OCR Text |
Show , JUDGE ARCHBALD 5 IS FOUNDGUILTY Senate, Sitting as a Court of Impeachment, Finds That Commerce Court Judge Misused His Office and Power for Personal Gain. PENALTY IslSwTfM OFFICE II Sixty-Eight Senators Vote For Conviction on First fJ Count Judge and Family Await Verdict in Ante-room Justice White Will Assign Successor. Washington, Jan. 13. "Guilty" on - five of the 13 impeachn.fMir articles 1 against him was the verdict of the TV senate today in the rase of Judge ' Robert W rohbalri of the commerce j.1 court charged with misuse of his j. power a? a judge to his personal cain The judge was convicted on th first, rhird, fourth, fifth and thirteenth charges and acquit led on the second, ' sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, ' eleventh and twelfth. This removes him from office gjf Smoot and Sutherland of Utah were j, among the senators who voted tor JJL' conviction The senate In executive ression de-elded de-elded to Impose on U d-zc Archbald the full penaty of remoal from of-n? of-n? fice and disbarment from eei again holding a posiion of honor or profit for the United States. of t Washington. Ian IS. Judge Robert . "W Archbald of the commerce court ... was found guilt today by the senate ' sitting as a court of impeachment of . having misused hip office .'nd power J as a judge for his personal gain. The . pp.naltv Is removal from oil." r Archbald was convicted on the first count of thirteen which the house J brought against him. It charged thai he had used his position as a judge to , parsnade the Erie Railroad company 4 to give to him and E J illiams 0 J Scranton an option on a coal dump I'.l 1 a price probably $3i1,ono less than Its "a real value On this, the first charge, the sen- I ate voted fi8 to o for conviction of P. "high crimen and misdemeanors " 1 gjj, though the verdict Insured Judge jg! Archibald's removal from the bench and the service nf the United States courts, the senate then proceeded to j. I vote on the other twelve counts of the 1 articles of Impeachment, which chart; j ed various other acts v here Archbald w had Improperly used his influence as Judge Admitted Nearly All Facts. At his trial the accused judge ad 0, f mined practically all the facts f ev- ery accusation brought against him. but protested In defense that none ot j ihem was wrongful nor corrupt, nor could he have been convicted in any ( Jflf1 court of law for them Mil The conviction on the first count ill came with an unexpected majority erst against Judge Archbald. but two-po two-po thirds being necessary for a conviction. convic-tion. As the rollcall proceeded 0S senators rose slowly in their pla 0 and pronounced the word "guilty" it. hd low tones M As the vote on the first article was ist announced, Senator Hoke Smith of t,t Georgia moved that the senate go Into I executive session He said that ne I believed a vote on the other counts might be dispensed with or abridged rtfl bv secret deliberation Senator Culberson and Senator jjfrt Polnoexter objected that the senate 9 could not vote on the articles In executive ex-ecutive session After some dlsCUS- Ision, Senator Smith withdrew his motion mo-tion and the clerk proceed.-1 lo re? the second article Senator Bacon, who had presided throughout the impeachment proceedings, proceed-ings, asked tj he excused from all votes unless his vote was necessary to a decision. On the soeond count Senator Smith of Georgia also asked to be excused from voting Archbald Walts to Hear Verdict. Judge Archbald waited In an ante room to hear the verdict which re-mo re-mo es him from public life All eyes at the moment, the verdict was announced an-nounced were riveted upon a woman In the senate gallery so closely re sembling Mrs. Archbald that she was mistaken lor the judge's wife Mrs Archbald was not present With Judge Archbald, as he received receiv-ed the vote of the senate wor Mrs Archbald, his son. Hugh Archbald nryl Mrs Hugh Archbald The Judge's wife sat in the gallery early in the day. but withdrew before the dooi were dosed Hugh Archbald checked off the senators as they voted Senator Crawford suggested that the senate take a 25 minute recess for lunch after the vote on the fifth Charge, but the amendment was voted dow n Senate's Vote Final. The senate's conviction of fudge Archbald removes him from the i,d era I bench without further procedure Congress has appropriated for the commerce court only until Man b . and. if a successor to the deposed I jurist Is to be appointed, Chief Jus tie White will assign one of the cir 'ult Judges to the commerce court, and President Taff will nominate n successor lo that circuit judge Washington. Jan. 1 3 The senate was prepared for final action today j upon the charges against Judge Rob- ; ert W. Archbald of the rommerce court, when It reconvened as a court of impeachment. By a special order made Saturday 1 the voting was to begin shortly altei 1 p m Conviction requires a two-thirds' vote n -on any one of the 13 counts! agalnat Archbald The penalty of conviction, unless modified by subsequent subse-quent action by the senate