People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1894 — WILL TEST THE LAW. [ARTICLE]

WILL TEST THE LAW.

Sentence of Debs and TTlw Fellows Is Postponed. To Be Pronounced January 8, When the Supreme Court Will Be Appealed To—Proceed inti in Court at Chicago. Chicago, Dec. 25.—Eugene V. Debs and his associates in the directory of the American Railway union will not spend Christmas in jail. The date for the beginning of the sentence imposed by Judge Woods for contempt of court was postponed Monday until January : 8. When the sentence does begin it may mean a year instead of six months for Debs and six instead of three months for the other labor men in the county jail. Sentences in the case of the United States and that of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railcoad were separated and made cumulative instead of concurrent and appeals will be taken to the United States supreme court in both causes. A writ of habeas corpus also will be applied for in the United States case as soon as the labor leaders are in jail, before which time a writ would not lie. When Judge Woods took his seat on the bench Monday morning Mr. Gregory, representing the defendants, addressed the court for a few moments. He said that his clients desired to test the constitutionality of the Sherman act; they knew that this could not be done so long as the sentence imposed in the Santa Fe case was concurrent with the sentence in the government case. He asked the court to so modify the sentence 'that it become cumulative, giving precedence to , the government sentence, and to stay execution until the defendants could take the issue before the supreme court. The counsel for the government asked a few questions of the opposing counsel touching the issue and, after a brief consultation, Mr. Walker said that it was evidently the desire of the defendants to test an issue which had never been passed upon by the supreme judiciary, and he and his associates could not see any reason to object to the granting of the reasonable request of the counsel of the defendants. The defense was willing to take the chances of having the accused spending twice the original sentence in jail for the sake of having both cases decided by the court of last resort. On that point the court issued an order in compliance with the request The order that the two sentences be made cumulative was asked in order that both cases might be tested before the supreme court. While the two were bound together and a concurrent sentence represented both this was impossible, the attorneys said, for the reason that if the supreme court affirmed the decision of the lower court in one case it would not decide the other case at all, as there would be no change in the sentence even though the second should be affirmed. Therefore two separate punishments were desired. The imprisonment in the government case is to come first and at its expiration the Santa Fe sentence will begin at once. One of Mr. Debs’ attorneys said that on January 8 the defense would either ask for a habeas corpus writ or allow the decree of sentence to be entered and appeal at once to the supreme court. On the other hand he said the defense might take both of these steps at the same time. The defense doesn’t expect success in the habeas corpus plea, so the case will eventually come before the United States supreme Court.