Edward Douglass White

“ In doing so, to disembarrass the analysis from what may be an irrelevant and certainly a confusing consideration, we concede, for the sake of argument only, that the effect of the amendment and re-enactment of the Elkins act by § 2 of the Hepburn law was to repeal the Elkins act, and, in the light of this concession, we propose to determine whether the right to prosecute for any prior offense committed before the going into effect of the Hepburn law was lost by reason of the adoption of that law. ”

“ Again, the contention that unless the provision as to pending causes in § 10 be construed as relating to the further right to prosecute such cases it becomes meaningless, but overlooks the fact that the purpose of the provision was, by express enactment, to prevent the application of the new remedies to the causes then pending in the courts of the United States,-a result which would not necessarily have followed without the direction in question. ”

“ There is a contention in the brief of counsel for the petitioner, that the demurrer to the indictment should have been sustained and that the motion to arrest as well as the exceptions to the charge should have prevailed, because the indictment in all its counts was insufficient to state an offense under the Elkins act, even if that act had not been repealed or modified by the Hepburn law. ”