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Show MOODY PROMISES TO PROSECUTE THE PACKERS. " We had been waiting long and patiently for that announcement yt-sterday from Attorney-General Moody that the sensational pleas in bar recently filed by the packing companies in the beef trust cases would not be effective. It appeared to be a body blow to the counsel for the Government when the packers played their trump card jit Chi-' Chi-' cago some three weeks ago; the cases were postponed and there had 1 ! been nothing done since. . ' It will be remembered that when the prosecution of the beef packers' trust began to "assume some shape and appeared to be seri1 f mS,"the lawyers for the trust declared that the companies were im- ; xnune from prosecution. The law could not touch them, they dc-': dc-': dared, as Commissioner Garfield had promised any evidence they t gave at the beef trust inquiry would not be ued against them. This ' was the card which the trusts had had up their sleeve, and it looked i for a time like a winner. Commissioner Garfield had been conducting i the inquiry, and if the packers could prove that he had really made i any such agreement with them, it would be a serious obstacle in the 4 ! way of administering justice. Of course, everyone was disgusted with. Garfield for making such a puerile proposition, but that did not I remedy an evil that should be remedied. . After careful cogitation, the forces of the Government have pre-; pre-; pared an answer to these pleas in bar. Mr. Moody, stated yesterday ; that the document would be taken to Chicago immediately and that ; prosecution of the packers would be pushed. He explainedhat Mr. ; Garfield did secure certain information from the packers on the prom-1 prom-1 Ise that it would not be given to the grand jury; that none of this in-i in-i formation was put before the grand jury, and that after a conference ' n;ith counsel for the Government, Mr. Garfield ceased his practice of getting facts by silly promises. It is to be hoped that Attorney-General Moody is right in his opinion that the trust cannot escape prosecution because of this alleged al-leged agreement with Garfield. A blunder made by an official as ! Weak as Garfield has proved himself should not stop tne wheels of justice. If the beef trust has violated the law it should be punished; If it has not, let it be given the opportunity of proving its innocence. |