The herald and news. (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, January 19, 1906, Page THREE, Image 3
FARNUM NOT IN CONTEnT. ti
Supreme Court Dismisses Rule Issued 11
Against Him in Connection with Dis
pensary Investigation
When the supreme court con- a
vened on Monday morning savsthe h;
Columbia State, Mfr. J. S. Farnim I
was not present. Mr. T. Moultrie tl
Mordecai was in the court room as U
the representative of Mr. Farnum ti
and was called upon for a return to c
the summons of the court. Mr.
Mordecai made a very strong plea \
for his client. When Chief Justice f<
Pope asked where MIr. Farnum, ei
was. Mr. Mordecai stated that he II
could offer reasons sufficient to d
show that his client had not been c
guilty of contempt of court.
At the hearing last week. when h;
Senator Hay and Mr. Lyon pre- tl
sented Senator Christensen's affi- fe
davit. they prepared a formal or- n<
der for the court's consideration, tc
this being a not uncommon mode m
of procedure. The order as pre
pared designated that Farnum Aj
should be required . to. appear in ca
person and be examined before the w
supreme court. However, as this
might be irregular in mandamus w
proceedings, the court struck that le
requirement out of the order and ni
it was compenent for Mr. Mordecai in
to appear yesterday.
Mr. Mordecai charged that his ca
client had not felt it necessary to
comply with the demands of the
committee in regard to the letters, F
and the committee itself has ad
mitted that it had not constitutional t
rights to force defendant, for it has:
applied for additional - powers. 01
There was a lapse of 24 days be-,
tween the time the committee began
its inspection of Farnum's office and
the time the first motion was made
before the chief justice. 'Within a
that time defendant had sorted hisb
letters and had destroyed some.
Today he is willing to admit re
ceiving such a letter as that sug
gested in the affidavit of Senator
Christensen, but under the penalty
of pain and punishment defendant
makes oath that he cannot now pro-,c
duce the letter of which Senator e
Christensen says he made a copy. s
Defendant denies having subscribed st
to the Carolina Field fund. o
Defendant says: "I have nothing th~
else in my possession. I have noth- 'to
ing which was not in that trunk." T
The letter to which 'Mr. Chris- thi
tensen's affidavit applies was, in the it~
opinion of defendant, a private let
ter anyway. It was directed to l
Farnum personally as a political T
matter-and all men in and out of thi
office have a right to political inter
ests. Farnum is not, therefore, in
contempt for destroying a private
letter.
Why did the committee not re- I
tain the letter? WVhy did they not
inform Farnum when they made a
copy and returned it to the files? l
Otherwise it cannot be a part o1
the proceedings at the day of the
visit of the committee. There is s
niothing to show that it was in ex- e
istence 24 days later, when the com- I
mittee applied to thepchief justice. in
The defendant, thiough his coun
sel, claimed to come with "cleanI
hands and purged conscience." Said
Mr. Mordecai: "WVe have put in
that trunk every letter except such
as on the 14th of May Farnum had
destroyed, believing them to be im
material. WVe did not resist the
court. We might have exercised.
the right of appeal to the United
States supreme court, but we did
not do so. WVe did resist this com
mittee, for it had exceeded its con
stitutional rights. 'We could bring'
the defendant here, but he could
say no more to you than I have
said."
The court then asked if the at
torneys of the investigating com
mittee had anything to s'ay in reply.,
Mr. Lyon then briefly but pointed-f
ly directed the attention of the court:
to the fact that in turning over the: (
trunk of letters to the court he had
said nothing about destroying or
withholding any letters. The com
mittee would have made a mess of '
it indeed to have told Farnum that
it had made copies of the letters'
which Farnum has not sent with the
others in the trunk. "We purposely
Kent this copy' of the N. MI- Bockc
letter to show when opportunity
presented itself that Farnumn had
ntaterd in good faith." Mr. Lon
ien recalled the difficulties under
-hich the committee had labored.
aldwin, a fellow who was work
1g for Farnum, had interfered
ith the committee and personal
icounter with him was narrowly
,erted. He charged that Farnum
id been triflingwith thecommittee.
e had never appeared at any of
ic references held in Charleston
Ider the decree of the chief jus
:e. e has never appeared in the
Lses in the supreme court room.
Mr. Mordecai then replied to
[r. Lyon. There is no foundation
)r any charge that Farnum has
-er triHed with the supreme court.
e had refrained from any act of
sobedience of the wishes of the
)rt and had accepted the orders
tle court. This coiiiittee had
d 11 constitutional righyt to force
e attendance of Farnuim or to
rce his papers and defendant did
t care to appear in the reference
be cross-examined by the com1
ittee.
