The Legal Important Litigation An early decision in the case begun by the government under the Sherman law to break the Standard Oil combination is expected. It is believed by the Department of Justice that it will come shortly in the Circuit Court at St. Louis. The effect of Mr. Harriman's death on the government suit pending against the Harriman merger of the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific is uncertain. Before he died it was expected by the Union Pacific that the suits were to be pushed hard this fall. The officers of the Internal Revenue Bureau who are charged with administering the new corporation tax law have been apprised unoffi cially of the intention of the corporations to resist the law in the courts and test its con stitutionality, but the Treasury officers believe the law will stand the test, and their chief reliance is on the fact that it was drawn by able lawyers who adhered strictly to the Supreme Court decision upholding the right of Congress to tax a corporation for carrying on a business. The Department of Justice has been pre paring to bring Governor Haskell of Okla homa to trial on indictments charging him with fraud in securing titles to certain Indian town lots in Oklahoma. The trial will prob ably be called in October, and the officers of the Department of Justice were very hopeful of success until Governor Haskell's attorneys filed motions in the federal court on August 16 to quash the indictments, alleging conspiracy on the part of some of the members of the grand jury, and charging improper conduct on the part of the United States marshal. Grant Victor. Alleging that sixty-five insurance com panies, representing a combined capital of $156,000,000, doing business in Arkansas, entered into a rate combination last Decem ber, Prosecuting Attorney Jeffery filed suit at Little Rock, Ark., against these companies Aug. 19 for penalties aggregating $65,000,000 under the state anti-trust statute. Elihu C Irvin, president of the Fire Association, has said: "It is merely a scheme to harass the companies and promote the political fortunes of those bringing them. There is no ground for them, but we intend to fight so that similar action in other states may be fore stalled." The Grosscup decision in the Missouri River rate case in the United States Circuit Court at Chicago, the beginning of a suit in the Des Moines case in which the Commission lately ordered rates reduced, the Willamette
World
Valley case, which is being carried through the Supreme Court for the purpose of finding out whether the Interstate Commerce Com mission has the power to regulate rates, and various other phases of the litigation which has been started, are looked on in Commis sion circles as evidence that the railroads have determined to give the Commission battle at every legal turn. In a great many cases, the Commission's orders have been tied up with injunctions. This has hampered the Com mission greatly in the administration of the law. Consequently a square decision of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Hepburn act will tend to reduce these com plications and delays. The Commission would like to see the lower federal courts deprived of the right to enjoin the orders of the Commis sion, a step which was seriously considered when the rate law was passed. When the Supreme Court of the United States meets in October, it will have several interstate commerce law cases to be heard. The Willamette Valley case is set for Oct. 12, and those of Chicago & Alton v. Commission and Illinois Central v. Commission are set for the same date. The roads are seeking to annul the order of the Commission requiring certain cars to be counted in making coal car distributions. On that date the Supreme Court will hear the famous Chicago live stock terminal charge case of Stickney et al. v. Com mission, a bill to annul the order of the Commission requiring carriers to desist from exacting the $2 terminal charge on each car of live stock sent into Chicago from western territory. Still pending in the Circuit Court at Kansas City is. the noted St. Louis ele vator case, of great importance to the grain trade, the case of Difftnbaugh et al. v. Com mission. Important questions as to the powers of the Commission in establishing through routes and joint rates are raised in the Port land gateway case, that of Northern Pacific v. Commission. One of the first cases to come up in the October term will also be the Monon route case, in which the government is seek ing to require the C. I. & L. to desist from accepting advertising in payment for trans portation. Important Legislation The whole code of prohibition laws, includ ing the drastic Fuller bill, passed the Alabama senate with little opposition and was signed by the Governor Aug. 25. There was no vote in the Senate against the elimination of that section prohibiting newspapers and maga zines from advertising liquors. The juvenile delinquency law went into
