Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, February 10, 1900.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES.
Roosevelt Will Appoint Veterans Only to Manage Soldiers' Home.
ALBANY, Feb. 10.—Governor Roosevelt feels that the trustees of the Soldiers' and Sailors' home at Bath have obeyed the letter and not the spirit of his request relative to Colonel Shepard, the commandant of the institution.
Governor Roosevelt requested that there should be no removal of Colonel Shepard until the conclusion of the investigation, which is now being conducted by the committee of which Mr. Filben of New York city is the chairman. While the trustees did not remove Colonel Shepard from office they suspended him.
Governor Roosevelt has written to Chairman Filben that it is both his desire and that of Attorney General Davies that the investigation must be concluded and the report of the same submitted by March 1. It is the governor's intention to submit to the legislature about that date nominees to constitute a new board of trustees for the institution, and all of whom shall be veterans. He will not delay the sending in of the nominations on that date however, if the report shall not have been submitted. It is the preference of the governor that the investigation shall be over when he takes that action, but the non-receipt of the report will not prevent him nominating a new board of trustees. He desires to name the new trustees at that time because he wishes them to be confirmed by the senate before its final adjournment.
The governor will select a new board to be composed entirely of veterans, and will make an effort to secure men representative of the entire state.
It is believed that the new board to be selected by the governor will appoint Colonel Andrew Davidson of Cooperstown, the present deputy state treasurer, as commandant of the institution, to succeed Colonel Shepard.
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| William S. Taylor. |
SITUATION IN KENTUCKY.
Governor Taylor Will Sign Peace Agreement Within 24 Hours.
FRANKFORT, Ky., Feb. 10.—Late last night the political situation was somewhat changed. Adjutant General Collier was again called into Governor Taylor's office about 8 o'clock and was in consultation with him until a late hour last night, but would say nothing as to what transpired. From other and authoritative sources however, it was learned that a decision had finally been reached and that the peace agreement probably would receive the signature of Governor Taylor inside of 24 hours.
Two Democratic members of the legislature, Witherford and Egbert, put in an appearance yesterday afternoon, the first that have been seen in Frankfort since the word was given nearly a week ago for all of them to keep where they could not be readily reached in case it was determined by the Republicans to arrest them and take them to London, Kentucky.
Notice of the injunction to be argued before Judge Taft in Cincinnati Monday has been served on Democratic Treasurer Eager and Superintendent of Public Instruction McChesney. They are the only Democratic state officials now in Frankfort.
TAYLOR WILL NOT SIGN
But Will Let the Law Take Its Course—Troops Ordered Away.
FRANKFORT, Feb. 10.—Gov. Taylor has decided to allow the legislature to assemble and the law to take its course, although refusing to sign the Louisville agreement. The troops will be ordered away at once and all will be out of the city by to-morrow.
The Philippine Commission.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.—Ex-Gov. Roger Wolcott of Massachusetts has wired the president his inability to accept a position on the new Philippine commission. The three commissioners already selected are Ex-Judge Taft, Prof. Worcester and Charles Denby.
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| William Howard Taft. |
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
Civil Government for the Philippines.
Judge William Howard Taft, whom the president has appointed as chief of the commission which is to institute civil government in the Philippines, is a son of President Grant's attorney general, Alphonso Taft. He is a graduate of Yale, 42 years old, was solicitor general of the United States under President Harrison, and has been a circuit judge of the United States court the past eight years. He is commended generally as a man of "high character, excellent ability and judicial mind." He possesses another, and essential, qualification for the trying work to which he goes in a tropical climate—the robust health so necessary to application and the bearing of responsibilities.
The appointment does not need confirmation by the senate, nor will those of associate commissioners when made. The commission is named by the authority vested in the president pending provision by congress for governing the Philippines. Its mission will be of them highest importance. The insurrection in the islands is practically quelled. The substitution of civil government for military is to follow. The Taft Commission will have this work to direct. It will relieve General Otis of all but military duties. It will extend the civil court system and the schools, take charge of customs and set the wheels of civil government in motion throughout the islands.
