out from compensation even the widowed mother of a son so killed, and favored the employment of single men...

...The public press despatches regarding the affair, outside of Washington, have been meager and uninforming, although the entire State of Washington has been turmoiled as a result of the many sensational developments of the case...

...In making its report, the bar committee dignified by mention the current rumor that Gordon had in his possession documents or letters showing that he had bribed Root, that the Great Northern officials were accessory to the crime, and that Gordon was making use of his possession of such documents to escape prosecution for his shortage...

...I beg to assure you that although this is typewritten that it is my handiwork, and I would thank you to return it, together with enclosure, under personal cover to me...

...The railroad filed a petition for a rehearing, and Root, who had written the first opinion, prepared another and a different one...

...In February of 1908 Root had voted with the majority of four to three of the Supreme Court against the railroad and affirmed the judgment...

...Demands were made for Judge Root's impeachment by the forthcoming legislature, even before this committee was appointed, and shortly afterwards, and before the bar committee had held more than one session, Judge Root resigned...

...The court went on to say on the same subject that in all the history of England, no such doctrines had ever been promulgated...

...He sent it in a letter to W. R. Begg, the general solicitor of the Great Northern at St...

...It is important however, in a case of considerable magnitude, which is set for trial on the 9th, that we get the law on this question settled in advance...

...Am exceedingly embarrassed by promises made on assurances received...

...1908...

...but the Great Northern Board of Directors vetoed Mr...

...But it is useless and unnecessary to resurrect these scandals to illustrate the moral intended to be here conveyed...

...Further explanation I will give you in person...

...Root was re-elected by a narrow margin of votes...

...Poisoning the Fountains of Law THERE is a wider significance to all this than the mere interview between Root and Gordon at the State capital of Wash-wington out of which grew a decision written by a railroad attorney for the purpose of establishing a legal precedent...

...Already the law books are choked with mischievous tenets which have undoubtedly crept in under questionable influences...

...For a long time, however, before the summer of 1908, when he resigned his railroad attorneyship, his extravagant personal habits had been a matter of general comment among his acquaintances...

...He was alleged to have been short in his accounts with the railroad company...

...He was suave and cordial in his manner, and speedily widened his circle of friends in his new home...

...The case was brought to recover damages for the loss of some fourteen hundred dollars worth of freight in transit...

...It had a tendency to make the railroads indifferent to the protection of human life...

...These come to us from the public utterances and formal charges of public men, many of whom are known and honored throughout the land, as, for instance, former United States Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado...

...There was an imperative reason for doing so...

...Recently, James J. Hill himself appeared before the grand jury, and afterwards publicly announced his intention to assist that body in its work of investigation...

...The following is a copy of the letter in which he enclosed this opinion: ''Referring to case mentioned in printed opinion enclosed herewith, we have paid this judgment...

...Hill Evades Investigation BEGG telegraphed to Gordon that the draft of opinion was satisfactory, using the semi-cipher word suggested by Gordon, and returned the opinion to Gordon by letter on June 8th...

...On that day, Gordon, thinking the opinion sent him by Root had been filed as the opinion of the court on rehearing, wrote a letter of protest to Root concerning the unsatisfactory phrasing of the document...

...Among the letters secured by the committee was one from Judge Root to Gordon, which read as follows: "Dear Judge: Am sick, and have been for two weeks, part of the time very serious...

...If you are satisfied with this memo., kindly wire the single word 'satisfactory.' If there is any additional change you wish made, let me have it at once...

...That court announced that it refused to follow the decisions of certain Western and Southern courts in railroad damage suits, which, beginning with Iowa in 1877 and followed by others, laid down doctrines favorable to the railroads which the court said were "never known to the common law in the administration of justice between individuals...

...Root did not show this opinion to the other judges, but mailed it to Gordon at Spokane shortly prior to May 14th, 1908...

...It is not often that chance gives us even as much as we have got so far out of the situation in Washington...