The Legal World Important Litigation The Paper Board Association, comprising one hundred and forty prominent paper manufacturers, was indicted by the federal aand jury in New York Jan. 8, charged with ing an illegal combination in restraint of trade. The indictment is but one of many ramifications of the investigation the govern ment has instituted against paper manufac turers.
As the result of a full examination of the government's case against the roads, which Attorney-General wickersham made person ally, President Taft directed the Attorney General on Jan. 28 to proceed with the suit against the Harriman merger, refusing to {151d to the argument of Judge Lovett and ' associates that the evidence taken by the government had not made out a case. That the government's investigation into the afiairs of the so-called Beef Trust is to be national was shown late in January at the examination before the federal grand 'ury of the beef packers at Chicago. Judge ene saw M. Landis of the United States District Court, in his charge to the grand jury, de clared that it was through information fur nished by him that the present proceeding was started. The record in the case of United States v. Oberlin M. Carter embraces about fifty thou sand printed pages, and is the most volumi nous record in the history of the United States Supreme Court. Carter was formerly a cap tain of engineers, and was in cha e of harbor work at Savannah when the reene and Gaynor scandal startled the country. The gprgernment has been seeking to recover from ' about $700,000 for the past nine years. After taking up three years in examining witnesses on both sides, the
tration. The former, the more important, ws out of the contention between Great ritain and the United States with regard to the uestion whether the boundary of territoria waters is formed by a line parallel to and three miles from the shore, or is estab
lished with reference to a straight line con‘ necting the headlands of bays. The latter is one of the five claims which led to the severance of diplomatic relations with Vene zuela when Castro was president. The New foundland Fisheries case will be heard before the following jud es of the Permanent Court of Arbitration: r. Heinrich Lammasch of Austria, president of the tribunal; Luis M. Dre 0 of the Argentine Republic; onkheer A.
.De Savornin Lohrnanof the Net erlands;
Judge George Gray of Delaware, and Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Chief Justice of the Su reme Court of Canada. Senator Root wi present the case for the United States. With the litigation to test the constitu tionality of the corporation tax rovision of the Payne tariff act inaugurated y the Ver mont case
in January, four suits involving
the same point were enrolled on the docket of the Supreme Court of the United States Jan. 26. Two suits were brought from the Circuit Court of the United States for the federal district of New York, the co
rations
being the Coney Island and Brook yn Rail road Compan and the Home Life Insurance Company. W0 suits were docketed from the United States Circuit Court for the northern district of Illinois. They were the cases of Fred W. Smith against the Northern Trust Company, and of William H. Miner against the Corn Exchange National Bank of C 'cago. The Supreme Court has declined to rush the cases, but there is hope that the question may be determined before the close of the period for the payment of the tax, June 30. Other actions have been brou ht m the Ta lor in lower the federal United States courts. Circuit JudgeCourt R. at
overnment's
brief in its suit to break up the a eged anthra cite coal trust was filed 1n the United States Circuit Court at Philadelphia Jan. 18 by Wil liam S. Gregg, s cial assistant to the Attor ney-General. T e suit was brought in April, 1907, and the government's case was repared b G. Carroll Todd and J. C. Mc ynolds. e overnment contends that all the defend ants ave long been parties to a general com bination and conspiracy which stilles compe tition and obstructs trade and commerce among the states, in anthracite coal and that
they have monopolized the trade. The United States has practically com leted the preparation of the Newfoundland ‘isheries and Orinoco Steamship C0. cases for submission to the Hague Court of Arbi
Toledo, 0., and Judge L. B. Colt, in the
United States Circuit Court at Boston, have upheld the act by sustaining demurrers in cases brought before them.
Important Legislation Forty-one distilleries and five big breweries in Nashville were forced to suspend opera tions Jan. 1 on account of the law passed by the last legislature prohibiting the manu facture of intoxicating liquors in Tennessee. Most of them closed with their warehouses full. It has been said that the breweries will go into the soft drink business. Uniformity in insurance laws was the key note of a big conference of the executive