It is of the greatest importance that our government start right in the great work it is committed to in the Philippines. The natives have a past of deception, misgovernment and oppression by which to gauge promise and performance of the Americans. They have been educated to distrust, and it will require wisdom in framing, and patience and justice in administering, laws to win confidence and co-operation in the beneficent scheme of government and progress that is proposed.
Senator Beveridge, in his masterful speech on the Philippine question, drew the portraits of the men who must be selected to found and carry on successfully civil government in the archipelago. They must be able, just, firm, above all incorruptible. Judge Taft fills the requirements. Other alike fit will be associated with him. They will have the confidence of the people of the United States from the start, and can not fall to win that of the islands.
In selecting Judge Taft for chairman of the commission, and to be the first civil governor of the Philippines as an American dependency, President McKinley gives an earnest of the high purpose the United States has in view for its eastern possessions.
PRINCIPAL'S RECEPTION.
Most Enjoyable Social Gathering at the Normal Parlors Last Night.
The last event connected with the winter commencement at the Normal this year was the principal's reception given at the Normal parlors last evening to the graduating class, the next graduating class, the faculty and the local board. The graduating classes have become so large that it has been found needful to abandon the former custom of extending the invitation to others than the ones named above. The class of this winter includes forty-seven young men and women and the class of next June will number over eighty—a very great number to be graduated from one school in a single year.
The affair last night was a most enjoyable one in every respect. Dr. Cheney was assisted in receiving by Miss Hendrick, Miss Bishop and Miss Wright of the faculty, and the following young men and women assisted as ushers, and in the diningroom [sic]: Messrs. Ward C. Moon, Charles F. McEvoy, R. B. Hall, Jesse Jennison, C. B. Dowd and Frank Place and Misses Dougherty, Per Lee, Corwin, McFarlane, Northrup, Hinman, Humphries and Fuller.
During the evening Miss Julia Allen, the soprano of St. Francis Xavier's church, Brooklyn, sang several solos in remarkably fine style, greatly to the delight of her hearers, who encored her again and again, and were much pleased at the graciousness and willingness with which she responded. Her voice is of remarkable power and clearness and she thrilled every one with the fine rendering of "Jerusalem."
Instrumental music was also furnished during the evening by Miss Mabel Adams, Messrs. F. R. Miller and F. I. Graham.
Refreshments were served in the kindergarten room, being furnished by Filzinger, and they were very fine indeed.
DEAD BY THE TRACK.
Body of Unknown Man Found Near McLean This Morning.
The lifeless body of an unknown man was discovered by Harvey Fuller of McLean beside the Lehigh Valley track one mile south of McLean at 6 o'clock this morning. A letter found on his person was addressed to Eugene Morgan, Danby, N. Y., and this the only clue to his identity. He is supposed to have been killed last night by the north bound freight train that passes McLean at 9 P. M. The engineer, Charles Page, had no knowledge of striking any one though. The man was about 25 years old.
Coroner Brown of Ithaca was summoned and took charge of the remains and was to try to ascertain positively the identity of the man.
Y. W. C. T. U. Meeting.
The Y. W. C. T. U. have charge of the meeting of the Prohibition club, Monday, Feb. 12, at 7:30. A cordial invitation is extended to the pastors, W. C. T. U., members of the anti-saloon league, and all those interested in the abolition of the liquor traffic. BY ORDER OF SECRETARY.
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| Rev. Oscar A. Houghton. |
DR. HOUGHTON VS. DR. HUNT.
Dr. Houghton Reviews Dr. Hunt's Statements and Judge Fursman's Charge.
