SENATOR CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE LANDIS
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On February 12, 1921, Senator Nathaniel B. Dial* (D-South Carolina) called for the impeachment of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis** for turning loose "a man convicted of a crime because (he) had a salary of only $90 a month from a wealthy corporation."
Dial called it "the most outrageous pronouncement he ever heard by any court." The man in question was Francis J. Carey of Ottawa, Illinois who had pled guilty to the theft of $96,500 from National City Bank of Chicago.
Judge Landis deemed it appropriate to let the man go free since he had left a note behind at the bank saying he would not have done the robbery "if he had been treated differently."
*Nathaniel Barksdale Dial (1862-1940) was born in Laurens, SC & studied law at the University of Virginia. NBD was admitted to the bar in 1883 & served as mayor of Laurens before his election to the U.S. Senate (1919-1925).
**Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866-1944) was born in Millville, Ohio & served as Federal Judge of the Illinois Federal Court (1905-1922). His name came from the fact that his father was wounded at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia in the Civil War.
In 1907, he fined the Standard Oil Company of Indiana $29 million for violation of federal laws forbidding rebates on railroad freight tariffs. KML was the first commissioner of baseball, serving 1920-1944.
SOURCE
"Threat In Senate To Impeach Landis For Freeing Felon," The New York Herald, February 13, 1921, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
