250 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



tlic evidence submitted. The court, after holding the papers for two 

 months, refused to grant our request, and the verdict of the grand 

 jury was confirmed. AVe then had another petition made out to the 

 court, asL:ing that so much of the decision, as put the costs upon our 

 agent, be reversed. Tliis was refused. That was only a few days 

 ago. The court immediately gave us notice, that our agent was to 

 appear yesterday, in Pittsburg, for sentence. Our agent appeared; 

 the judge was out of the city and the matter was deferred for ten 

 days. At the end of this time, our agent must appear before the 

 court in Pittsburg to receive his sentence. It is the purpose of the 

 Department, when the sentence is pronounced, to appeal the case to 

 the Superior Court, and if necessary to the Supreme Court. It is 

 time to determine, whether a. State agent, acting in the line of duty 

 under the authority' granted by the laws of the Commonwealth, is 

 responsible for costs, in suits that have been ignored by a grand 

 jury. We have gone as far as the best legal advice warrants. 



We have also brought, in Pittsburg, 230 civil suits, and every one 

 of these has been appealed, and they will have to come before the 

 court whenever the district attorney is ready to list them. They are 

 pending and we cannot urge the court, except to ask the district at- 

 torney to hasten the hearings. That is the situation in Pittsburg 

 where public sentiment, as indicated by the action of the grand jury, 

 is in favor of the sale of oleomargarine. 



We have not the same difficulty in other parts of the State. Under 

 the new law we have won every suit but one, and that was lost 

 through an informality; that is, the dealer declared that his clerk 

 Avho sold the goods to our agent was not authorized to sell butter 

 or anything else except meat and so the matter went against us. 



Q. What is the district attorney to do with a civil suit? 



A. The civil suits are listed by the prothonotary for trial. 



Q. When can this injunction clause be tried? 



A. The injunction clause cannot be enforced until we have had a 

 second case. A second case means that there must first be a con- 

 viction. Moreover, we do not wish to make a test of this clause 

 in Pittsburg where the circumstances are not favorable perhaps to its 

 consideration. We would prefer to have the trial where the judges 

 and jury would be more likely to look at the facts as unprejudicial 

 persons see them. We have, therefore, been waiting for an oppor- 

 tunity to bring a trial out in the country. In every instance, in 

 which the people in the country have been prosecuted, they have quit 

 business. 



We have over 200 cases in the city of Pittsburg, that we are simply 

 holding, until we see what we can do with the ones in court. It is 

 useless for us to bring up new" cases, if we cannot dispose of those 



