Washington's First Impeachment Trial Is Losing Its Charges to a Comma

Olympia — In the days that have passed of the first impeachment trial ever held in this state, not a great deal of headway has been made. Not only is the procedure new to all the members of the senate, necessarily making discussions lengthy, but J. H. Schively, the insurance commissioner on trial, has, through his attorney, indicated what may be either a desire to proceed with care and caution, or a well-laid plan to delay action as long as possible.

Technical objections to the wording of the first article of the impeachment charges against Schively won over a majority of the senate, and a demurrer to the article was sustained by a vote of 21 to 18. With Article 1, 12 and possibly 14 other counts in the indictment are likely to fail, as the wording in the others is so similar to that of Article 1 that there is good ground for believing the senate will sustain demurrers to them also.

Many Counts May Fail.

If action goes that far, one-half of the 26 counts in the impeachment articles will fail unless it shall be ruled that the house has the right to present amended articles covering the same charges and decides to do so.

The objection to Article 1 was that it did not charge that Schively did not make an examination of each of the specified companies, or that the fees collected were in excess of his actual expenses if he did make the examination. It is practically conceded that under the rules of procedure in criminal courts an information not more definite in its statement of facts would not constitute a cause of action.

Sixty days is the maximum time limit fixed on sessions of the legislature, and the attorney-general has ruled that every day of the interim between special sessions must be counted as a legislative day. Under this ruling the legislative session will expire Saturday at 12 o'clock midnight, unless sooner adjourned sine die.

Would Get Case Into Courts.

Senate members contend that, although the legislative session must end, the senate may continue to sit as an impeachment court. It is suspected by the impeachment managers that Schively's counsel intends to attack this view, and it is suggested that if the senate continues to sit, and finally impeaches the insurance commissioner, he may try to get the case into the supreme court on the ground that the body that impeached him had no jurisdiction.

The length of the senate impeachment court is a subject for widely differing conjectures. While the impeachment managers are now predicting a closing of the case within a few days, Schively's attorney refers to the length of the trial as a matter not of days but of weeks.

In impeachment trials the verdict of the senate is supreme. There is no appeal permitted to the courts, yet it is argued that the courts would interfere to save a man's office for him if a body improperly organized, or which had lost its jurisdiction by constitutional limitation, had attempted to oust him.