a imme- Ldiati removal from office and a pro-j : 1. Motion asalust ever holding another position of public houor or trust The impeachment proceedings against .1 age ArCDOald were started early in 1912. The house of representatives called call-ed upon President Taft Tor a copy 01 the charges against the commerce court judge in May of 1912; it began , an investigation through the judiciary committee, which ended in the recommendations rec-ommendations that Judg krchbald be impeached. The house votej 10 impeach Judge Archbald Jul) 7 and the impeachment was laid before the senate Inly 17, The trial did not begin, however, until un-til December 2. Thirteen Charges. Briefly stated, the lu charges brought against Judge Archbald were "l That he Influenced officers oil the Erie railroad then a litigant In his court, to grant him a favorable option op-tion on Us share of the Katydid culm dump near Scranion. Pa. Judge Archbald Arch-bald acknowledged Lis part In the negotiations, ne-gotiations, but denied he Wlllfull) or unlawfully or corruptly or otherwise took any advantace of his official po-1 sition' to influence the railroad offi-j cials. 2 That he attempted to effect a' settlement between the Marion Coal company of Scranton and the Delaware, Dela-ware, Lackawanna & Western rail- J road, of a case then pending before; the interstate commerce commission, on a basis that would have given him a share of the fee earned by ; George M Watson, attorney for the 1 Marion Coal company fudge Archbald Arch-bald declared he acted In the case! only as a friend of the interested par-ties, par-ties, and did not expect anj compensation compen-sation for his work. That hi attempted to influ- ence the Lehigh Valley Railroad company com-pany to relinquish a lease on 'pat h er No. 3,' near ShenaH&doah, Pa. so thai he might lease it on favorable terms Irom the Girard estate of Philadelphia Phil-adelphia Judge Archbald claimed his negotiations for this propertx Involved Involv-ed the ex r lse of no Influence upon the Lehigh officials, but grow a I Dl an attempt to operate an adjoining j coal propertj "4 That Judge rr hbald secured from Attorney Helm Bruce of the Louisville & Nashville railroad private pri-vate letters and arguments to sustain sus-tain an opinion In favor of the railroad rail-road in a suit before the commerce court. The Jurist answered his cor- lespondeuce with Mr. Bruce was only 10 ilear up a disputed bit of tesll-tnons tesll-tnons and was not material to the decision "6. That Judge Archbald influenced influ-enced officials of the Philadelphia & Heading Coal and Iron company, owned own-ed b ihe Reading railroad, to grant a lease on a coal property to Frederick Frede-rick Warnke, for which service Warn ke gave him a note for $500 Judge Archbald denied that he wrongfull used his influenc 1 with the Readlnu company and asserted that the note Ivcn by Warnke was payment for certain other coal properties in which fudge Archbald had an Interest "6 That he tried to influence officials of-ficials of the Lehigh Valley railroad to buy an interest In S00 acres of coal land belonging to the Everhard heir? ' fudge Archbald denied this. '7 That he settli d an insurance suit in favor of . W Rbbinger of Scranton and a-epted certain gold mining stot k horn Rlsslnger Judge Archbald declared the stock was not a reward for his decision, but collateral collate-ral given him to protect him on a note he had signed with Rlsslngi t '8. That Archbald attempted to have a 1600 not discounted by C. G. Boland and W P Roland, litigants in his court. Judge Archhahl denied his position as judge had any connection uith the discounting of the note. "9 'I hat the same note was pre Mite( in c B Vanstorch. an attorney attor-ney practicing before his court at the time, for discount, Judge An hbald denied that bis position as .1 judge had anything to do with the discounting discount-ing of a note "10. That Judge Archbald accepted accept-ed a trip to Europe at Ihe expense of Hentj W Cannon of Nw York, a director of several railroads The defense de-fense was that Mr Cannon was Mr. Archbald's cousin and that the trip was an ordinary family courtesy. 11 That Judge An hbald accepted, accept-ed, at the outset to this trip, a purse of $"00 raised by Scranton attorneys practicing in his court, lie answered that he knew nothing of the collecting collect-ing of this purse until after it had been presented lo him "12. That Judge rchbald appointed appoint-ed as Jury commissioner in the middle mid-dle district of Pennsylvania J B W oodward, a railroad attorney His answer was that Woodward was se-j lected for his fitness for the position posi-tion and that the method of Jury selec lien was such that no undue influ I ence could be exerted by a commls- I sioner. "1?. That Judge An hbald had j sought to obtain credit from and through persons interested In suits In his court, that he had carried 011' a general business in culm dumps for 'speculation and profit' while a judge and had unlawfully influenced railroad rail-road officials All these general charges char-ges were denied. |