OCR Text |
Show JUDGE DEMANDS AN EXPUR GATED REPORT The San Francisco papers are pro-tesilng pro-tesilng against the action of Judg; Nan Fleet who ordered th federal grand Jury, which had Investigated the Dlggs-Camlnettl and Western FuH cases, to so modify its report as to eliminate that part which reflected on the president and attorney gen era I The Call, expressing high regard for Judge Van Fleet, says "In the federal courts the investigations investi-gations of grand Juries are limited onlv to such matters as the court may call to their attention; to such matters as may be submitted to ihrti hy the district attorney, to such mat ters as may come to their knowledgo In the course of their Investigations Into matters brought before them, or from their own observations , and to nuch matters as may come to their knowledge from the disclosures of their associates If there wore room to give them, citations of federal cases covering those points could be given In numbers sufficient to fill Mils column Attention is specifically direc'cd to the fact that a federal grand Jury Is permitted to Investigate such mat ters as may be submitted to it by the district attorney and such matters as may come to its knowledge from their own understanding "Now what happens when a grand Jury makes a report to which a court objects? Nothing serious can happen to a grand Jury which so speaks It has been held in the derisions of the courts, and It Is good law , for th? grand jury represents the public, tlic common people, directly in the matters mat-ters before it, though it Is called Into existence through the court, th" court has no power to coerce a grand Jury, and It has even been hld In U S. vs Watkins vs. Crencb. 507 that the court may not discharge a grand Jury for disobedient to In 3tructions " One of the other San Francisco dailies asks If a form of lesc majesty Is to be established, declaring Tho Judge truthfully says that It is not for him to say what the grand Jui v- shall Include In Its final repon land yet he does say He objected la the comment on the action of the at torney general and president because their action was not properly befor? it, for the reason that It was not In ; the line of their duty to Investigate Interferences with the course of Jus-Uco Jus-Uco in the court of which for the time being they re n part when such lti inference was by a cabinet officer 16 there, then, In this country a recog nlied offense of lese majesty'' Th' dictionaries define this offense a disrespect to the sovereign as, for example, in old Rome, changing one's I clothes In the presence of a chrom'j j Of tho ctmperor Have we reached I that point in the present stage of our alleged republic?" This question Is but a phase of the I Issue which the Progressive party brought Into the last campaign and has to do with tb supreme right of the people to dominate their govern ment In every branch, including th Judiciary No part of our govern men must assume to be greater than the people from whom all power Is derived de-rived Our grand juries are Intended to be a right reserved by the peopl i to pry into all branches of the pubis service and make a report as to thlr findings N'n one hould be above these Investigations, from president down Judge Van Fleet, as has been the prattle of the bench, set hlmse'f up as abov th" law itself. |