Justice Ira B. Jones then asked
r. Lyon if he had made out his
se. Mr. Lyon indicated that he
ould say nothing more. justice
>nes wanted to know if Mr. Lyon
ould try to show this particular
tter was in the custody of Far
nm the day that proceedings were
stituted before the chief justice.
Mr. Lyon then stated that to be
Andid the committee has in its
ssession other letters, or copies
ereof, secured on the visits to
arnum's dispensary and they do
)t care to disclose the nature of
ose letters until the court decides
hether or not Farnum shall be
-dered in person to be examined
- the court.
With some degree of pointedness
istice Jones inquired if the com
ittee proposes to use the court as
shuttlecock to make persons come
fore the committee
Mr. Lyon stated that the object
these proceedings is to make Far
im disgorge, not only the letters
hich he has been holding back,
it other due bills and promissory
tes which he holds. He spoke
lmly and deliberately and indicate
clearly that he disbelieved the
atements that Farnum has no
her letters than those in the trunk.
Again Justice Jones declared that
e committee seems to be trying
make a cat's paw of the court.
[he committee should have given to
e court all of the information in
;possession.
Mr. Lyon produced no further
tters and the case rested there.
hec chief justice announced that
e court would take the matter un
r adlvisement and would report
xt morning.
THE COURT S DECISION.
The State supreme court on
iesday discharged the rule against
S. Farnum and in that way the
~nding contempt proceedings were
smissed.
Tt is likely .that the dispensary
vestigating committee will play
me new card in its effort to se
ire additional papers which it is
ident the committee believes are
the possession of Dispenser Far
tin.
We haveI
mow tne be
mnd have pi~
hem. THE CI
ersible Disc
When the court met on Tuesday
Inorning Mr. Mordecai wa; in the
court representing his client anC
Messrs. I lay.Christensen, Lyon and
Fraser were present as the repre
sentatives of the dispensary investi
gation committee. Chief Justice
Pope read the following order of
the court dismissing the complaint
against Mr. Farnum:
."The State ex rel. J. T. Hay et
al. petitioners, against J. S. Far
num, respondent:
"I feretofore this court granted
an order re(uiring the respondent
to produice certain letters an( pa
ers relating to dispensary No. T2
in the citv of Charleston.
In pu rsnance of said order the
reppontent proice( certain letters
andQ papecntain that they\ we-tre
all that w1\ere in his p)osse-ssion at the
time said( order was granted.
-Afterwards anutfler ()rder was
issled by this court requiring the
respondent to show cause why he
should not be attached for contempt
of court in failing to obey its man
date.
"The respondent made return to
the effect that he did not have at the
time the original order was issued
any letter or papers in his posses
sion of the character described in
the petition except those heretofore
produced.
"The court will not issue another
order requiring the respondent to
produce said letters and papers, but
will simply consider the question
whether the respondent should be
adjudged in contempt of court.
"The return is verified, and there
is no testimony to the effect that it
is false.
"Under these circumstances it
must be accepted as true, and the
rule discharged."
As. soon as Chief justice Pope
had read this order dismissing the
proceedings State Senator Hay
arose and stated that on behalf of
the cornmittee, of which he was
chairman he wished to make a
statement. Monday Mr. Justice
Jones in referring to the work of
the committee had suggested that
the investigation committee was
undertaking to use the court as a
ca's paw in its effort to pull chest
nuts- out of the fire. He thought
that this was something of an im
putation against the committee, and
he wished to say on behalf of the
committee that no such intention
existed. Senator Hay then went on
to say as a matter of fact all the
courts are cat's paws in the effort
to secure' justice. The courts were
cats'ipaws for litigrants in every
effort to collect money and for peo
pe who sought to recover proper
ty or to secure damages. It was not
always pleasant for the court to be
used in such a wvay but that in car
rying out the purposes of the law
that they were always, more or less,
doing some such things and it wvas
more unpleasant to the investiga
Iting committee than for the court
Ito have to do what it had done, but
that the committee after due consid
eration thought that the proceed
Iing that it had taken wa's the only
way by which it could get at cer:
tain papers which it thought wvere
in the possession of Mr. Farnum.
P1L
een in the I
t. We have
ked the Cha
ATTANOOGA REVE
Plow built
As a matter of fact the committee
did not know what letters and pa
pers Mr. Farnum had and it was
more or less in the dark in its ei
fort to carry out the instructions of
the general assembly but it did
know and it did undertake to show
to the court that 1r. Farnum had
not turned over to the court all of
the letters in the dispensary and on
that account it notified the court of
the letter of Mr. Block. He wished
to emphatically state that the com
mittee had no intention in the world
ot improperly using the court or of
uindertaking to mislead it. and that
he Xisihed it further understood that
he had no i).jection to the order of
the Court ()r to anything that it had
dcone in this r an other examina
tion. and that he and the committee
wecre n)er Dfeedv satisfied with what
ever the court had done. in a pre
vious orLr f the court it had held
that the papers in dispensary No.