To the Editor of the Standard:
SIR—I did not think at first that I would make any further reply to Dr. Hunt, but I have concluded that the whole truth is not even yet fully before the public concerning this matter. The reason for my delay will appear as I proceed. There is no use of wasting words in reply to those portions of Dr. Hunt's letter that are for the evident purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the public as to the real issue. The public knows very well what the opinion "deep in my own mind and conscience" is. It would be a burning shame to me were the public ignorant of it after three and a half years of ministry in this place. The fact is that Dr. Hunt is the owner of one of our Raines' law hotels located near the center of our village. So says the "gentleman" who runs it, and so says the register of deeds at the county clerk's office. I am told also that Dr. Hunt runs a drug store in Preble and sells liquor under a druggist's license. I have not personally verified this last statement and cannot vouch for it, but concerning the first there can be no question. This is sufficient to account for Dr. Hunt's opinions and his defense of the liquor sellers. I think it would please a large number of our citizens if Dr. Hunt would move his hotel to Preble. We have enough of that kind without it. Dr. Hunt would like to have me get a prescription for whiskey of my physician and present it to some of our liquor sellers that I may test their urbanity. But I have to say that no physician who is antiquated enough to prescribe intoxicating liquor of any kind for his patients will ever get a chance at me or any of my family. The physicians of Cortland as a class are scientific and up-to-date men, and too wise and humane to resort to a kind of treatment now generally repudiated by the profession. I have known men started on a course of drinking by a physician's prescription that ended in confirmed drunkenness. I have known women who became drunkards and opium fiends in the same way. I have known reformed men plunged back into the slough of inebriety because of prescriptions containing a large percentage of whisky.
Dr. Hunt would have us believe that the liquor sellers of Cortland county are all "gentlemen" with whom he is proud to be classed. I have no doubt that there are men selling liquor of polished manners and fine appearance. If Dr. Hunt will take the trouble to consult the Century dictionary he will find that a gentleman as therein defined is "a man distinguished for fine sense of honor, strict regard for his obligations, and consideration for the rights and feelings of others." These last words, which are italicized by myself, convey what educated people have always regarded as the ideal of a true gentleman, viz., "Consideration for the rights and feelings of others."
One evening not long ago a woman with two small children appeared on the streets of Cortland looking for her husband, who left home that morning with his week's wages in his pocket. She found him in an intoxicated condition and prevailed upon him to go home with her. They stopped in front of a bakery and the woman told her husband that there was nothing in the house to eat and asked if they could not go in and buy a loaf of bread. But the poor man was obliged to tell his wife that he had not a cent in his pocket. A Christian gentlemen who happened to be passing and heard the conversation slipped into the woman's hand some money to buy bread that she and her children might not be obliged to go hungry to bed. Are the men, whoever they are, in Cortland who took that man's money and gave him whiskey for it, and thereby took the bread from the mouths of his wife and babes, "gentlemen?" Would they not have done the man and his family less injury had they stolen the money from his pocket and sent him home sober? Please, Dr. Hunt, answer this question candidly, if you answer at all, and without circumvention or quibbling. Can clergymen be blamed for fighting the liquor traffic when they are compelled in their pastoral work to see so much of the misery, suffering and shame that comes upon innocent women and children because of it? Can they be blamed for feeling as they do when they see this demon of drink wrecking otherwise happy homes and taking young men, and young girls too, from the very altars of God and casting them down to the hell of drunkenness and social vice? There would be little call for the charity funds of the church if the drink curse were lifted from society.
But, alas! How Dr. Hunt goes back on his "gentlemen" friends! With his very next breath he repudiates them as unworthy of his sympathies. Hear him, "But for the men who have come into court and confessed that they have violated the liquor tax law and have been dealt with according to the provisions of that law, I have no sympathies. I have said and still say that they deserved the punishment they received. But because a few confessed, it is no reason why every person accused should be punished likewise." Has Dr. Hunt forgotten that every liquor seller in Cortland excepting one or two either pleaded guilty or were convicted? And has he forgotten that since May 1 all the liquor sold in Cortland except by druggists on prescription has been sold in violation of law, a thing which he so justly abhors? One would not think that a professional man like Dr. Hunt would be so inconsistent and self-contradictory.
