United States v. Newton

• Decision Date: 26 May 1892
• Citation: 52 F. 275
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. NEWTON.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

52 F. 275

UNITED STATES v. NEWTON.

United States District Court, S.D. Iowa.

May 26, 1892

Lewis Miles, Dist. Atty., (C. C. Nourse, Special Counsel,) for plaintiff.

Chas A. Clark and Kauffman & Guernsey, for defendant.

WOOLSON District Judge, (orally charging jury.)

In the indictment presented in the case now on trial John C. Newton and Millard F. Oxford are jointly indicted, but the court has ordered a separate trial as to these defendants. In the case now under consideration, John C. Newton alone is on trial. Your verdict will establish the guilt or innocence of the defendant, Newton, leaving the guilt or innocence of Mr Oxford to be established in another trial, wherein another jury shall determine his-- that is, Oxford's-- guilt or innocence. To the indictment herein John C. Newton pleads not guilty. This plea puts in issue every point necessary to be proven in order to convict; and before the government is entitled to a verdict of guilty, every point necessary to convict must be satisfactorily proven. The defendant is presumed by the law to be innocent. The case starts with this presumption in defendant's favor; and to overthrow this presumption, and justify a verdict of guilty at your hands the guilt of defendant must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. The indictment in this case contains two counts. The court instructs you that the second count is now withdrawn from your consideration, and you will confine your deliberations to the first count of the indictment, and the verdict which you will return into court will be confined to the first count; and the evidence submitted, and instructions given you, will be applied by you to the first count of the indictment, and your finding relate only to the question of guilt or innocence of defendant under said first count. The charge in the first count of the indictment is that of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and that one of the parties to the conspiracy committed an act which is stated in the indictment, and which was so committed in furtherance, or to effect the object, of such conspiracy. Briefly stated, the conspiracy so charged may be said to be that the defendant John C. Newton, entered into a conspiracy with Millard F. Oxford, and other persons to the grand jurors unknown, to defraud the United States; and that such defrauding was to be accomplished by, and had for its object, the unlawful and fraudulent procuring from the United States of money on the unlawful and fraudulent pretense and claim that under the statutes and arrangements then existing between the United States and the Des Moines & Kansas City Railway Company (of which company said Newton was at said date the vice president and general manager) said company was carrying over the post route extending over its line of road (which said line was a post route of the United States) an average daily weight of mail matter greatly in excess of the average mail matter actually carried over said post route; that the means to be used in carrying such conspiracy into effect was to load down the mails on said post route, during a period when the government was weighing the mails carried thereon, with old and substantially valueless newspapers, which were during said weighing period to be mailed over said post route, but not mailed for any legitimate purpose, nor with any intent to use the said mails legitimately therefor, but with the unlawful and fraudulent intent thereby to create a fictitious and fraudulent average, on which the compensation to be paid by the United States to the said railway company for carrying the mail over said post route was to be based, and thus and thereby the government be induced to pay out and should pay out for carrying said mails, and said railway company should thereby receive, an amount greatly in excess of the amount which in fact and of right, under the statutes with reference to carrying said mail, would be paid by the government, if, instead of such paying therefor on the basis of said fictitious and fraudulent average of mail matter carried, the payment therefor by the United States had been based on the average weight carried over said line of the legitimate mail matter,-- that is to say, the weight of mail matter other than said newspapers so mailed by the said Newton. And the overt act performed to carry out the purpose of this alleged conspiracy is stated in the indictment to be that at the southern district of Iowa there was mailed and caused to be transported over the said post route on sundry dates on and after April 1, 1891, and during the mail-weighing period thereon, large and extraordinary quantities of old newspapers, the same not being placed in the mail for any legitimate purpose, but with the sole intent and purpose of fraudulently increasing the weight of the mail so transported over said line during said weighing period.

The general facts introduced in evidence are largely undisputed, and the controversy in this trial is largely as to whether the facts proven constitute a conspiracy, and whether defendant, Newton, was connected with such a conspiracy, to defraud the government. The evidence shows without dispute that in the winter of 1890 and the early months of 1891 the Des Moines & Kansas City Railway Company was operating a line of railway between Des Moines, Iowa, and Cainesville, Mo., and that said line of railway was a post route, and known as 'No. 143,084,' and the mails were being carried over the entire length of that line; that some time about the month of November, 1890, the superintendent of said railway company applied to the post-office authorities for a reweighing of the mails, with a view to an increase in the compensation then being paid to the company for carrying the mails; that this application was based on the ground that an increase had actually occurred in mail matter so carried, and thereby an increase in compensation was rightfully due to the company. From a subsequent letter from said superintendent to the post-office authorities who had charge of the adjustment of such compensation it appears that the reweighing was refused by the said authorities; that thereupon the said superintendent urged more largely in detail his reasons for the claim for increased compensation. The uncontradicted testimony of the superintendent is that this correspondence was submitted to defendant, Newton, and was a subject of consultation between said defendant and the superintendent. At this time, and for some time previous thereto, as well as subsequently, and up to the finding of the indictment in this case, the defendant, Newton, was the general manager of said Des Moines & Kansas City Railway Company. That about January 10, 1891, the post-office authorities,-- and I use the term 'post-office authorities' as meaning the proper officials at the post-office department at Washington,-- the post-office authorities forwarded to defendant, Newton, as general manager of the said railway company, a circular letter, and inclosed therewith a blank, which has been spoken of as the 'Railroad Distance Circular,' and which you will have before you in your deliberations in the case. On this blank the distances between stations on this line of railway were to be entered, with certain other information, for the purpose, as stated therein, of being used in adjustment of compensation to said railway company for carrying the mails. It is shown that this circular, after being filled out and signed by the superintendent of the railway company, was returned to the post-office authorities, with a letter from the president of the said railway company, and that about January 16, 1891, the post-office authorities forwarded notice to defendant, Newton, as general manager of the said railway company, that for 30 successive working days the mail service of the government would weigh the mail carried over the line of said railway, for the purpose of adjusting the compensation to be paid to the said railway company from July 1, 1891, and this notification invites the co-operation of said company in taking such weights.

At this point I may properly call your attention to the law with reference to the method in which the compensation to be paid for carrying the mails is determined. The statute provides that at dates to be fixed by the postmaster general, and not less frequently than once in every four years, there shall take place on each of the mail routes, such as that of said railway company, an actual weighing of the mails for not less than 30 successive working days, and the average weight of the mails actually carried on the route as thus ascertained during such weighing period should thereupon constitute the basis upon which was to be computed, at the prices fixed by law, the compensation to be received by the company for carrying the mails. The testimony shows without contradiction that the weighing of the mails provided for in said letter of notification was entered upon and proceeded with during such weighing period, and the results of the said weighing for each of the said weighing days were daily forwarded to the post-office authorities, and to the officials of the said railway company. One complete set of these daily reports is in evidence before you, and shows that said weighing extended over the entire line of said railway from Des Moines to Cainesville. The undisputed evidence further shows that during at least a large portion of this weighing period, there was mailed by or under the direction of the defendant, Newton, large quantities of newspaper matter, the same being addressed to post offices which caused said mail in the ordinary method of carrying some to be carried over this said line of railway, some of such mailed matter being carried over the...