12 were public records and that
Mr. Farnum had no right to do
away with them. The committee
had never ben able to examine Mr.
Farnum and had never been able to
find out definitely what papers were
in the dispensary, and that was the
reason that it was suggested that
Mr. Farnum should be brought be
fore the court for investigation.
He. as chairman of the committee,
wished to say for himself and his
I associates that nothing had un
knowingly been kept back from the
court. In closing his statement to
the court, Mr. Hay emphasized the
point that the committee was not
at all disgruntled or dissatisfied,
but wished to make it plain that it
did not intend to use the court as a
cat's paw.
Mr. Associate Justice Jones said
that he had intended that whatever
statement was made was upon his
personal responsibility, and he
wished to assume a full and per
sonaf responsibility for the state
ment made Monday with reference
to the committee, and he then re
iterated that he had no personal
reflections to make against any
member of the committee. that they
were all his friends~ an~d that his
impression was that an effort was
bein..; made to hax the court exer
cisc its judicip1l arm without legal
autWerity, ard caf~t the effort was
to have the court assume to do work
and secure papers and records
which wvere not the legal obligation
of the court but which were the
purposes for which the committee
were appointed. The court was
asked to hold Mr. Farnum in con
tempt for papers that there was no
evidence were in existence at the
time that the original ordler lof the
court was issued and that had there
been such evidence the proposition
may have been different. The court
cannot become an investigating
committee, and while it is willing
to do everything that it can to car
rvotand further all the laws of
thestteit cannot undertake to do
work that is without its province.
All that he wished to say was that
the court ought to be given full evi
dence and all of the facts. Of
course he wished it understood that
he had no reason to reflect upon
or to say anything unkind to the
OV
NiPLEMENT
handled all
ttanooga aft
SIBLE DISC PLOW
r MarI
committee.
M\r. Chief Justice Pope went on
to say that it was barely possible
that some interesting papers or
something which may bear upon the
investigation may have been over
looked, and on that account Mr.
Mordecai had been asked for the
key of the trunk which he has will
ingly surrendered. The court ex
pects to make another examination
of the trunk to see if this Block let
ter or any others were in the trunk.
as they may have been overlooked
upon the first investigation. and if
anything was found it would be
turned over to the committee.
Mr. Mordecai stated that he had
no objection to the court going into
the trunk again as there was noth
ing to conceal. biut he expected to
have the privilege of seeing all pa
pers before they were turned over
to the committee and to then object
if lie thought proper.
Mr. justice Woods asked if Mr.
Mordecai still objected to the en
tire trunk being turned over to the
committee and Mr. Mordecai said
that he did.
Chicago Record Herald.
"My goodness," said Mrs. Nu
ritch, as they were passing through
the Louvre.
"What is it, ma ?" asked her
beautiful daughter.
"It seems to me most of the paint
ings in here are copies from brew
ery calendars they get up over
home."
Philadelphia Record.
Nell-Maud says she gets her
good looks from her mother.
Bell-I had no idea that her
mother was so stingy.
Not money, but the love of it, is
the root of evil. The right use of
money brings only good.
SALE PERSONAL PROPERTY
I will sell at the late residence of
~J. L.Counts, deceased, on Friday,
January 26, 1906, the following
personal property of the estate of
said deceased: Household . and
kitchen furniture, shop tools, wag
on, etc. Terms of sale cash.
Mrs. M. L. Counts,
Executrix.
(Schedule in Effect April 16, 1905.)
.No- 52. 'Daily.
Lv. Newberry. ...... ... % .I.>.m.
Ar. Laurens. ...... ...--1.50 9. ml
No. 2. Daily,
Lv. Laurens..... ........50S p. m.
Ar. Greenwood............. 2.46 p. m.
Ar. Augusta............ ...--5.20 p. m.
Ar. Anderson............ 7.10 p. m.
No. 42. Daily.
Lv. Augusta........... ........ .. .... 2.35 p. m.
Ar. Allendale.................-..-...430 p. m.
Ar. Fairfax... ... ............ .......4.41 p). m.
Ar. Charleston........................... 7.40 p. m.
r. Beaufort ......................'. 6.30 p. m7
r. Port Royal..:.. .. ......... .... .. 6.40 p. m
Ar. savannah.................... .... 6.45 p. m7
Ar. waycross ... ...... .............. I.00 p. mn.
Ar. Jacksonville.............................
No. i. Daily.
Lv. Laut ens....... ................... . 2.07 p. m
Ar. Spartanburg........................3.20 p. mn
.No. 52. No. S7.
Lv. Laurens.............20og p. mn. S.oo a.mn.
Ar. Greenville ........... 3.25 p. mn. 10.20 a. m
business lon~
standard mal
er the farmer
is the only si
;,~: i
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