Now a word as to that charge by Judge Fursman. My delay in answering Dr. Hunt's letter is due to the fact that I have taken time to investigate the matter, and I have found that this charge is the first and only deliverance of its kind known to the department at Albany that has come from any court of record in this state under the present law. I think the public will be pardoned for concluding that no lawyer could have been astute enough to supply Dr. Hunt with this strange charge had he not been put on the track of it by the State Liquor league or some kindred organization.
That the judge in this case was inexcusably prejudiced against the state witnesses is evident to all careful readers of this remarkable legal deliverance. Let me recite two points. The agent Collar had sworn in the prosecution that he bought of the defendant a glass of ale. That a few minutes after his associate Moore came into the bar room, and he, Collar, bought a glass of whiskey. And we learned in the testimony of the state agent in our own court room how they drink. They simply taste of it sufficiently to know what it is and dispose of the most of the glass of liquor, whatever it is, in some other way. Upon these facts the learned judge comments as follows: "After he had found the violation of this law by drinking the glass of ale it is a little difficult to see why he should want a glass of whisky to drink on top of the ale unless it be that in the pursuit of his business he had an insatiable thirst upon him for strong drink."
I submit that the judge while speaking these words knew well enough that the second drink of another kind of liquor would be serviceable to the agent as confirmatory evidence and as proof of a second offense that might be used in prosecution if needed, and that it did not justify him at all in the unwarrantable assumption that Collar "was the victim of an insatiable appetite."
The judge further says of these state agents: "These men are hired by the year at a salary of $1,200 to go about and see if they cannot catch somebody violating this law. Of course it is to be presumed that they are a little anxious to earn their salaries in order to keep their places."
I submit that the judge knew very well when he was making this charge that the salaries of these men in no way depend upon the convictions they secure. The judge then goes on to cast the mantle of honesty and respectability about the liquor selling defendant, while with the same breath be covers the state agents with opprobrium. To say the least, this judge was so violently prejudiced in favor of liquor sellers as to render him incapable of just judgment.
But I desire, in closing, to call Dr. Hunt's attention to the utterance of another judge. It may be found in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. If this judge, to whom Dr. Hunt in a former letter pays such reverent deference, in this solemn and awful day of the great assize of the universe, will say to those who have simply neglected to feed the hungry and clothe the naked "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." What will he say to those who have massed riches or supported themselves here on earth by taking bread from the mouths of helpless women and children, and clothing from their backs, in exchange for the whisky supplied to the husband and father? That judge elsewhere pronounces the same doom upon drunkards and those who give their neighbors strong drink, or put an occasion of stumbling in their brother's way. He also says "Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." This is serious business. God has declared that violators of law shall not go unpunished. They will not escape his judgment bar, and the assembled hosts at his right hand will respond "Amen" to the judgment. There will be no disagreement of that jury.
Would that Dr. Hunt and all men of his intelligence, instead of defending violators of law, would rise up with all good citizens of every faith and political creed and come to the polls with a united voice, and that voice the voice of eternal doom to that traffic whose only fruit is sin and lust and poverty and shame and ruin of soul and body.
REV. DR. O. A. HOUGHTON.
LETTER FROM GEORGE ROBSON.
Expects to be Ordered Home from Philippines in April.
Mrs. William Robson of Groton-ave. has received the follow letter from her son George who is in the army in the Philippines:
AGRONA, P. I., Dec. 26, 1899.
