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THE AT L ANTI AN
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The Sixty-Second Congress will
Come to an End March 4
The closing session of the Sixty-second Congress meets on Mon
day, December 2, and it comes to an end on March 4, when the new
president will be inaugurated. Its principal business will be the pas
sage of appropriation bills. Such bills involve large questions of
public policy, quite apart from the amounts of treasury money that
they grant. Through the work of Dr. Cleveland and the Commission
on Economy and Efficiency, the departments will present their esti
mates in much better shape than heretofore. President Taft has be
come interested in the plan of putting our estimates of income and
expenditure in something like the form of an English budget as pre
sented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Twenty-
four years ago, Woodrow Wilson was strongly and clearly advocating
that idea, and there is no reason to think that his convictions have
changed. We are likely, therefore, to move steadily in the direction
of a mere scientific plan of raising the national income and a more
practical and economical way of expending it. As for the imme
diate work of Congress, apart from the appropriation bills, we may
expect to have tariff revision postponed, and also such questions as
federal incorporation and changes in the Sherman Anti-Trust law.
Whether or not the inquiries of the Clapp committee regarding cam
paign contributions will lead to changes in the law, cannot be conjec
tured. At least we have made gains in the direction of publicity;
and the methods of financing campaigns employed this year by the
Democratic Committee, those that the Progressive are working out,
and those the Socialists have for a number of years been using, will
come to have general acceptance. Parties must be supported by their
members on the grounds of a public nature, rather than by corpora
tions or individuals having private interests at stake.
Enlightenment
We have had frequent occasion to speak of the progressive
opinions of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Some law
yers question the wisdom of following the decisions of these newer
States. We would remind such that the architecture of our best West
ern cities follows, not what was characteristic of New York fifty years
ago, but what is characteristic of the metropolis today. Western ten
dencies are modern. A man charged with murder was recently con
victed in Oklahoma of manslaughter and sentenced to a term of twenty-
five years’ imprisonment. The trial court erroneously instructed the
jury on the doctrine of self-defense. The evidence showed that the
deceased was shot in the back. Oklahoma's statutes, like those of many
States, provide that on appeal the higher court must give judgment
without regard to technical errors or defects or exceptions which do not
affect the substantial rights of the parties. The Supreme Courts of
many States have deliberately ignored this statute. Oklahoma is try
ing to live up to it. New York has the same statute exactly. In this
case the Oklahoma court said:
“Upon a consideration of the entire record, we are of the opinion
that, while the trial court erred as to the law, the jury were clearly
right in the conclusion at which they arrived; and that if any mistake
was made, it was in convicting the appellant of manslaughter in the
first degree, when they should have convicted him of murder
While there is error in the record, yet we find that appellant suffered
no injury thereby.”
Speaking of Appellate Courts which reverse cases because of the
ignorance of mistaken judgment of prosecutors and trial judges, where
a flawless new trial could result only in a like verdict, the court quotes
from one of its former decisions these words:
“We decline to he hound hy or to follow a line of authorities so
repugnant to reasons, so demoralizing to respect for law, and so de
structive to justice We believe that Appellate Courts should
faithfully and feai’lessly do their duty, and decide every question pre
sented with reference to the substantial merits of the case. In this way
only can justice be administered.”
Chief Justice Henry Furman, of the Court of Criminal Appeals
of Oklahoma, who wrote this opinion in Fowler vs. State, 126 Pacific
Reporter, page 831, was at one time one of the most celebrated criminal
lawyers of northern Texas and the Indian Territory. When prac
ticing he used, in the interest of his clients, every dodge and techni
cality known to the law. As a judge he has set his face against a system
which he knows by experience is responsible in large part for the
distrust in which the administration of justice in our criminal courts
is rghtly held by the public. In early life he was a common seaman,
which may account for his common sense.—Ex
The Mayor-Eledt and the
Exposition
The hearty co-operation which Mayor-Elect James G. Wood
ward is receiving from the newspapers and big business interests
in general regarding the proposed exposition to be held within the
next two years at Lakewood, almosts tempts us to say in support
of our attitude during the recent campaign “We told you so.”
However, it is not the intention or desire in this particular in
stance to dig into politics, or revive dead and past differences.
Democracy asserted itself, and it is gratifying indeed to see
party fights swept aside, forgotten and forgiven, in the interests of
Atlanta, and a shoulder to shoulder front presented as both factions
join hands in the support of Mr. Woodward, and the furtherance of
the city’s business interests.
Mayor-Elect Woodward has made an admirable beginning, even
before be has assumed office, his attitude, which at the beginning
did not meet the support of many prominent citizens, is now being
better understood, and his broad views of civic questions, which are
characteristic of his every administration, will undoubtably in the
end bring order out of the chaotic condition of the city government
at the present time.
Referring back to the proposed exposition, the views of the
mayor-elect and his supporters meet with the hearty approval of
The Atlantian; Atlanta is a great and growing city, her increase in
population from 89,000 in 1900 to 217,000 in 1912, is ample proof
that her possibilities are greatly appreciated, and that the publicity
which will naturally result, from such a movement, and the vast
number of visitors which it will bring within our gates, to come in
actual contact with the many advantages Atlanta offers to both
home seekers and investors, can not but be of untold benefit to the
city.
We take this opportunity of offering our hearty support to this
movement, and warmly congratulate Atlanta upon her choice of a
chief executive for the next two years, which we consider the most
important in the history of the city.
What! Higher Freight Rates
In May, 1910, the railroads proposed a general horizontal advance
in freight rates. After hearings that extended through the year the
Interstate Commerce Commission very properly vetoed the advance.
In the calendar year 1909 railroad net earnings had increased nearly
a hundred and fifty million dollars. True, operating expenses increas
ed heavily during 1910, while an application for an advance in rates
was pending; but gross earnings increased by two hundred and thirty
million dollars, more than off setting increased expenses. As the
situation then stood, the commission was perfectly right in refusing
to sanction an advance in rates.
The Eastern roads, we hear, propose applying again for permis
sion to advance rates—in which case, no doubt, the Western roads
will follow. They can present a better case now than they could in
1910.
In the calendar year 1911 railroad net earnings fell off two and
a half per cent. In the first half of this calendar year a considerable