The Legal
Important Litigation Justice Hough, in a decree handed down in the United States Circuit Court May 10 in New York City, ordered a permanent injunction restraining the Fibre and Manila Association, or so-called "paper trust," from combining in restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman Act. A lower court in Alabama having declared the provision of the Alabama corporation law annulling the charters of foreign corporations which carry cases from the state to the federal courts to be in violation of the Con stitution, an appeal has been taken to the United States Supreme Court, which will review this decision. Judge Ralph E. Campbell of the United States District Court for the eastern district of Oklahoma, overruled the demurrers of Gov. Charles N. Haskell and other prominent defendants May 8 in the land suits brought by the government to recover for the Creek Indians the lands alleged to have been ob tained by the fraudulent scheduling of "dum mies." In the so-called "turpentine trust" case, five men were found guilty of violating the Sherman anti-trust law May 15, at Savannah, and sentenced by Judge William B. Sheppard, chairman of the directors and the vice-president of the American Naval Stores Com pany both being sent to jail for three months, and the others being fined. The case will be carried to the United States Court of Appeals. The government is determined to pursue with vigor its policy of pushing to final deter mination all cases under the Sherman anti trust law and the interstate commerce act, together with the EUrins law. There were on the docket last month about sixty of these cases, including those against the Standard Oil Company, the Union Pacific, the American Tobacco Company, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford. Seven men have been indicted by the federal grand jury in New York for conspiracy in connection with the frauds practised by the American Sugar Refining Company upon the government. Immediately after the in dictments had been found the general counsel for the Sugar Company issued a statement saying that the company desired the men punished if guilty, and that none of them were at present in the employ of the com pany. The criminal suits will be vigorously pushed by the government.
World
Rulings on the constitutionality of the Railroad Employers' Liability Act and of the Safety Appliance Act, will now be obtained. By permission of the court the government has intervened and filed a brief in the suit of Mondon v. N. Y., N. H., & H. R. R. Co. in the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the broad assertion of federal power in the former of these acts will be sustained, and has in like manner intervened in an action to be tried in the Arkansas Supreme Court to settle questions arising under the latter act. For the first time in the history of Massa chusetts, a decree of the highest judicial tri bunal has been revoked by the Probate Court. It was held by the Supreme Judicial Court some time ago that the Probate Court has the power to revise finally probate proceedings. Recently it was discovered that an appoint ment of an administrator with the will an nexed to act with an executrix was contrary to statute law and accordingly the Supreme Court advised the bringing of a writ in the Probate Court to review their proceedings. This was done and Probate Judge Robert Grant entered a decree setting aside the appointment.
Personal — The Bench Justice Robert S. Bean of the Oregon Supreme Court has been made United States District Judge for the District of Oregon. Chief Justice Edward Church Dubois of the Rhode ^Island Supreme Court was given a dinner by the Metacomet Golf Club in Prov idence April 17 in honor of his election. Supreme Court Justice Willard P. Voorhees and Circuit Court Judge Frank T. Lloyd were the guests of honor at a dinner given April 26 at Mt. Holly, N. J., by the Burlington County Bar Association. George W. Woodruff of Philadelphia, who is to become United States District Judge for Hawaii, is noted as former football coach of the University of Pennsylvania, and as having been at one time a strong player on the Yale eleven. John S. Coke of Marshfield, Ore., is one of the youngest men on the Oregon bench, having just assumed the position of Judge of the Circuit Court of Coos County. Judge Coke gave up a comfortable income from his law practice to accept the appointment.