DEAR MOTHER—I thought I would write now for I am now settled down again. I don't get all the mail that you send me. I have had only two letters and six papers in two months. They must be mislaid. I expect some mail to-night for two transports are in. I haven't been on duty for two days, as I have a sore foot and I guess it will be a week more before I do anything. I don't like to hang around the quarters, as I am not used to it. Nearly all of the old men have got back for duty now. My company is here. The rest of the regiment are stationed all along the railroad. We have very fine quarters here. They are owned by an Englishman who owns a large rice mill here. We have to do guard duty about every third night. This is the nicest place on the railroad and I hope we shall stay here until we get orders to start for home which will be about April.
Some of the regular regiment have already got orders to start for home. I suppose you will have the next about General Lawton being killed long before you get this letter. In him we lost one of the best generals we have over here. I have been under him several times and I never saw a braver man than he, for he was in the thickest of all the fights. All of the men feel very sorry, for we have lost a fine commander. I will send you a paper with the account of his death in it.
We may have to go on the south line now for Gen. Wheeler who commands our brigade offered his services. Well I had a fine dinner Thanksgiving and expect another one Christmas. A chum and myself bought a lot of chickens and cooked them for dinner. On Christmas eve the captain gave the natives permission to go through the outposts for they had services at the church and to show good faith the band came down and played for us. We have moved from Gerora to Murica, but I am glad we are on the railroad yet. From GEORGE.
BASEBALL MEN MEET.
Committees Report and a Board of Directors Elected.
The Cortland Baseball association met last night in Fireman's hall and listened to the reports of the committees in charge of the baseball fair which is now attracting much interest. The work is progressing rapidly and everything will be in readiness by a week from to-night to open the fair at Taylor hull.
The contest committee reported that several contestants have been secured for that part of the work. It is probable that a bicycle and a ring will be the attractions. A twenty dollar hat will also lie given to the most popular teacher in Cortland. The prizes will be secured at once and displayed in some show window about town. The contest committee was given full power to purchase prizes and place the same on exhibition. The $50 cash prize will be placed in Nourse's Jewelry store windows to-day.
The advertising committee showed that it had been bard at work getting out bills. These will be posted to-day in Cortland, and will also be sent to all the towns around here. Small bills will be put out just before the fair.
The decorations for the fair were fully discussed. A large circular, movable booth will be placed in the center, two electric arc lights will be secured for the hall lighting. The decorations will be begun next Monday night.
Messrs. Joseph M. Smith, A. E. Shattuck and Morris Ducey, as nominating committee, suggested the following gentlemen as directors for the coming year: Daniel Riley, M. T. Roche, Thomas Kane, Joseph M. Smith, Thomas Murray, Bert H. Bosworth, Edward Ringer, Daniel Lucy, A. E. Shattuck, J. F. Burns, W. F. Maher, M. Williamson, Thomas Allen, W. A. Wallace, L. N. Fredericks, Frank Cox and Charles Sanders.
On motion, these gentlemen were elected. The board will meet next Monday evening at 8 o'clock in Taylor hall and elect officers for the season.
BREVITIES.
—Hon. J. P. Doliver of Iowa has introduced a bill in congress to repeal the national bankruptcy law.
—The case of Cleveland vs. Winters, on trial in justice court yesterday, resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed.
—A dry goods store in Newark, Wayne county, was Thursday night robbed of about $1,000 worth of silks and satins. There is no clue to the burglars.
—A regular meeting of the Cortland Science club will be held this evening at 8 o'clock at the Hatch library. Subject, "Comparative Dental Anatomy." The speaker will be Dr. G. H. Smith.
—The Ithaca Journal says a couple of Mormans are at work in that city making a house to house canvass doing personal work and distributing tracts. Cortland may possibly get a call from them next.
—The members of the National Protective Legion will hold a special meeting in the Lincoln lodge rooms, Tuesday evening, to initiate new members. Much interest is being taken of late in the benefits received from this organization.
—Assemblyman Sands has introduced a bill in the assembly to amend the charter of Cortland village to permit it to issue bonds on occasion to cover any judgment that may be recovered against the village. The bill has been read once and referred to the committee on affairs of villages.
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